The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

What a read!  I devoured this novel in almost one sitting.  Granted, I was on a 10 hour road trip but it takes a lot to have me concentrate on an audiobook for hours on end.  Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" tells the story of Cora, a third generation slave in the Deep South and her harrowing escape to freedom.  

Whitehead is a master of writing in a way that can simultaneously lyrical and brusque, often in the same sentence. But in the time of slavery, horrific violence amidst the bucolic setting of the rolling fields of the South was the norm.  Re-imagining the underground railroad as a literal underground railroad is a stroke of genius.  This twist (along with others in the book is just really smart and unanticipated.  As our protagonist, Cora dashes throughout different cities and towns in her escape, we are utterly sucked into her world and all those around her.  With each new locale, a new, ever increasingly abhorrent set of terrors arise and we are forced to bear witness.  

This is not meant to be Cora's story, or a historic account. Cora is an eye-witness in different places and times of black history. The underground railroad is an allegory - by making it literal, he sends us the message that not everything is meant to be taken literally. He takes pains to enlarge the black suffering to the whites who sympathize with them as well, and to show how slavery and the belief that one race is superior to another leads to terrible dehumanizing changes in both blacks and whites. When hate rages, the mob turns on anyone who dares to oppose the system, black or white. 

"The Underground Railroad" is transcendent of a novel, and could really be touted as a book of ideas, it may not be for the faint of heart but it is an important and powerful read.

Recommended by Monica Shine
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