Interessant en aangrijpend verhaal over Cora, een slavin in het zuiden van de VS en haar vlucht(pogingen) middels de Underground Railroad. Dit was een bekend netwerk van abolitionists die slaven hielpen te vluchten naar het noorden van de VS en Canada. In het echt was dit een netwerk, in dit boek wordt het verteld als ware het een trein netwerk. Mooi geschreven, interessant boek. ( )

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead reads like a journey through history. While at times the story reads as fantastical, it is also a glimpse into a history that was all too real. Whitehead engages the reader in the lives of his characters giving each person the feeling of both witnessing history and being immersed in it. The world Whitehead creates in the historical slave-owning South is vivid with all the pain and loss and hope of those who seek a life they can call their own. I felt the sting of the whip, smelled the burning flesh of punishment, and felt the itch of dusty confines. I felt the uncertainty of freedom after never knowing it. I felt the fleetingness of a freedom of one who has never lived as a free person. The Underground Railroad provokes thought on an emotional roller-coaster ride through the longing for freedom and the journey to liberation. ( )

Some may not like the structure of the book as it affects the pacing. It does affect the pacing somewhat but it helps you not be overwhelmed by the horror of slavery as Whitbread did not cut back in his description of how runaways are treated. Oh, how brilliant it is to drop the bombshell of Mabel's fate at the end. Turns out that Cora and Ridgeway had been living on unfounded resentment. Read the book also for its extraordinary writing. At first reading, the writing is very ordinary and reads a bit quirky but slow down, read again and the sentences will take your breadth away. ( )

-- excerpted from Kathryn Schulz's 'The Perilous Lure of the Underground Railroad', featured in The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/the-perilous-lure-of-the-undergroun...

Colson Whitehead's new novel had been hugely anticipated in 2016, even before Oprah chose it as her latest book club selection and it was released, a la Beyoncé, a month early and without warning. Whitehead's appropriate response to this news, received while seated on an airplane having just landed, and returning an urgent phone message from his publisher, "Motherfucker."

Oprah aside- and I truly hope Whitehead benefits greatly from this brouhaha, reaching readers he may not have otherwise - the novel is worth your time. He's a gifted, creative writer and his is an important new entry to the slave narrative in fiction.

Sometimes I feel like such a dumb-dumb when it comes time to gather my thoughts for a review. Particularly when novels are dealing with such important themes and times in history. I don't have anything profound or important to add to all of the other voices offering their two cents on The Underground Railroad. I enjoyed it a great deal. Though it is, of course, difficult and grim at times, there is hope. There has to be, doesn't there, in this kind of story, as it had (has) to in real life. There is also a bit of whimsy in the Underground Railroad being imagined as an actual railroad. Cora's voice rings authentically. She's stoic and strong. She endures and keeps moving forward, against the most challenging and dehumanizing of circumstances. I feel as though I gained an appreciation for the vast amount of research that was involved in this project - research that had to be so harrowing at times. I do wish I had gained (or been given) a bit more insight into (or depth from) some of the supporting characters, but this is a minor quibble. My literary crush over Whitehead remains intact, and I have mad-respect for his talent!

Read this novel. And when you do, let me know what you think, and if you have some excellent thoughts to offer! ( )

It's as devastating and gut wrenching as you'd imagine, but told expertly and with a lot of imagination. I think most of us assumed the underground railroad was an actual railroad when we were little, before it was properly explained to us. Even as a true railroad, there are nothing but horrors awaiting runaway slaves, though maybe the choice to experience something else wins out over the horrors of remaining captive. ( )