Reading The Nickel Boys was my first introduction to Whitehead’s writing (The Underground Railroad has been sitting on my shelf and needs to be read). My main takeaway from Nickel Boys, besides the fact that the story’s arc is incredible, is that the book is a masterclass on moving the plot along without over explaining anything—Whitehead maneuvers the reader page by page, avoiding any unnecessary frolics by cutting to the next scene as soon as possible. This was done with such prose that is makes for a delightful read. Sorry Ayn Rand, eighty-page soliloquys are out; efficient and effective writing is in.

I was unaware that this book, although categorized as fiction, is based on true, horrific events that had occurred in Florida. Before I read Nickel Boys, I had recently watched Paul Newman star in Cool Hand Luke (how many eggs can you eat?), and although the scenarios are quite different, I thought of the compound where Nickel Boys took place as a similar one where Newman underwent forced labor: despotic, hot summer days, and a gaggle of misfits forced to work in an oppressive environment. Imagine the book Holes, except there is no treasure, no Shia LaBeouf providing comedic relief, and the character development is much more thought out.

It is hard for me to write a review of Nickel Boys without commenting on the ending, but that would ruin a major portion of the book. All I will say is that Whitehead, like his ability to complete a sentence without overstating anything unnecessary, is also capable of writing an awesome ending. There are those rare authors who write a story so impressive that all you can think is: how did someone think to take this route? Although it is clear from the sheer amount of nonfiction on this website that I prefer the genre, I am thankful that I took a detour down fiction lane to experience Whitehead’s workshop on story telling.