We need more of these voices.

Since the dawn of mankind and even now, humans find ways to delight in cruelty, and that’s no story, that is the ugliest truth; the cruelty of humanity knows no bounds, but the will and the power of humanity for love and the fight for freedom is greater.

Colson Whitehead’s writing is stark, unsentimental, and heart-wrenching. He leaves no stone unturned, and yet does not delight in explicit details in the retelling—just relates the bare horrific facts. He is a masterful writer and an addictive storyteller. This is a story that all of America’s children should be told, again and again and again, so that the memory of the hell that once was, and the story of the quiet servants of freedom who broke the back of slavery, will continue to educate a nation towards understanding the freedom and liberty and pursuit of happiness so adamantly declared by and for all its citizens.

I started this book and didn’t stop reading until I finished. I didn’t stop for anything, I just read and read and read, that underground train moving on and on in my ear.

No man can be judged by the colour of his skin, no heart can be judged by the size of its pocket, no body can be weighed by the extent of its work ethic, no life can be measured … 

This deserved every prize it received.