temadoinspace’s Reviews > The Nickel Boys > Status Update

He stopped embroidering that fantasy long ago.

We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.

The capacity to suffer. Elwood—all the Nickel boys-existed in the capacity. Breathed in it, ate in it, dreamed in it. That was their lives now. Otherwise they would have per-ished. But to love those who would have destroyed them? To make that leap? We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you.

‘the pop of the white balls like the ragged heartbeat of an adolescent afternoon.’

‘that’s when he woke to the world’

‘The tiny details were a wonder: how the young men's ties remained straight black arrows in the whirl of violence, how the curves of the young women's perfect hairdos floated against the squares of their protest signs. Glamorous somehow, even when the blood flowed down their faces.’