What could have been

"Chickie Pete and his trumpet. He might have played professionally, why not? A session man in a funk band, or an orchestra. If things had been different. the boys could have been many thins had they not been ruined by that place. Doctors who cure diseases or perform brain surgery, inventing shit that saves lives. Run for president. All those lost geniuses-- sure not all of them were geniuses, Chickie Pete for example was not solving special relativity-- but they had been denied even the simple pleasures of being ordinary. Hobbled and handicapped before the race even began, never figuring out how to be normal."

This is the moral of this book in one paragraph. The Nickel Boys is a book about cycles. We're all born into groups, into patterns that we don't recognize when we're young or when we don't have anything else to compare it to. Elwood is one person who sees it easily, however. His parents are drifters who left him with his grandmother at a young age. His grandmother provides a loving, supportive home for him, and Elwood is determined to do well. Even when the other kids make fun of his glasses. Even when the other kids break his bicycle.

Elwood's determination to let nothing derail him lands him in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, and the harder he resists, the harder the world pushes back. This book is a heart-breaking look at how people are so often trapped in their circumstances, no matter what they do to break free. It also shines a light on the brutality of our justice system, especially the way it can be abused when dynamics of power and race are factored in. It's a worthwhile read, especially for anyone who works with teenagers.