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nicogourdet's review against another edition
3.0
Great story. The central character, Cora, is someone you're really invested in and want to root for. I love the mix of historical and ahistorical elements. Whitehead puts on display many of the ugly truths of slavery and white complicity, while also giving us a taste of how the promise of freedom is so fragile and elusive. I also like the magical realism woven throughout. But the book also suffers from the weight of expectations on it. It got SO much praise and hype that I wanted this book to just blow my mind. It was good, but not "Wow!"
I wanted the story told from Cora's perspective. I wanted to learn more about Caesar and other secondary characters. I wanted the chapter about the grave robber doctor to be taken out (what was the point of that?) I wanted this slave narrative to be different than others, though I don't know why it needed to use the device of a literal railroad...
Perhaps if I hadn't read The Known World by Edward Jones just a few weeks prior, which covers many of the same themes through similar and maybe stronger writing, I would feel that Underground Railroad is more "original" than it is...
I wanted the story told from Cora's perspective. I wanted to learn more about Caesar and other secondary characters. I wanted the chapter about the grave robber doctor to be taken out (what was the point of that?) I wanted this slave narrative to be different than others, though I don't know why it needed to use the device of a literal railroad...
Perhaps if I hadn't read The Known World by Edward Jones just a few weeks prior, which covers many of the same themes through similar and maybe stronger writing, I would feel that Underground Railroad is more "original" than it is...
samdradee's review against another edition
3.0
alright, what gives. a pulitzer, a national book award, a medal for excellence, and for what? a hollow story with lifeless characters and dead emotions? it feels like a book written for white liberals who read the new yorker, who pride themselves on noticing literary devices and reading weaving narratives but dont actually know how to feel an emotion instead of intellectualizing it. like what purpose does this book serve? what is it trying to say? its just the story of a woman who takes no action, letting life wash over her as the narrator details the atrocities she is plagued by in the most detached way possible. and its not just A woman, its Any woman, so stripped away from characterization that she could stand in for anyone and therefore becomes no one. i get that this is a story told over many people and many generations, that to limit it to only one person keeps you from expanding the scope of the suffering to all of those who endured it. but if universality comes at the cost of connection, how is it worth it? if the character elicits no emotion because she doesn’t feel tangible, then aren’t you losing everything you gain by making her story broadly applicable? make me feel something or you arent making art youre making a diversion, and if your only attempts to make me feel something are rooted in the shock of a violence that other people have used to greater effect then youre just wasting my time. its technically well written so it gets a third star, but this really irritated me. go read beloved instead.
chewedgum's review against another edition
4.0
The audio version of this book has a fantastic narrator. It's a really tough read. I actually had to look up the plot because it was so upsetting. Regardless, it's an important novel that is critical to understanding why racism is so toxic.
lisanreads's review against another edition
5.0
Although I've enjoyed reading his novels, I hesitated before picking this up. The idea of a speculative fiction novel about the underground railroad put me off. That was a mistake: it was the perfect way to narrate our nation's horrible past and continued legacy of slavery. As Whitehead wrote, we stand on "stolen land worked by stolen bodies."
I struggled with the first part: the torture on the plantation was unbearable to read. However, the harrowing attempt to escape was heartbreaking. I especially loved the characterization of Cora and her relationships.
I have so many thoughts and opinions about this book, but I am grateful that I did not know much about the plot before I picked it up.
I struggled with the first part: the torture on the plantation was unbearable to read. However, the harrowing attempt to escape was heartbreaking. I especially loved the characterization of Cora and her relationships.
I have so many thoughts and opinions about this book, but I am grateful that I did not know much about the plot before I picked it up.
hursting's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
askmrtalbot's review against another edition
4.0
There was a long break in reading this because it's increasingly difficult to finish a book on my iPad when there are so many other things that can take up time on it. However, I started to actively shun my social media accounts (to varying degrees of success) towards the end of last year and it allowed me more time to devote to doing actual reading.
This is an excellent book that deals with really harsh subject matter detailed through four distinct episodes utilizing the Underground Railroad as a real and tangible train as opposed to a figurative one described in history. The symbolism isn't hard to see, and at various times is made very explicit, as so much of America was built on the backs of black slave labor that its literal foundation of a series of underground stations and locomotive lines goes unseen. The main character has to be tough and stoic because she's seen and experienced so much despair that it often makes the book tough to read even though the writing itself is excellent.
My favorite aspect is how the story takes a traditional bounty hunter archetype that would normally be at the heart of a series of old west novels in Ridgeway and makes him so utterly despicable. He's very much the kind of character that could carry a novel on his own but the fact that he is chasing runaway slaves in order to return them to their owners as a means of holding up what he envisions as the American ideal does a tremendous job of turning that trope on its head.
This is a book that I can't stop thinking about, and that's usually the sign of one that's excellent in a lot of ways.
This is an excellent book that deals with really harsh subject matter detailed through four distinct episodes utilizing the Underground Railroad as a real and tangible train as opposed to a figurative one described in history. The symbolism isn't hard to see, and at various times is made very explicit, as so much of America was built on the backs of black slave labor that its literal foundation of a series of underground stations and locomotive lines goes unseen. The main character has to be tough and stoic because she's seen and experienced so much despair that it often makes the book tough to read even though the writing itself is excellent.
My favorite aspect is how the story takes a traditional bounty hunter archetype that would normally be at the heart of a series of old west novels in Ridgeway and makes him so utterly despicable. He's very much the kind of character that could carry a novel on his own but the fact that he is chasing runaway slaves in order to return them to their owners as a means of holding up what he envisions as the American ideal does a tremendous job of turning that trope on its head.
This is a book that I can't stop thinking about, and that's usually the sign of one that's excellent in a lot of ways.
gbweeks's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad but sometimes the fantastical nature of it didn't quite work for me. In the mix of realism and altered history, the realism is the more powerful part. The depiction of slavery's brutality is potent and will stick in your head. His descriptions of the lives people make under bondage feels real. That in turn makes you feel for the characters. I wanted to keep turning pages.
The narrative drive of the novel, though, is the Underground Railroad. Not the actual historical one, but a real railroad that goes under the earth unnoticed and has stations across the South. There are quite a few other altered historical facts, though none as central. The train helped you see the changes in how each state dealt with slavery and the ways in which there was doubt about where it ended and how safe it could keep you. But the clash of real and imagined sometimes left me scratching my head.
From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2017/05/colson-whiteheads-underground-railroad.html
The narrative drive of the novel, though, is the Underground Railroad. Not the actual historical one, but a real railroad that goes under the earth unnoticed and has stations across the South. There are quite a few other altered historical facts, though none as central. The train helped you see the changes in how each state dealt with slavery and the ways in which there was doubt about where it ended and how safe it could keep you. But the clash of real and imagined sometimes left me scratching my head.
From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2017/05/colson-whiteheads-underground-railroad.html
ogranny's review against another edition
4.0
This didn’t follow the path I expected. I spent the book wondering what was real and what was imaginary. It wasn’t until almost the end of the book that the author threw in a reference to Gulliver’s Travels (I think a character was reading the book) and I suddenly saw the parallels. Cora is a type of Gulliver traveling from island to island via the Underground Railroad. The states she visits are imaginary in a way, but also metaphors of events that really happened and were states of racial oppression, rather than states of the United States.