If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. Most chillingly, there's Ridgeway, a ruthless slave hunter with an attitude common to many white people at the time: 'If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. Whitehead intersperses the chapters following Cora's journey with short sections focused on the people she encounters: a grave-robbing doctor, an abolitionist's wife, and Caesar, her partner in escape.

She does not lose faith, because it's unclear if she ever had faith to begin with.

She witnesses kind souls persecuted for their tolerance, and vile monsters rewarded for their barbarity. With this novel, Colson Whitehead proves that he belongs on any short list of America's greatest authors - his talent and range are beyond impressive and impossible to ignore.īy the time The Underground Railroad ends, Cora has traveled through multiple states, sometimes on her own, sometimes not. It still lived in all of them, waiting to abuse and taunt when chance presented itself.' There they meet other former slaves, each haunted by their past: 'It lived in them. They board the train not knowing where they're going, ending up in South Carolina, a state that prides itself on a relatively more enlightened attitude toward race than its neighbors. It's an actual tunnel, stretching miles in either direction to God knows where. When Cora and Caesar first see the railroad, they're stunned. Why make it easy for him? That was one kind of work you could say no to.' But after being viciously attacked by a sadistic farmer, she agrees to light out with Caesar under the cover of darkness, destined for a station on the Underground Railroad. When Cora is approached by another slave, Caesar, about escaping from the plantation, she initially demurs: 'White man trying to kill you slow every day, and sometimes trying to kill you fast. She remembers every horrible incident, even - especially - the ones she'd rather forget: 'There was an order of misery, misery tucked inside miseries, and you were meant to keep track.' In her time on the Randall farm in Georgia, she's been worked to the point of sickness, beaten, raped, forced to watch her fellow slaves tortured to death. The protagonist of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad is a slave on the plantation where her grandmother, Ajarry, died while picking cotton, and her mother, Mabel, escaped from years ago. How?Įditor's note: This review contains language some may find offensiveĬora is 16, maybe 17 she's not quite sure. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Underground Railroad Author Colson Whitehead

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