joyce traver

Brilliantly written brutality honest exploration of the Black experience in America. Whitehead refuses to allow the story to dwindle into another victim tale, however. Instead, he prods the MLK philosophy of goodness ultimately triumphing over evil. Whitehead asks the reader if it is much more realistic to develop a pragmatic view of survival when one has no power. Underground Railroad takes the reader on a wrenchingly surreal ride; The Nickel Boys drives deep into the psyche of humanity and asks the essential question: how do the powerless survive without power?

I don’t understand why this book is so highly praised. The characters’ motivations are obscure, the plot forced, scattered and vacuous. If Egan would have focused on Anna’s struggle to become a diver during WWII, she could have woven a compelling historical fiction novel. Instead, she attempted to unnecessarily broaden her tale to include an unlikely gangster saga. The book ran over 400 pages. She could have cut that in half by eliminating that section and produced a much more coherent, forceful and ultimately interesting story about women finding new paths for themselves during a time of world wide crisis.