The Underground Railroad

This left me underwhelmed. It's not that it's a bad book - it certainly isn't. I was interested the whole way. I felt a little twist in my stomach and my throat at the end, so I know I was emotionally invested. The writing is good; plain, straight-forward, but tight and with perfectly strong metaphors. The narrative is gripping. The characters internal lives are complex and sustaining. Yet, something left me feeling uninspired. I put the book down and it was out of my head as soon as it touched the table.

Maybe it was that it was too plot-driven, and that's not my type of book: especially when the “almost caught her; didn't catch her... almost caught her again; foiled again!” storyline became wholly implausible, the escapes too narrow, such that it gave the more brutal, very real moments a bit less credibility. Reading this was like watching a movie, where you are always aware that you are in a movie, and also kind of thinking about what you're going to have for dinner. Something failed to captivate me.

But, like I said, it was still a good read and it's always good to remember histories atrocities through narrative, and to keep giving the victims of those atrocities the rich consciousness they deserve.