The Underground Railroad

Posted on 19 June 2018 by Colson Whitehead

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape Matters do not go as planned and, though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.In Whitehead s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil Cora and Caesar s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven but the city s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens Even worse Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.As Whitehead brilliantly re creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share. Download The Underground Railroad author Colson Whitehead – kino-fada.fr This is my first read by Colson Whitehead and it makes me think his style may not be to my tastes.It s personal preference, I m sure There are some beautiful sentences, some genius structural choices, and many great ideas Indeed, the re imagining of history where the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad is a great idea in itself I just found it lacking in anything resembling emotion It s a cold, distant, impersonal novel and it didn t pull me in.All of the secondary characters are unde This is my first read by Colson Whitehead and it makes me think his style may not be to my tastes.It s personal preference, I m sure There are some beautiful sentences, some genius structural choices, and many great ideas Indeed, the re imagining of history wh...Excellent writing, strong concept I am personally burnt out on slavery narratives so I cannot say this was a pleasure to read So much unrelenting horror Whitehead does an excellent job of portraying slavery and America as a slave nation The idea of the underground railroad, as an actual railroad, is so smart and interesting I wis...All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a manI was really looking forward to this read I had an interesting relationship with The Intuitionist, having read it in college and not quite grasped it then came back to it later and enjoyed itI love everything that Colson Whitehead is about and I hope to read Zone One soon , but this particular foray into his work turned out to be a little less than a love affair for me The Underground Railroad starts on the Randall plantaAll men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a manI was really looking forward to this read I had an interesting relationship with The Intuitionist, having read it in college and not quite grasped it then came back to it later and enjoyed itI love everything that Colson Whitehead is about and I hope to read Zone One soon , but this particular foray into his work turned out to be a little less than a love affair for me The Underground Railroad starts on the Randall plantation in Georgia around 1812 This plantation is an amalgamation of every horror and tragedy you ve ever heard of about slavery Slaves are beaten and raped for amusement, even on display for the entertainment of guests sipping lemonade attempts at fleeing from bondage or bucking the system are often arbitrarily met with public displays of execution, from being strung up and castrated to a good ole fashioned tarring and feathering Life on the plantation is as roug...For nearly twenty years the work of Colson Whitehead has been published to wide acclaim, his fiction and nonfiction both receiving many accolades For this reason I was eager to have the chance to read his new novel that focused on the origination of the race debate in America slavery This new novel is due out September 13, 2016 Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read an e galley.The story centers around Cora, a motherless slave living on the Randall estate in Georgia Wh For nearly twenty years the work of Colson Whitehead has been published to wide acclaim, his fiction and nonfiction both receiving many accolades For this reason I was eager to have the chance to read his new novel that focused on the origination of the race debate in America slavery This new novel is due out September 13, 2016 Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read an e galley.The story centers around Cora, a motherless slave living on the Randall estate in Georgia When another slave, Caesar, suggests they attempt an escape, Cora initially demurs until she draws unwanted sexual attentions from her owner The problems with this novel are not in the motivations Those we understand The problems are technical an insufficiently developed Cora, and a mere silhou...I came to this book with some resistance, regardless of it being the Pulitzer Prize winner for 2017.I ve owned the physical book since last year It kept being easier to read something else I felt it was my duty to read this book.But wait..Haven t I done my duty I ve read three James Baldwin books this year.I ve seen the movie 12 Years a Slave , and Birth of a Nation.I ve read Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Kitchen House , by Kathleen Grissom, Between The World And Me , by Ta Neh I came to this boo...Every year, I have either never heard of the films nominated for the Best Picture Academy award or when I see them, I don t think the movie is all that great long drawn out scenes with landscapes, close ups of glowering faces, monotonous dialogue, etc I know that every movie doesn t have to be action packed, but forced artsy ness or movies nominated for content but not quality are frustrating.The Underground Railroad won the Pulitzer Prize this year I have read other Pulitzer Prize winners an Every year, I have either never heard of the films nominated for the Best Picture Academy award or when I see them, I don t think the movie is all that great lon...What a world, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven Was she out of bondage or in its web how to describe the status of a runaway Freedom was a thing that shifted as you looked at it, the way a forest is dense with trees up close, but from outside, from the empty meadow, you see its true limits Being free had nothing to do with chains or how much space you had On the plantation she was not free, but she moved unrestricted on its acres, tasting the air and tracing th What a world, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven Was she out of bondage or in its web how to describe the status of a runaway Freedom was a thing that shifted as you looked at it, the way a forest is dense with trees up close, but from outside, from the empty meadow, you see its true limits Being free had nothing to do with chains or how much space you had On the plantation she was not free, but she moved unrestricted on its acres, tasting the air and tracing the summer stars The place was big in its smallness Here, she was free of her master but slunk around a warren so tiny she couldn t stand Colson Whitehead People get ready, there s a train a coming Curtis MayfieldIn Colson Whitehead s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Underground Railroad, he takes a figurative term and gives it a literal application This Underground Railroad posits a literal brick, steel, and steam system that transports fleeing slaves from southern captivity to what is...3.5 stars rounded up.This is a difficult book to read with the horrific treatment and gruesome punishments of African American slaves so much a part of the narrative, but it is essential that we read this and other books like it We need these powerful, compelling and gut wrenching reminders of what life was like on a plantation in Georgia and other places in the South and what it might have been like to be a runaway This story is told mainly from the perspective of a young slave woman named C 3.5 stars rounded up.This is a difficult book to read w...Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend Cora is a slave at a Georgia plantation in the antebellum South When a fellow slave tells her about the Underground Railroad, she finds the courage to run for her freedom Thus begins her odyssey as a runaway slave, where her adventures introduce her to unprecedented horrors and lead her to disheartening realizations The Underground Railroad rekindles the discussion and study of slavery The harsh realiti Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend Cora is a slave at a Georgia plantation in the antebellum South When a fellow slave tells her about the Underground Railroad, she finds the courage to run for her freedom Thus begins her odyssey as a runaway slave, where her a...A good read and Pulitzer Prize winner, with so many reviews already, I ll make this brief.The main character is a young woman slave who hates her missing mother for having escaped when she was a child A young man plans to escape from the Georgia plantation and invites her to go with him, partly because he thinks she s good luck because of her mother s escape The main story becomes one of a cat and mouse game with a brutal slave hunter on their tail There is a real underground railroad run A good read and Pulitzer Prize winner, with so many reviews already, I ll make this brief.The main character is a young woman slave who hates her missing mother for having escaped when she was a child A young man plans to escape from the Georgia plantation and invites her to go with him, partly because he thinks she s good luck because of her mother s escape The main story becomes one of a cat and mouse game with a brutal slave hunter on their tail There is a real underground railroad running in tunnels.While on the run and at times masquerading as a freewoman, she has a variety of experiences designed to give us a view into slave life at the time say the early 1800 s After her early life picking cotton a...

English
19 June 2018

Colson Whitehead