The Underground Railroad by Colson WhiteheadMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am really glad I read literally NOTHING about this book beforehand--no summaries, no reviews. As a friend said in her review, there are reminiscences of Gabriel García Márquez. In the event that someone doesn't know the main fictional point of the book, I won't post a "spoiler" here, but suffice it to say---I found it a tremendously effective device.
Now that I've read several reviews, I'm astonished at the amount of "I couldn't relate to the protagonist" comments and the like. I can't "relate" to the protagonist either--that's because I'm white. That doesn't mean I can't engage with her. I found that Cora's relative stoic demeanor helped ground the realism of the novel---when your life is a series of traumas (on a repeated loop, it would seem), you redefine "normal" so as to cope.
There are so many layers of tragedy in this book, but the one that Whitehead reveals near the end was personally very gut-wrenching. It tells us that a loss of faith (broadly interpreted) can shape our existence and understanding forever. This is a book full of lessons -- both historical and modern. If you read it just as a "story", I'd suggest that you are missing out.
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