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The Intuitionist
May. 7th, 2020 06:42 pmThe Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead was recommended to me by Carolyn Petit on Feminist Frequency Radio some months ago. I assumed it was a new book, but it was actually first published in 1999.
It tells the story of Lila Mae Watson, the first female black elevator inspector in an unnamed city of skyscrapers. There is conflict within the Guild between the Empiricists and the Intuitionists (Lila Mae is a proponent of the latter), which comes to a head in the run-up to the next election for Guild Chair.
Lila Mae gets embroiled in a scandal when an elevator at a building she has inspected goes into freefall, something that should be impossible. Then ensues a convoluted tale of city politics, institutional corruption, appalling racism, and noir-ish intrigue, as Lila Mae tries to uncover who sabotaged the elevator, while also tracking down the lost journals of the inventor of Intuitionism.
The book is a strange combination of literary and genre, with esoteric language, dense imagery, slipping tenses, and a patchwork structure that makes it sometimes difficult to follow. I'm quite certain there are whole layers of allegorical and societal commentary that completely passed me by. But I loved Lila Mae as a protagonist and was fully invested in her struggle to be seen, to be successful and to dig out the truth in more ways than one.
It's a short book but it took effort and concentration. It deserves your full attention and all comes together in the end in a very satisfying manner.
It tells the story of Lila Mae Watson, the first female black elevator inspector in an unnamed city of skyscrapers. There is conflict within the Guild between the Empiricists and the Intuitionists (Lila Mae is a proponent of the latter), which comes to a head in the run-up to the next election for Guild Chair.
Lila Mae gets embroiled in a scandal when an elevator at a building she has inspected goes into freefall, something that should be impossible. Then ensues a convoluted tale of city politics, institutional corruption, appalling racism, and noir-ish intrigue, as Lila Mae tries to uncover who sabotaged the elevator, while also tracking down the lost journals of the inventor of Intuitionism.
The book is a strange combination of literary and genre, with esoteric language, dense imagery, slipping tenses, and a patchwork structure that makes it sometimes difficult to follow. I'm quite certain there are whole layers of allegorical and societal commentary that completely passed me by. But I loved Lila Mae as a protagonist and was fully invested in her struggle to be seen, to be successful and to dig out the truth in more ways than one.
It's a short book but it took effort and concentration. It deserves your full attention and all comes together in the end in a very satisfying manner.
