false 16271 11 Verticality, architectural and social, is the lofty idea at the heart of Colson Whitehead's odd, sly, and ultimately irresistible first novel. The setting is an unnamed though obviously New Yorkish high-rise city, the time less convincingly future than deliciously other, as it combines 21st-century engineering feats with 19th-century pork-barrel politics and smoky working-class pubs. Elevators are the technological expression of the vertical idea, and Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female elevator inspector, is its embattled token of upward mobility. <p> Lila Mae's good ol' boy colleagues in the Department of Elevator Inspectors are understandably jealous of the flawless record that her natural intelligence and diligence have earned, and understandably delighted when Number Eleven in the newly completed Fanny Briggs Memorial Building goes into deadly free fall just hours after Lila Mae has signed off on it, using the controversial "Intuitionist" method of ascertaining elevator safety. It is, after all, an election year in the Elevator Guild, and the Empiricists would do most anything to discredit the Intuitionist faction. Everyone on both sides assumes that Number Eleven was sabotaged and Lila Mae set up to take the fall. "So complete is Number Eleven's ruin," writes Whitehead, "that there's nothing left but the sound of the crash, rising in the shaft, a fall in opposite: a soul." Lila Mae's doom seems equally irreversible.<p> Whitehead evokes a world so utterly involving to its own denizens that outside reality does not impinge on its perfect solipsism. We the readers are taken hostage as Lila Mae strives to exonerate herself in this urgent adventure full of government spies, underworld hit men, and seductive double agents. Behind the action, always, is the Idea. Lila Mae's quest reveals the existence of heretofore lost writings by James Fulton, father of Intuitionism, a giant of vertical thought, whose fate is mysteriously entwined with her own. If she is able to find and reveal his plan for the Black Box, the perfect, next-generation elevator, the city as it now exists will instantly be obsolescent. The social and economic implications are huge and the denouement is elegantly philosophical. Most impressive of all is the integrity of Whitehead's prose. Eschewing mere cleverness, resisting showoff word play, he somehow manages to strike a tone that's always funny, always fierce, <I>and</I> always entirely respectful of his characters and their world. May the god of second novels smile as broadly on him as did the god of firsts. <I>--Joyce Thompson</I> 1632284 1998 The Intuitionist: A Novel total:1223|5:288|4:471|3:327|2:105|1:32| 1223 4547 1783 180 5 6 false false Mon Jul 23 06:59:01 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 07:14:49 -0700 2007
This is an excellent book. It's an old fashio...more...]]> 4 4 false false Wed Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Sep 27 13:31:21 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 20 19:23:25 -0800 2008 an interview with Salon.com following the publication of his 1999 debut novel The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead discusses the freedom he has as an African American writer of the late 20th century. He says, "decades ago, there was the protest novel, and then there was 'tell the untold story...more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 08:25:03 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 19 13:47:54 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 15:11:04 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 10:32:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Jul 25 07:06:25 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 07:08:59 -0700 2007 Ralph Ellison. An African-American woman in an alternate 1950s, where elevators and their inspection have bizarrely become the driving force in the national culture, must b...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Dec 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 21:44:57 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 21:45:44 -0800 2008
Below is an excerpt from one of the theoretical de...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Sep 13 16:39:49 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 16:39:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Apr 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 10:46:41 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 10:52:58 -0700 2009 2 had factions?), one of those crypto-his...more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 11:44:58 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 13:21:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 13:14:27 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 19:30:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Mar 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 14 09:43:22 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 10:04:49 -0700 2009 The Invisible Man<i/>. With an eyeroll, I wrote off that bit of marketing as foolish. Why bait readers with heights that can’t be reached? I mean, Ralp...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 09:45:17 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 10:09:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 16:26:29 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 21:30:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 21:41:21 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 05:08:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 12:34:12 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 12:34:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 09:23:20 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 09:39:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Apr 11 19:18:28 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 19:33:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 08:25:21 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 17:19:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 13:25:30 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 01 08:59:03 -0800 2009 Some nicknames Empiricists have for their renegade colleagues: swamis, voodoo men, juju heads, witch doctors, Harry Houdinis. All terms belonging to the nomenclature of dark exotic, the sinister foreign...some counter nicknames from the Intuitionists; flat earthers, or nuts and bolts, stress freaks....more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 17:51:07 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 21:26:26 -0700 2009 more...]]>