The Underground Railroad
Literary fiction
Doubleday Books
August 2, 2016
Advanced Reader Copy
306
Publisher via BEA
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood - where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned and, though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.
In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor - engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven - but the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. Even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.
My review:
I should probably be up front in this review and reveal that books about slavery (or that contain any parts about it within their pages) are almost always a sure hit for me. Recent reads that I also loved were Homegoing, and The House Girl. Yes, they are difficult to read, but so necessary, especially in light of what's going on in our country today. This is literally a story about a slave who breaks free, and takes to the underground railroad to find her freedom. I was so invested in the story, that I didn't even catch on to the fact that Whitehead uses an actual railroad (with tracks, trains, and engineers) as a metaphor, that the actual underground railroad did not consist of trains running underneath the country....duh! I was completely sucked into Cora's quest, and terrified on her behalf throughout most of the book. I did read a few reviews pointing to the lack of character development, and while I can see where they are coming from, I think the book might have ended up dragging a bit with having to develop all the people Cora came into contact with. I was satisfied that we did find out the fate of most of these folks by the end, not that I was happy with the majority of it. I just loved the writing in this book. It was informative, lovely without being over the top descriptive, and gave a nice flow to the plot.
I loved this one, but then again I did warn you that this is my kind of book. Anyone have any suggestions for other books about slavery (fictionalized please) that I can add to my ever growing to be read pile? Pick this one up for the writing, and for the importance in our history.
I still haven't tackled this one...I was 100% planning on it, but then saw some so-so reviews so haven't made it a priority.
On other fictionalized books about slavery - I loved The Kitchen House if you haven't read that one yet.