BOOK DISCUSSION LINKS – Please click the three links below to view my thoughts regarding the questions presented:
01 – What were your initial impressions of the book?
02 – What did you think of the characters that Cora encountered?
03 – What did you think of Cora and her situation?
Here’s some additional links about this book that you might find of interest:
- Book Review from The New York Times: “In Colson Whitehead’s Latest, the Underground Railroad Is More Than a Metaphor”
- Interview with Colson Whitehead: “To deal with this subject with the gravity it deserved was scary”
- NPR author interview: Colson Whitehead’s ‘Underground Railroad’ is a Literal Train to Freedom
Tonight I finished reading this amazing book. The story depicted slavery in a much more brutal way than any other story I can recall reading. As I worked my way through the book, the terms, “white privilege” (a term I have struggled to understand) and “black lives matter” have played over and over again in my mind. I also think of “black holocaust”, a term I had only recently heard, yet as I read of Cora’s experiences and observations in North Carolina, shares so many similarities to the Jewish holocaust.
I need to take a day or two to think about this book and let its story gel in my mind before I can write much more about it. I am appalled and moved beyond description for the things that occurred in this story. I think this is an important book that will stand the test of time and, and hard as it was to read, I am glad to have read it.