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.
