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Jan 10, 2021BertBailey rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This excellent short novel becomes almost uninvolving when it reaches its dramatic climax, considering the dramatic subject matter, although never for a moment does it come close to becoming boring (as another reviewer affirms). Based on history about the treatment of black boys in a US reformatory school during the early 20th century, it's written by one of the finest writers I've come across in a long while. Whitehead has a keen eye for the telling detail, and the skill to convey incidents and things with artful simplicity. Such as about a grandmother who's "...shocked, as if someone had tossed hot soup in her lap." He describes prison-like rooms where there are "...fuzzy haloes of finger grime around every cabinet latch and doorknob." The protagonist in this reform school, "...heard stories of home and distant cronies, juvenile conjectures about how the world worked and ...naïve plans to outwit it." It was populated by such guards as one "man of secret menace who stored up violence like a battery." A short, powerful book. I look forward to reading more from Whitehead.