Plot summary
Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. In Colson Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman’s will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
About the Author
Colson Whitehead grew up in NYC and currently lives there. He attended Harvard College and began writing for the Village Voice after graduation. He’s written for the NY times, received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He’s taught at a number of universities including Columbia, NYU, and Princeton. His next book is due out in July 2019.
What I loved about The Underground Railroad
When I learned of Whitehead’s book, I’d initially dismissed it as a reading choice because it portrays the underground railroad as a lengthy series of tunnels. The tunnels are navigated by a locomotive or other rail car traversing from the South to the North, transporting runaway slaves with the help of conductors. I knew the underground railroad was not really a series of tunnels, but rather a network of individuals and groups assisting runaways, usually overland. Therefore, I thought Whitehead’s book would be more magical realism than historical fiction. Boy was I wrong. Thank goodness its status as Winner of the Pulitzer Prize convinced me to rethink my opinion. I decided to give it a go and listened to the audio version read by award winning narrator Bahni Turpin.
I could not stop listening. It was fantastic.
I cannot recommend this book enough.I listened on my way to work, during lunch, on my way home, folding laundry, walking the dog. Heck, I found chores to do just to keep listening. When I finished, I needed to know more about the Underground Railroad. You can get a copy of The Underground Railroad in digital, paper, or audio version here.
Destinations to Pair with reading The Underground Railroad
Lucky for me, I live in Philadelphia, a very important city in the history of the underground railroad. A quick Google search revealed that not far from my home exists a preserved historic “station” on the underground railroad – the Johnson House. I immediately made plans to visit! You can read about my visit to Johnson House here. Those outside the area might find this National Park Service list of underground railroad stations useful.
Related Reading
I put together this list of books featuring the underground railroad. It includes both fiction and nonfiction titles.
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