The Underground Railroad in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Aug 02, 2016 Rincey rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016, favorites, poc-author

This was so great in the most heartbreaking way. See my full review: https://youtu.be/XZlumzzzWBk ...more

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Oct 10, 2016 Jenny rated it it was amazing

I came into this novel expecting a lot. I had heard Colson Whitehead talking about it on Fresh Air and I had read reviews of it as well. I had high expectations but also was dreading it a bit since much like watching 12 Years a Slave, it’s hard to know what to say or do in the face of such inhumanity masquerading as “natural” and “necessary.” Still, I think this is an important novel to read and “not be able to digest” because I had echoes of it in my head last night as I watched the second pres I came into this novel expecting a lot. I had heard Colson Whitehead talking about it on Fresh Air and I had read reviews of it as well. I had high expectations but also was dreading it a bit since much like watching 12 Years a Slave, it’s hard to know what to say or do in the face of such inhumanity masquerading as “natural” and “necessary.” Still, I think this is an important novel to read and “not be able to digest” because I had echoes of it in my head last night as I watched the second presidential debate, where no questions about race relations were asked, even though the debate took place in St. Louis.

By now, most folks know the general outline of the book. It follows the journey of a slave woman, Cora, living on a plantation in Georgia whose decision to run away leads her to the Underground Railroad. Only in this alternative United States, the Underground Railroad is actually a railroad traveling in tunnels carved deep into the earth. Also, the states that Cora ends up traveling through are different than they were in our history—though each carries echoes of that history. The most horrific, and that’s saying a lot in this book, is North Carolina, where the state’s answer to the slave problem is to remove all people of color from the state. Those who remain but are caught or those who are traveling through and are caught are ritually murdered in a weekly “festival.” In North Carolina, Cora hides, Anne Frank-style, in the attic of an older couple.

The most powerful thing in this book are not the horrors that Whitehead creates mixing history and imagination but the character of Cora, a woman who keeps fighting for freedom and a life for herself. Throughout the novel, she is relentlessly pursued by a mercenary slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is still smarting from the fact that he was never able to catch Cora’s mother, Mabel, who escaped when Cora was a child.

This was not a fun book to read though I couldn’t put it down. Still, the unease and tension I felt as a reader is nothing compared to the real emotions experienced by generations of people held captive by a system that viewed and treated them as less than human. I really can’t wrap my head around that, but this book pushes me to try.
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Apr 05, 2017 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookclub-read

This book is very, very well written. It's also an interesting literary choice by Whitehead to be purposefully historically inaccurate. For example, Whitehead describes an actual railroad with trains and tracks underground. Also although the setting is pre-Civil War, Whitehead depicts events similar to the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments (which were in the 1930s) and mentions an elevator in a South Carolina doctor's office (the first office building in the US to have a passenger elevator was in NY ...more

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Oct 14, 2016 Kate rated it really liked it

This is well-written, meticulously researched, and heart-wrenching. Standing alone, it's a pretty good book. The challenge is that it stands among books like Beloved, which casts a long shadow. Though I'm sure this is more historically accurate and explores a wider breadth of experience for people ensnared in the net of slavery, Beloved makes you *feel* the experience in ways this doesn't. That shouldn't change the way I think about this book, but it does. I think I learned a few new things, kno ...more

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Dec 12, 2016 Kristen rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-book, magical-realism, historical-fiction, drama, 2016, aoc

I have thoughts about this one that need to percolate a while. The first thought is that humans are a scourge and don't deserve to survive as a species. We do horrible things to each other. ...more

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Apr 09, 2018 Alison rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, z2018-read-harder-challenge

This was extremely compelling - I had no trouble falling into Cora’s story as she escapes her plantation and keeps running from place to place. I liked how we didn’t see every step of the full journey; towards the end, I particularly enjoyed how we moved back and forth in time, in service of the story.

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May 15, 2021 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: to-read-2019, to-read-2020

This book was beautiful and moving and yet painful in a deep way. It’s a look at the meaning and legacy of slavery that I think is important for us all.

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