"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead

 

Colson Whitehead takes us on an unforgettable ride in The Underground Railroad. He displays the horrific cruelty endemic to the America's Peculiar Institution, and shows how it and violent oppression ruled the relationship between blacks and whites during the first half of the 19th Century. Never ending spirals of hope and defeat put these rails on a roller coaster; it’s a vivid, gritty, honest, and ultimately awe-inspiring travail.

We witness the life-and-death flight of Cora, a Georgia slave girl, who crosses the threshold of womanhood just as the story unfolds. Hers, of course, is a harrowing tale; she escapes her bonds and for a time believes herself free, only to fall into the clutches of the authorities again. This sequence holds our attention and dashes our hopes on multiple occasions. Through it all Whitehead keeps America’s violent, sneering racism  front and center.

The author surprised me by employing his title—a well-established term in American history—in a literal sense. But this playful (?) use allows him a series of episodes in which our fugitives struggle with hopelessness in utter darkness, unsure at times if they are even traveling in the right direction.

Whitehead draws out his climactic events superbly, while drawing in his readers. This is a fine adventure: we live and die with each twist of the plot. The author presents a textbook example of a suspenseful, harrowing chase while instructing us in the history of escaped slaves and the settlements in which they began their new lives. A rewarding read in more ways than one.