From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead

Start date: July 1, 2020

Finish date: July 31, 2020

Discussion: MODERN / POPULAR READS

Why we're reading this: Group Read for July '20 - Modern Classic / Popular …more
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MODERN / POPULAR READS

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What Members Thought

Aug 09, 2017 Laurel Bradshaw rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, daytimers-book-club, alternate-history, 19th-century, pulitzer-prize, slavery, themes-black-lives-matter, underground-railroad

I have to admit I was underwhelmed by this book after all the hoopla and press and a Pulitzer Prize. It's not exactly fantasy, and it's not exactly magical realism. So I've settled on alternate history. The Underground Railroad is imagined as an actual underground railroad, built in some mysterious past by unknown builders but in a time period before the railroad even existed in the United States. Likewise other events, like the section set in South Carolina with white doctors encouraging black I have to admit I was underwhelmed by this book after all the hoopla and press and a Pulitzer Prize. It's not exactly fantasy, and it's not exactly magical realism. So I've settled on alternate history. The Underground Railroad is imagined as an actual underground railroad, built in some mysterious past by unknown builders but in a time period before the railroad even existed in the United States. Likewise other events, like the section set in South Carolina with white doctors encouraging black women to have tubal ligations long before such a thing was historically available. So the "railroad" is something of a time machine as well. Those things didn't bother me. I give it 4 stars because this movement through time and space made the plot feel disjointed at times. Or it has no plot in the traditional sense. There was also no character development. What makes this a compelling book, though, is the way it removes the "black experience" from time and place, making the reader a vicarious traveler on this same journey regardless of race. In that sense, perhaps the reader is actually the main character - hopefully a character that has learned something and gained in understanding of that experience.

Book description: Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom. ...more

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Dec 31, 2021 Jody rated it liked it · review of another edition

For being such an interesting and important topic, it moved very slowly for me. The story itself was captivating, but the main reason I did not care for the book was because of the fantastical elements woven throughout. For instance, the author depicts the Underground Railroad not as a metaphor, but as a literal underground railroad system. I found these historical changes to be distracting and for people reading the book with little knowledge of this time in history, they might be lead to belie ...more

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Feb 19, 2018 Amy Ellis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is not an easy read, but it is an excellent story: a reimagining of the Underground Railroad as a literal railroad dug underneath homes and buildings where each station seems to lead to a new idyllic life. Good pick, Oprah! It is heart wrenching, but the ending is hopeful enough that I wasn’t depressed after finishing it.

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