Underground Airlines – Ben H. Winters
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: In an alternate America, slavery was never fully abolished and an underground system that aids people fleeing for a better life is still up and running. Victor is a tracker of runaways for the federal government, but his latest assignment uncovers a plot even more nefarious.
Expectation: A history-flipping tale of empowerment.
Reality: A novel that isn’t bad, but in hindsight is incredibly problematic given the author’s race.
Recommended For: No one.
Why I Read It: It was the longest resident on my TBR list.
My Take:
Some plot basics: In this version of America, slavery was never fully abolished because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated before he took office. Through decades of civil wars and legislation (all hinted at), “the Hard Four” states — basically a pared down confederacy — continue to use slaves for various goods and services that are mostly sold to other countries.
An interstate underground airline (not using actual planes, however) operates to help free the enslaved but harboring and assisting them is a federal offense due to a peace treaty. Our main character, Victor, is a former slave who now works as a runaway tracker for the U.S. Marshall Service. As he explores Indianapolis to find his latest target, he uncovers a conspiracy that could end slavery for good. Will his conscious or his wallet win out?
There’s a lot to unpack there, but the premise lends itself to rich social commentary, creative storytelling and world building.
While it is a mostly well-done alternate history thriller, when you examine it all more closely a few red flags arise, primarily because Ben H. Winters is a white man.
When “Airlines” was first published in 2016, this likely didn’t raise many eyebrows among the white book buying and publishing communities, but the past two years have shown many people (myself included) the harm in taking ownership of a narrative that isn’t ours. Today, reading this feels like cultural appropriation.
I don’t know Winters personally, but I’m sure this was not his — or the publisher’s — intent. They simply wanted to share a creative idea. Still, a white person writing about a former slave hunting runaway slaves is incredibly cringeworthy.
Not to mention the plot features white saviorism, repeated use of the n-word (in context) and shades of Nazism. Honestly this feels like a relic rather than a novel written within the past decade.
More than anything, this was a lesson in understanding who writes the stories you read. I didn’t even think to research Winter’s background (probably because I marked this as a “to read” in 2018), and foolishly assumed he was BIPOC. Had that been the case, my perception of the story would be much different.
Even writing this review, I can’t fully explain why I kept listening instead of giving up once I fully started to understand the problematic elements (about halfway through).
The audiobook, narrated by William DeMeritt, a BIPOC performer, gives it his best effort, but he still can’t save the tone-deaf narrative. While far from the worst book I read in 2021, I cannot recommend it to others.
Rating (story): 2/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (SIL’s library)
Dates read: December 21 - 27, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go. I mostly did yardwork and cleaned while listening.
