Wausau: Book Club: “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead

Please join us for our February book club to discuss “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead.

1960s Florida. Kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood Curtis is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South, one mistake is enough to destroy the future. He is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.” In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear “out back.” He meets Turner, who knows that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. A decision creates repercussions that will echo down the decades.

No registration is required, and all are welcome. Stop by the main desk at MCPL-Wausau to grab a book that’s ready to check out! For more information, please contact us at 715-261-7230.