The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [adapted from the dustjacket] Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell 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.
Expectation: Adventure story with a speculative fiction slant.
Reality: At times both horrific and hopeful, the cross-state settings help broaden the view from other, similar stories.
Recommended For: Fans of American-based historical fiction.
Why I Read It: It had been long-gestating on my TBR list and buzz around Whitehead was blazing with the impending release of “Harlem Shuffle.”
My Take:
“The Underground Railroad” wasn’t what I was expecting — at all — and that was neither good nor bad. At some point I need to realize that when a dustjacket refers to something as “like [insert well-known bestseller]” anticipate it being nothing like that.
In this case, the comparison was to Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” and while our main character — Cora, a young, enslaved woman seeking freedom — does encounter strange worlds throughout her journey on the Underground Railroad, her reality is far more sinister and less fantastical than that of Mr. Gulliver.
Initially I found the narrative confusing. With chapters alternating between a single character’s point of view, and then Cora’s experiences in various states, I couldn’t make sense of who was who and what was happening.
As the story unfolds, and Colson Whitehead begins to put the pieces together, it was easier for me to immerse myself in the story.
I loved the speculative fiction approach to the Underground Railroad being an actual railroad, and Cora’s experiences in different locales on the cusp of the U.S. Civil War provided a broader scope to similar stories, like Robert Jones, Jr.’s “The Prophets,” which is mostly contained to life on the Empty.
Cora’s stops hiding in a South Carolina attic while watching the townspeople celebrate the hanging of “fugitive slaves” and their accomplices across the street, and the last act in Indiana where an almost utopian community is destroyed by senseless violence, were the most gripping.
It was also enjoyable to experience Cora becoming more empowered at each stop as the realities of freedom become closer and closer. In some ways it felt like a superhero origin story.
Whitehead is a subtle writer, which could be why several other reviewers have criticized his characterization of Cora as cold or undeveloped. I can understand the critique, but I think the power of the story is in the subtly.
I’ve heard others say that “The Nickel Boys” might be a better introduction to Whitehead’s writing, but there’s a reason “Railroad” was so lauded (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017) and recently adapted into a mini-series. You cannot deny its creative and unique take on a well-documented, yet still not well understood, period in American history and its ongoing repercussions.
The audiobook is well done, but it also likely contributed to my initial confusion with the plot. Bahni Turpin - an audiobook all-star from “The Hate U Give,” “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Vampire Slaying” and “Red at the Bone” – imbues the emotion and depth to Cora that others felt may have lacked on the page.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (SIL’s library)
Dates read: September 15 - 19, 2021
Multi-tasking: Okay. I mostly gardened and cleaned the house, but the story does require some concentration.
