The Nickel Boys

"An infinite brotherhood of broken boys..."

How else could you describe it, this network of young men. Young men, grown into old men - if they're lucky - carrying the weight of racism and the heartbreak of their own past.

As our story opens, a secret graveyard is discovered on the site of an old reform school for boys in Florida. When the ground gives up its secrets, the men are forced to do the same. They look back on a nightmare of torture, abuse and terror in the Jim Crow south and the beatings they suffered at the hands of the white men who could get away with it.

The Nickel Boys is a tale that somehow manages to explain this torture with language that, at times, feels all too normal. Based on the story of a real-life torturous school, it bravely and quietly shouts the sins of generations. Young men locked up for nearly nothing, young men made wards of the state, young men forced to bend at the whims of the men in power. Some broke, some disappeared, some asked too many questions and were never seen again.

Colson Whitehead is a master, you guys. His book Underground Railroad won a Pulitzer and this book is another 'meat on the bones' tale that forces us to look back at this country's past without allowing decades to brush it away.

Our protagonist has a bright future, despite the poverty and the fact his parents abandoned him. A mixup - a slight misstep - and, he's thrust into The Nickel home for boys. Inspired by Dr. King, he is determined to right the wrongs through his own resistance, consequences be damned. You root for him, your heart breaks for him. And, Whitehead carries you through his story until a twist that changes everything.

This book feels complicated and simple and exquisite all at once. These broken boys...

The Testaments

"The world was infested with men who were certain to be tempted by girls who strayed out of bounds; such girls would be viewed as loose with their morals."

And thus is the reason behind the coup that led to Gilead. But, The Testaments is so much more than that.

The Testaments, if you've been living under a literary rock this year, is the long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. How long? Like, 35 years. I can't imagine the torture for those who read the book all those years ago and wondered what becomes of our handmaid and the world from which she appears to escape. It probably moved beyond torture to resolution; I mean, after 30+ years or so, you stop waiting for the sequel and come to your own conclusions. I feel like I cheated that I just read The Handmaid's Tale a few weeks ago and got to dive right in to see what happened next.

The Testaments is set 15 years after Offred appears to escape the clutches of her commander. She's not the protagonist here, though. Instead, Atwood (brilliantly) tells a story through three narrators. Two are young girls when their story begins, the other is the esteemed Aunt Lydia. They're telling the same story, but each through their own eyes. Each story is rich, compelling and haunting; each became more so when they came together.

The Handmaid's Tale (the book) gives hints about Gilead and the revolution that led to this patriarchy where women are categorized and treated by their ability to bear children. The Testaments brings that story out even more and we get a better understanding of what led to the overthrowing of the U.S. government and the rise of this religiously-couched new order. It shows how women were categorized into wives, Aunts, handmaids and Marthas. The power, the violence, the control... It all comes to life in this haunting sequel.

You'll be shocked (not shocked) to know that the dystopia was formed because men feared their ability to control themselves around women. And, you watch what happens as the women taught to be obedient come to discover that the world laid out for them is based on control and lies.

"Once a story you've regarded as true has turned false, you begin suspecting all stories."

What's most remarkable here is the way Atwood tells the story. Her three women tell parallel stories, but each is an unreliable. Their tales weave neatly together and I left completely satisfied.

I'm not sure how much of this story is told in the Hulu series. I'm not sure if it's based entirely on the first book or if it takes liberties with the story. But, if the series needs an ending, the tale contained in The Testaments is a fantastic place to find it.

All The President's Men

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The Handmaid's Tale

I believe I may have been the last person on the planet to familiarize myself with The Handmaid's Tale. I didn't know anything about the book and I haven't watched a second of the insanely popular Hulu series. But, I was always intrigued and it takes a lot less time to read a book than it does to binge watch a TV series.

So, there I was, wondering, WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG?

I actually don't think a lot of people are aware that the show is based on a book; maybe that's because the book came out in the early 1980s. I actually only heard about it when the sequel was released last month. It was time to dive in.

You probably know the basic gist: we're in the future and the world has drastically changed. Fertility rates have dropped, women are now property, and some exist with the sole purpose of procreating. We never even hear the main character's first name as she narrates this unthinkable world. Slowly, she reveals details about her life but also the slow progress of how society ended up this way. She talks about walking through the city she had lived in, trying to remember what was there before. How when things change in that way, the past world slowly melts away.

It's about power, control, sexism, fear... And, it's absolutely riveting. The simple way its written makes the horror of the story feel even more real. 

In the introduction to the book, Margaret Atwood explains that she won't write about anything that hasn't already happened somewhere in the world. Reading that, then reading the book make the reality more chilling.

I'm working on the sequel now...