From the Bookshelf of La Crosse Public Library …

[close] Our fall Books N'Brunch program will be discussing The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead on Saturday, October 12th.

Books N'Brunch is a free book discussion series, but registration is required as space is limited. Contact Mary Dunn, our Readers' Advisory Librarian, at 789-7145 or mdunn@lacrosselibrary.org to register.

TEASER DISCUSSION QUESTION: In North Carolina, institutions like doctor's offices and museums that were supposed to help "black uplift" were corrupt and unethical. How do Cora's challenges in North Carolina mirror what America is still struggling with today?

STAFF REVIEW:
I’m not sure I can write a review that will do justice to this book, but I’ll try. Easily the best thing I’ve read or listened to this year, The Underground Railroad tells the story of Cora, a slave, and her journey to freedom on the Underground Railroad. In Whitehead’s South, the Railroad is a real set of underground tunnels, tracks and trains, complete with stations and stationmasters. The mystery of who could have created it under the noses of white slave-owners introduces a note of magical realism, which is furthered also by his depiction of different states’ political “solutions” to the problem posed by white fear of African slaves.

Cora escapes the plantation to what initially seems a haven in South Carolina, only to discover that the white rescuers have their own agenda. Learning that Ridgeway, a notorious slave catcher, is on her heels, she flees on the first train to come her way and ends up trapped in a dead-end North Carolina station. Hidden for months by the stationmaster, eventually she is betrayed and captured by Ridgeway.

Ridgeway decides that there’s plenty of time to return Cora to her master and heads west in search of another fugitive slave. Cora escapes him again and finds a community in Indiana where it seems blacks can be free and prosper. But their white neighbors soon become envious and then turn murderous, and Ridgeway appears once again.

Bahni Turpin’s narration gives distinct voices to the multiple characters and captures the emotion of Cora’s desperate search.

~Noreen, Reference Librarian