• Colson Whitehead's novel 'The Nickel Boys' comes to the big screen

  • Dec 16 2024
  • Length: 7 mins
  • Podcast

Colson Whitehead's novel 'The Nickel Boys' comes to the big screen

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  • Summary

  • Colson Whitehead's 2019 novel The Nickel Boys follows the studious and idealistic Elwood Curtis, a Black teenager whose prized possession is a recording of speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. But when Elwood is sent to a juvenile reformatory in Florida, his worldview is challenged by the horrors he experiences there. Now, Whitehead's novel has been adapted into a film. In today's episode, we revisit a conversation between Whitehead and NPR's Scott Simon, where they discuss the real-life reform school that inspired Nickel Academy, MLK's idea of soul force, and Whitehead's strong emotional reaction to the characters in his novel.

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