Esther
2025년 2월 17일
We're reading Colson Whitehead's <The Nickel Boys> for our April meeting.
The buzz around The Nickel Boys has been hard to miss, especially with the recent film adaptation generating even more conversation. I first came across the book through a podcast, though I had heard of Colson Whitehead - twice a Pulitzer Prize winner - several times before. When I recently picked up a new batch of books to read, The Nickel Boys made the cut, though I hadn’t given it much thought beyond its reputation.
I’d love to explore this book with my students, but realistically, that might take some time to arrange. In the meantime, I’m suggesting it for our book club and am curious to see how others take the novel - and possibly the film adaptation as well. I just watched the trailer (attached here), and it looks visually striking, editorially ambitious, and packed with emotional intensity.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Happy reading, and see you in April.
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세종에 거주하고 있는 외국인을 포함해 교사, 강사, 회사원, 공무원 및 가사일을 하시는 분들에게도 원서독서를 장려하고 자유롭게 토론할 수 있는 문학적/문화적 소통과 교류의 공간이 되고자 합니다. 해당 책을 읽고, 영어로 소통이 가능한 대학생 이상의 성인에 한해 누구나 무료로 참석할 수 있습니다. 2025년 4월 모임의 책으로는 Colson Whitehead의 <The Nickel Boys>를 읽습니다.
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.
2020 퓰리처상을 수상한 콜슨 화이트헤드의 장편소설 『니클의 소년들』. 엘우드를 중심으로 과거와 현재를 오가며 니클 감화원에서 벌어졌던 일들을 서술한다. 인종차별정책이 시행되었던 1960년대와 지금의 2010년대가 교차하는 시점 전환은 과거와 현재를 선명히 대비시키며 그동안 밝혀지지 않은, 혹은 외면해왔던 진실을 드러낸다. 버스 보이콧 운동, 마틴 루서 킹 목사의 연설 등 흑인 인권 운동의 중요한 기점과 감화원에서의 은밀한 폭력의 증거를 담은 소설은 한 편의 연대기이자 가치 있는 역사 고증물로도 읽힌다.
- cited from Kyobo
Date: April 27, 2025
Time: 5pm
Venue: Esther’s
Join us for an evening of camaraderie and intellectual stimulation. Admission is free, but attendance is restricted to individuals of college age and above. You can sign up for the meeting via Karrot (당근 모임) or secure your spot through Kakao (에스더어학원) Happy reading!