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

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

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.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The new movie, Nickel Boys,
0:06.5	is already getting some rumblings for awards. It's about a young African-American kid in the 1960s
0:13.0	who gets sent to a reform school in Florida. You can probably guess, but the conditions there were
0:19.2	pretty bad. The movie is based on a book by the acclaimed
0:23.2	novelist Colson Whitehead, and he was on NPR talking about the book when it first came out in
0:27.8	2019. And in this interview with NPR Scott Simon, Whitehead talks about the real reform school
0:33.9	that inspired the one he wrote about and the emotional bond he developed with his
0:38.6	characters as he was writing. That's coming up. In the U.S., national security news can feel
0:45.2	far away from daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our
0:51.8	new show, sources and methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:00.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:06.8	Elwood Curtis is a brilliant, an earnest young African-American man growing up in Florida during the Civil Rights Movement,
1:14.2	whose most treasured possession is a recording of speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King.
1:19.1	He loves the person and hates the evil deed.
1:22.9	And I think this is what Jesus meant when he said, love your enemies.
1:26.0	And I'm happy that he didn't say like your enemies because it's pretty difficult to like some people.
1:30.7	Elwood will see plenty of evil deeds during the course of Colton Whitehead's new novel,
1:35.7	The Nickel Boys, when he's sent to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy,
1:40.6	which turns out to be, a house of horrors.
1:44.0	And Colson Whitehead, author of the Underground Railroad, which won just about every
1:48.0	award in existence.
1:50.1	And a book called The Noble Hustle, the only good book about poker I've ever read, joins
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.