The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

In this book, the author re-imagines the underground railroad as if it really were what we all thought it was

when we first learned about it: A literal underground railroad line stretching from the slave-holding south to the free north. The book follows the journey of one slave as she navigates this line. Along the way, she stops in several different states, each one of which is representative of a different time period in Southern history. The character starts in Georgia, which has slavery pretty much as we know it, and soon finds herself in South Carolina, where it appears black people are free -- much like they were in the early 20th century. In reality, though, there is only the illusion of freedom, as she finds out very quickly.

In the end, I found all the praise of Whitehead's book a little misguided. His conceit seems little more than a gimmick. For example, he never really has a good explanation for why the runaway slave has to stop in each state. If it's a railroad, why can't she simply ride it all the way to the north? Whitehead throws in small complications, but they don't really make sense. In addition, I'm not sure what he was trying to achieve by turning the metaphorical railroad into a literal one. It doesn't really change the experience of being a runaway, or really shed any new light on what it was like to live in that time period. It was a good read, but not nearly as profound and enlightening as the book powers-that-be seem to think it is.