Carol Sama’s answer to “Does anyone like that the author wrote the railroad as a physical, operating one? I felt it unnece…” > Likes and Comments
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Perhaps you'd be happier with a non-fiction historical account rather than a novel. The Library of Congress has a major collection of oral histories collected in the 1930s from people who had been slaves. These may perhaps give you the accuracy you are seeking.
I agree, and this is the reason I did not buy the book. I taught 4th grade and The fact that it was not a real "railroad" was one of the most IMPORTANT facts we tried to get across to the kids. I just couldn't get around this point.
However, Fonda, this book is a masterpiece of storytelling with the "real" railroad as the author's way of exploring the myriad of ways slavery manifested. This book is not written for 4th graders. Think of Gulliver's Travels, I believe a possible model for the author. I haven't discovered the land of the Lilliputians on Earth anywhere, have you?
I agree. It took away from the book because it was SUCH a 'mistake' that it made the book less enjoyable to me. It took me out of the moment a few times.
Reread the last chapter. That brought it all together for me.
I loved the way the Underground Railroad was treated. Each state where they emerged had a different way of dealing with its black residents--and none of these were accurate to the place/time either. What the book does for me, in a brilliant way, is to tell the entire history of the black diaspora in America in the format of this novel. And to say that the author didn't do his research does him a huge injustice for that reason. I feel as if the representation of what it was like to live as a slave is one of the most impactful I've ever experienced.
I think it is better to think of it as Alternative History rather than Historical Fiction. I think Whitehead has done a lot of quality research and created an, in my opinion, excellent story.
I found this book extremely enlightening, sadly
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Sep 28, 2016 01:53PM
Perhaps you'd be happier with a non-fiction historical account rather than a novel. The Library of Congress has a major collection of oral histories collected in the 1930s from people who had been slaves. These may perhaps give you the accuracy you are seeking.
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I agree, and this is the reason I did not buy the book. I taught 4th grade and The fact that it was not a real "railroad" was one of the most IMPORTANT facts we tried to get across to the kids. I just couldn't get around this point.
However, Fonda, this book is a masterpiece of storytelling with the "real" railroad as the author's way of exploring the myriad of ways slavery manifested. This book is not written for 4th graders. Think of Gulliver's Travels, I believe a possible model for the author. I haven't discovered the land of the Lilliputians on Earth anywhere, have you?
I agree. It took away from the book because it was SUCH a 'mistake' that it made the book less enjoyable to me. It took me out of the moment a few times.
Reread the last chapter. That brought it all together for me.
I loved the way the Underground Railroad was treated. Each state where they emerged had a different way of dealing with its black residents--and none of these were accurate to the place/time either. What the book does for me, in a brilliant way, is to tell the entire history of the black diaspora in America in the format of this novel. And to say that the author didn't do his research does him a huge injustice for that reason. I feel as if the representation of what it was like to live as a slave is one of the most impactful I've ever experienced.
I think it is better to think of it as Alternative History rather than Historical Fiction. I think Whitehead has done a lot of quality research and created an, in my opinion, excellent story.
I found this book extremely enlightening, sadly
