I’ve been going on about Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys being the best book released in 2019 for a while now, but today the 2020 Pulitzer winners were announced, and it’s been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (see the full list of Pulitzer winners).
If you’re looking for a quick but intense read, I really do recommend this book very strongly. If you read my reviews, I try to come up with some criticisms of every book I read, just to help people decide whether or not they might like a book. The Nickel Boys is one of the small handful of books where I really couldn’t come up with any fair criticisms worth saying.
Plus, it’s short, and I’ve pretty much had it with authors needlessly indulging in 400+ page tomes which seems to be the trend nowadays. Here’s my full review if you’re interested.
The other finalists for the Fiction prize were:
The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett (Harper)
The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
I didn’t read The Topeka School (maybe I’ll read it later), but I liked The Dutch House (my review here). I thought it was a solid book and recommended it to a few friends, but I definitely still agree with The Nickel Boys being the clear winner this year.
Are you planning on reading any of these books? See the Nickel Boys on Amazon.
I’m glad this book won because it’s already on my TBR list. I’m excited to read it.
Great post:) I’ve added this to my TBR list – he is such a brilliant writer!
Thank you. Interesting sounding book. I read The Topeka School. There were no empathetic characters in it and I found it a rather arid view of life. No one transforms anything or hopes for anything.
eek — good to know! Yeah I read some mixed reviews of it, maybe I’ll skip it then. Thanks for the heads up!
Thank you for posting! I wound up reading this book after reading this post and found it extremely moving. It packs quite a punch in its 200 pages, and I appreciated its insights into the flaws and racism within the criminal justice system. I’m interested to read more by Whitehead and imagine I will read The Underground Railroad soon.
Glad you hear you enjoyed it too! :)