I’ve been on a Colson Whitehead tear in the past year having started five of his books, finishing four of them. This year I raced through the Ray Carney series (Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto) and I just finished The Underground Railroad. While not my favourite of his books The Underground Railroad was still a compelling read. Whitehead has this talent that I struggle to explain. He’s very good at writing historical fiction that makes you sad or angry at the history without feeling sad or angry with the story. That’s what buoys up books like The Underground Railroad; it was a fantastic read, I daresay a borderline fun read but it also served as a poignant reminder of the atrocities of chattel slavery to the point of being physically moved. This is undoubtedly a hard balance to strike but Whitehead has managed to do it in nearly every book I’ve written.
