Literary Scene: Three rewarding end-of-summer reads

By Ryan G. Van Cleave

The Nickel Boys: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead

I wish it weren’t so, but more times than not, when someone wins a big literary prize, the next book falls short of (admittedly, potentially unattainable) similar lofty expectations. So, when Colson Whitehead’s last book, The Underground Railroad, won the Pulitzer Prize, received the National Book Award, and was a #1 New York Times bestseller, I worried about the next one. Well, the MacArthur Genius Award-winner just delivered The Nickel Boys, a novel about two boys sentenced to an awful reform school in Florida during the Jim Crow days. And the book is terrific.

Whitehead wanted to write a crime novel, but he admits that when he read news reports about the atrocities that happened at The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a segregated reform school in Mariana, Florida that opened in 1900 and was finally shut down for good in 2011, this became the story he had to tell. Unmarked graves of brutalized boys were still being discovered as Whitehead continued his research, for one thing. Plenty knew about what was going on there, but too few seemed to care. In addition to being a potent exposé about one of many midcentury reform schools, this story also offered ample opportunities for Whitehead to explore the complex issues of race and the ironies of justice that he’s become known for.

In his novel, that real-world school became the equally-dangerous Nickel Academy, and that’s exactly where the main character, an African-American teen from Tallahassee named Elwood Curtis, is tossed into after being caught up in a car theft (even though he was an unwitting passenger who simply bummed a ride). This wasn’t at all the future this college-bound good kid should’ve had. This Civil Rights aficionado and accomplished student was primed for greatness.

Elwood struggled to find his place inside the walls of “the Nickel” because brutality seemed the norm, and every choice seemed fraught with peril. “If everyone looked the other way, then everybody was in on it. If he looked the other way, he was as implicated as the rest. That’s how he saw it, how he’d always seen things.” Much of the latter half of the book shows Elwood interacting with Turner, a former inmate and cynical loner who was back on his second stint at the Nickel.

This book is part of Whitehead’s ongoing literary conversation with the Civil Rights movement, and like his personal hero, Ralph Ellison, Whitehead deftly moves between stark realism and powerful idealism, while asking some of the biggest questions of personal and community identity. The Nickel Boys is another masterful addition to Whitehead’s body of work. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

ColsonWhitehead.com

The Hidden Things: A Novel
by Jamie Mason

I was too young to remember this crime, but perhaps you recall the 1990 heist where 13 pieces of art valued at $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Here we are, nearly three decades later, and that pricey art is all still MIA. Why bring that up? Because this brazen, real-life robbery provides the inspiration for Jamie Mason’s new book, The Hidden Things.

In this novel, a home security camera catches fourteen-year-old Carly Liddell fending off an attacker in her own home. The police release the video on social media and right away, the attacker is found. Terrific! But what no one expected was how the video—which had gone viral because any kid beating up an attacker is pretty impressive and worthy of watching—shows the corner of a painting that’s hanging in the family foyer. It’s 17-century Dutch master Govert Flinck’s Landscape with Obelisk, one of the 13 real-world paintings that were actually stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The art thieves who were double-crossed years ago see this painting and now they’re fully committed to reclaiming what they think is theirs. Mason does an effective job of revealing how John Cooper, Carly’s relatively unlikable stepfather, came to possess the stolen artwork. Even the bad guys are presented in such a way that it’s hard not to be a bit empathetic toward them.

Carly is, by far, the star of this story. She’s feisty and fun in all the right ways. Perhaps she’ll return in a future Mason book? She’s got enough character to carry another story for sure.

If you dig real-world heist stories, art mysteries, or reading about kids with serious chutzpah, this thriller might be a hit.

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Jamie-Mason.com

The Okay Witch: A Graphic Novel
by Emma Steinkellner

Billed as Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Roller Girl, this debut graphic novel from Emma Steinkellner is a laugh-inducing look at middle school. Thirteen-year-old Moth Hush loves everything that has to do with witches, but then she discovers that her town has a centuries-old history of witch drama. Even crazier, her family’s smack dab in the center of it all.

Things get worse for Moth when she realizes she’s a half-witch. Her new powers soon go out of control and secrets from generations past come back to complicate her life. At least she’s got a talking cat, an enchanted diary, and a hidden world of witches to help her through it all!

This story about a witch-in-progress is a weird, fun, and memorable read. If you like Steinkellner’s art, you can see more of it in the projects of her sister Kit, such as the teen rom-com webcomic Aces and the Eisner-nominated superhero coming-of-age story Quince.

Rating: 4 out of 5

EmmaSteinkellner.com