Colson Whitehead 978-0-385-49299-7 Bantam
Doubleday Dell 272 Pages; First Printing: January 1999
Reading Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist gives off this vibe the
majority would not understand a black writer’s metaphysical exercise unless
race becomes central to the narrative. Whitehead’s construct of a futuristic
world is set in the past, though the year is not stated. It is shortly after
the Civil Rights Movement, the onset of integration. The writing is technical,
philosophical and quite heady. This holds true throughout the book, as
Whitehead details the world of elevators, their inspection, their invention and
future development. The primary thread is about Verticality – ascension and
descent, and the two prevailing schools of elevator inspectors: Empiricists and
Intuitionists.
A third of the way through, the story takes a freefall as an
elevator -- in a building named after a female slave, recently inspected by black
female protagonist Lila Mae Watson -- crashes and none of its emergency braking
mechanisms go into effect. Watson turns amateur sleuth to clear her name, only
to find herself embroiled in big city politics with various factions searching
for a mysterious black box that will reveal how to build the perfect elevator. Whitehead’s
writing conveys he relished bringing down the elevator, the existing order cum structure,
after showing he understands all of its mechanisms; thereby satisfying the
Empiricists. The next test was whether he could bring the elevator back up the
shaft simply through feel, as purported by the Intuitionists. This is where and
why the introduction of race becomes critical. Whitehead gives a broad
historical presentation of race relations but mainly as a roadblock. The Intuitionist is purposely laden with
metaphors; the elevator stops on every floor and reaches way up to the top floors.
Each floor represents a higher level of consciousness. Someday soon the perfect
elevator will go even higher, but will race hinder the ability to reach these
levels?
Recommendation: HIGHEST
Recommendation: HIGHEST
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