Review of
Instaread Summary of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Five out of five stars
From the
summary, it is clear that the book is more a combination of science fiction and
fantasy rather than the facts of slavery that it is based on. In this case, the
underground railroad is an actual railroad that is underground, with stations,
stops and railroad cars. As was the case in history, the railroad is the
mechanism where runaway slaves are transported out of the slave-holding south
to freedom.
While violence
and cruelty was part of the suppression of the slaves, it is clearly
exaggerated in this book. White people that worked on the abolitionist side in
helping runaway slaves were punished, but people, including slaves, were not
killed in the cavalier manner to the extent that is depicted here.
Black men were
used as experimental subjects for the deliberate injection of syphilis in the
twentieth century, so that is moved back a century in time. The inclusion of
the plague of yellow fever in Tennessee as well as large sections of the state
being on fire due to unstated reasons is right out of the darker fantasy novel
genre.
From this
summary, the reader acquires a detailed understanding of the book as well as
the knowledge that it is largely fantasy rather than fact. The author of the
summary is to be commended for making that very clear in the “Author’s style”
section.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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