The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • More Books
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

December 6, 2017

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Published by Doubleday Books
Publication date: August 2nd 2016
four-stars

underground

I wasn’t planning on making this my week of impressive, but painful, tragic books but here we are. Reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad  is like watching 12 Years a Slave—both are extremely important, but neither are entertaining or enjoyable. They’re too real for that. Cora is a slave who decides to escape from the brutal Georgia plantation that is the only home she’s ever known. She goes with a young man named Caesar, who knows someone who is part of the underground railroad and can get them started on the path to freedom. Unfortunately, in the escape she kills a young white man. This, plus the fact of her owner’s sadistic nature, means she is hunted with a particular fervor by a man named Ridgeway. For almost two years, they are locked in a deadly battle of cat and mouse, where despite her best efforts, he finds her and tries to return her to the man whose only interest is in making her suffer.

Whitehead takes the factual existence of the underground railroad and fictionalizes it by making it a real train. Instead of diminishing the danger (as in there is a train underground that runs straight from slavery to freedom and all you have to do it get on it) this choice heightens the difficulties. Not only are there are numerous stops, but they are deeply hidden and managed by whites—forcing runaway slaves to trust people who are most often their enemy. Cora and Caesar find themselves in South Carolina first, where they’re given new names and new lives, where, although they’re property of the United States government, they can now go to school and have options for work. Life is good enough that they pass on taking several trains to the next junction. Until Ridgeway finds them again but she escapes. And, so it goes, with Cora losing bits and pieces of her life, in places like North Carolina and Tennessee, as she tries to stay ahead of Ridgeway and make it to freedom.

There is no ambiguity in The Underground Railroad nor does Whitehead provide any respite in the reading. This is not caused by overwrought prose or sensationalistic details. Whitehead writes Cora’s thoughts and dialogue with the flat affect of someone who has seen the worst of mankind and is no longer surprised by it. Rather, it is a wholly immersive experience (much like A Little Life, another novel of man’s inhumanity to man) and the barbarity can be overwhelming. There were scenes that sickened me in their brutality. And yet, with the growing tide of people who excuse or romanticize the antebellum South, continuing to shatter the mythology is crucial. For over 100 years Southern plantation life has been whitewashed—literally and figuratively. The time for hard truths, even in fictional books, is now. The Underground Railroad is difficult but necessary reading.

 

And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes—believes with all its heart—that it is their righto take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn’t exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are.

 

four-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • 4 Star Books
  • By Colson Whitehead
Scenes from Early Life
Scenes from Early Life
Mudbound
Ignorance
Ignorance
book of aron
The Book of Aron
pink suit
The Pink Suit
part two
Creepy December: Part Two
edgar
Edgar & Lucy: A Novel
library checkout
August Library Checkout
blazing world
The Blazing World
god
A God in Ruins
nickel
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Doubleday, historical fiction, social issues, Southern life

Comments

  1. Susie | Novel Visits says

    December 6, 2017 at 6:57 am

    That quote…wow! So powerful. I’ve avoided The Underground Railroad just because of the difficult themes, but I think you may be right. It’s the right time to read it.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 7, 2017 at 4:50 pm

      Sadly, it feels more important and relevant every day.

      Reply
  2. Tara says

    December 6, 2017 at 8:55 am

    I feel somewhat deficient, since I’ve not yet made time for this book; I really want to read it! And, yes, shattering the misconception IS crucial; as a resident of the South, I can say that we have a long way to go.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 7, 2017 at 4:49 pm

      I hadn’t even thought about reading it until I saw it at the library. It’s not an era or place I generally read about because it is so universally grim, but this time I’m very glad I did.

      Reply
  3. susan says

    December 6, 2017 at 2:40 pm

    I still need to get to this book — though it was everywhere last year. I started the audio & got a little ways into it but then decided No I needed to read it instead. Not sure the audio gave it justice. As you said; it seems brutal but necessary reading.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 7, 2017 at 4:51 pm

      I would have had trouble with the audio- even with a good narrator. Like watching 12 Years a Slave- almost impossible.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in