A guide to speculative fiction

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Colson Whitehead

Whitehead's prose is graceful and often lyrical, and his elevator underworld is a complex, lovingly realized creation

'A thrilling blend of noir and fantasy.'Guardian.<br/>
In an unnamed city - a hardboiled pre-Civil Rights New York sort of city -heroine Lila Mae has succeeded in becoming the very first Black female elevator inspector. In Whitehead's darkly comic otherworld, this is a job imbued with an almost mystical significance. But the illustrious Department of Elevator Inspectors is in crisis, bitterly divided between the Empiricists (check the machinery) and the Intuitionists (tune in to the vibes). Lila is an Intuitionist and so much better at her job than anyone else that surely it must be those 'good-old-boy' Empiricists who have set up the serious accident which occurs on her watch - and just before the Departmental elections, too. Lila sets out to clear her name (and discover the secret formula of the Perfect Elevator at the same time), and the author keeps us on our toes guessing the outcome as he cleverly tweaks and twists his plot, catching everybody out. At the same time the story is almost certainly an allegory but of what, exactly, readers may work out for themselves. A teasing, challenging and entertaining read.

The Intuitionist

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Colson Whitehead

Praise for The Intuitionist

A thrilling blend of noir and fantasy

Whitehead's prose is graceful and often lyrical, and his elevator underworld is a complex, lovingly realized creation

Ingenious and starkly original

A thrilling blend of noir and fantasy

Whitehead's prose is graceful and often lyrical, and his elevator underworld is a complex, lovingly realized creation

Ingenious and starkly original

A thrilling blend of noir and fantasy

Whitehead's prose is graceful and often lyrical, and his elevator underworld is a complex, lovingly realized creation

Ingenious and starkly original

Articles featuring Colson Whitehead

A guide to speculative fiction

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