Take one part slave narrative, mix with one part contemporary social commentary, and mix with a dash of metaphor, taken literally, and it’s quite easy to see why Coulson Whitehead’s multiple-award-winning novel is worth the hype. To say I’ve never read anything quite like it is no understatement.

Whitehead’s powerful story follows runaway slave Cora on a winding mission to freedom through the antebellum South via the Underground Railroad, depicted here as just that—a literal subterranean rail system, complete with agents, stations, and trains. While on the run, Cora’s briefly flirts with a sort of near-freedom at each stop—from an integrated city in South Carolina that may be too good to be true, to an all-Black homestead in Indiana that draws the ire of its neighbors—while evading capture. She’s pursued by Ridgeway, a relentless bounty hunter whose reputation was tarnished by his inability to retrieve a previous runaway—Cora’s mother.

The Underground Railroad is one of those books that’s profoundly affecting. I finished it just before Thanksgiving, and I still struggle with my feelings toward it. Slave narratives in general—this one especially—tend to be blunt, graphic, and matter-of-fact about humanity’s capacity for cruelty to one another, particularly along racial lines. Moreover, the lasting effect of that cruelty leads to the kind of post-traumatic stress that gets passed down through generations. The Underground Railroad pulls no punches in its handling of this, doing so in a manner that shows an astute and open-minded reader one of the lasting struggles African-Americans deal with to this day, living in the remnants of a society built on the subjugation and exploitation of an entire people.

On a side note, the use of an actual rail system is a very nifty spin that shaves months off the on-foot journey between towns and across state lines; it keeps the book length manageable without sacrificing story, and every stop drops both reader and character into an unfamiliar territory to discover together.

My only real caveat is that The Underground Railroad was challenging for me to get through. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about the quality of the writing; the prose is more than effective, and the story is easy to follow. However, it started slow and with a graphic description of plantation life, which as a consumer of media, is tough to read or watch without feeling ill and angry. That said, it’s not enough to make me not recommend this book.

This novel is powerful, lingering, and surprisingly—sadly—relevant. Must read.

4 out of 5 stars.

#2017 #bookreview #Coulson #Whitehead #Slavery #Pulitzer #author