Short Work Book Club

This is a Short Work Book Club, by which we mean books that are meaningful but short, usually under 250 pages. We read the book, then come and have a spirited conversation. Book discussions are places to explore ideas, to talk about how we felt about interesting or baffling or somewhere-in-between books. They are testing grounds for thought, and this discussion group is no different.  

This month we will be reading The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Go here to procure a copy! 

A short synopsis:

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly).