The Underground Railroad

by Colson Whitehead
Mar 19-Apr 9, 2017

Oprah and her magical ability to gain followers to anything and everything she likes or touches (Midas?!). It's been a while since I've read an Oprah-acclaimed book, but this one had been receiving plenty of praise on its own. This may be a terrible thing to say, but I think I am burned out on books about slavery. Granted, this one focused more on the escape than the day-to-day life on a plantation, but it was still difficult reading nonetheless. Cruelty followed slaves everywhere. I'm astonished by the endurance and will to live that these people unfailingly kept up. To read about Cora's burst of luck only to have it stripped away more brutally each time made me truly wonder how she even wanted to live any longer. Terrible thoughts. And thus the burnout on the subject matter. It's exhausting.

“Freedom was a community laboring for something lovely and rare.”

Overall an interesting direction taken by Whitehead – and actual underground railroad. But the storyline was a bit jerky and presented in ways that weren't as successful as they could have been.

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