The Underground Railroad was both more and less than what I expected going in, having heard the numerous awards it had won and the rave reviews it had gotten. The biggest thing I got out of the book is its unflinching portrayal of how dehumanizing life was for a slave, and how terrible life continued to be for slaves on the run. They never fully become free from their masters, continuing to live a life of fear and hiding, carrying the burden of being a slave and the guilt of the horrible fates that befall those who aid them.
But I wouldn't say this story totally worked. In fact, it almost seems as if Whitehead had picked out topics and written passages he wanted to include in the book first, and then built his story around it. As a result, there are a lot of times when it seems like the story takes an awkward lurch and starts in on a random tangent, like the grave diggers and its blurbs about native Americans.
I agree with a lot of reviewers out there that the physical underground railroad was a logistical impossibility. How could you run a train underground and have no one above the ground hear it? How could you keep it a secret when the discovery of one sections leads you to the whole thing? What I don't get is that having it be a physical railroad didn't add anything to the story. Whitehead could easily have told the same story with Cora just being smuggled around above ground.
Whitehead also doesn't have the clearest writing style. His narration is often non-linear so that things happen out of order, like he'll explain much later something that he referenced earlier. This was especially hard in the beginning, when he would mention people or place names without explaining who or what they are, and then get around to clarifying a few pages later. I constantly had to go back to reread parts with the new understanding in mind.
Yet, even with all the negatives, there was enough positives in this book to make it a worthwhile read. It tells a necessary tale, one filled with sorrow and anguish, the consequences of which remain to this day. And though Whitehead took lots of narrative liberties, the spirit and facts of the slave experience remain, and they're an imperative piece to understanding our nation's history and where we are today.
Readaroo Rating: 4 stars
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