A Rarity--A Book That Lives Up To The Hype!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                Sometimes, the truth really is out there, dolls!

                                I had read Colson Whitehead's first two novels, "The Intuitionist," and John Henry Days," and was less than impressed.  So I stayed away, for awhile.  When his latest, "The Underground Railroad," started getting all this attention, I was a bit skeptical.  Critics went crazy over it; so did some of my friends.  Once it made The Times Ten Best List, I knew it could not be ignored.  So, when I picked it up recently, it was with a skeptical outlook.

                                But something had changed in the intervening years.  Either Whitehead's writing improved, or my tastes did.  Probably a bit of both!!!!!!!!!!  Because I found this novel mesmerizing; I absorbed it into my bloodstream, so memorable were its characters and narrative.  Within the pantheon of this type of literature, I would put this novel beside two others covering similar issues--"Beloved," by Toni Morrison, and "The Confessions Of Nat Turner," by William Styron.  Yep, that is how good I thought "The Underground Railroad" was.  Cora and her story is one of the most moving in recent memory, and Whitehead's prose style is quick and compelling, and mercifully, devoid of the pretension that characterized his earlier books.

                                To think I considered passing on this one. Had I, a great reading experience would have been missed.  You just never know, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Except with Danielle Steel.  There, you get what you are guaranteed!!!!!!!!