Winner of this year’s National Book Award, this novel imagines
the “underground railroad” as an actual subterranean railway, not just a series
of safe houses on the way north to freedom.
The author uses this physical train to take his characters, primarily
the runaway slave, Cora, from station to station, each illustrating an aspect
of white America’s mistreatment of African Americans since they first were
brought here as slaves. There’s life on a
cotton plantation. There’s exploitation
as living displays behind glass in dioramas illustrating various savage
customs. There are references to forced sterilization
and medical experimentation. It’s all
here and pretty overwhelmingly depressing.
It’s an important book. I can’t
say I “enjoyed” it or found the writing particularly inspired, but it should be
read for the message if not the grace of its prose. 320 pp.
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