Many thanks to Goodreads, Anchor Books, & Penguin Random House for this gifted book . I was so excited to win this Goodreads Giveaway!
WOW. Colson Whitehead is genius. His literal depiction of the Underground Railroad was so believable, I suddenly thought I had misunderstood my history lessons in school. While the term Underground Railroad has always been used metaphorically to denote a complex system of transporting slaves to safety, Mr. Whitehead imagines actual tunnels with tracks built by slaves with help along the way from abolitionists. That depiction was in and of itself a sort of allegory of our marred history - what seems unimaginable actually happened. It read like historical fiction and I was immediately transported. Of course, the brutality was 100% accurate. The savagery is always shameful and no matter how many books I read on this topic, I can't fathom how people could treat fellow human beings in such an inhumane way. And through it all, Cora remained resolute in her journey, and I felt her pain, reluctance, and hope as if I were right there beside her.
Whitehead writes with such emotional intensity, it's no wonder he received the Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award for Fiction for this gem of a novel.
Read 11/6/22
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