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The Intuitionist: A Novel
Escrito por Colson Whitehead
Narrado por Peter Jay Fernandez
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In a marvelous debut novel that has been compared to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Colson Whitehead has created a strangely skewed world of elevators and the people who control their ups and downs. Lila Mae Watson-the first black female inspector in the world's tallest city-has the highest performance rating of anyone in the Department of Elevator Inspectors. This upsets her superiors, because Lila is an Intuitionist: she inspects elevators simply by the feelings she gets riding in them. When a brand new elevator crashes, Lila becomes caught in the conflict between her Intuitionist methods and the beliefs of the power-holding Empiricists. Her only hope for clearing her name lies in finding the plans of an eccentric elevator genius for the "black box": a perfect elevator. A brilliant allegory for the interaction of the races, The Intuitionist is also an intriguing mystery, solidly grounded by the exceptional narration of Peter Jay Fernandez.
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a escucharInformación sobre el libro
The Intuitionist: A Novel
Escrito por Colson Whitehead
Narrado por Peter Jay Fernandez
Descripción
In a marvelous debut novel that has been compared to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Colson Whitehead has created a strangely skewed world of elevators and the people who control their ups and downs. Lila Mae Watson-the first black female inspector in the world's tallest city-has the highest performance rating of anyone in the Department of Elevator Inspectors. This upsets her superiors, because Lila is an Intuitionist: she inspects elevators simply by the feelings she gets riding in them. When a brand new elevator crashes, Lila becomes caught in the conflict between her Intuitionist methods and the beliefs of the power-holding Empiricists. Her only hope for clearing her name lies in finding the plans of an eccentric elevator genius for the "black box": a perfect elevator. A brilliant allegory for the interaction of the races, The Intuitionist is also an intriguing mystery, solidly grounded by the exceptional narration of Peter Jay Fernandez.
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The idea of the book is whimsical, but I didn’t like it as much as Whitehead’s second novel, The Underground Railroad. There’s nothing that I could pinpoint as “wrong” with this one; it just didn’t grab me like other books in recent memory.
Rating: 3In a startlingly well-done piece, Colson Whitehead creates a real-enough reflection of America, in which we focus on a quirky discipline. The realists struggle against the intuitionists to see who will construct the perfect elevator. We find ourselves in a reality in which blacks are working against all odds to raise their lot. The elevator here takes on a thought-provoking significance - who will carry the day and ultimately decide how to construct the perfect elevator? What will be the elevator which carries the downtrodden above their current station?Whitehead takes a unique look at relations between and within races and asks us to consider from a black's perspective, the means by which race issues may be resolved. I found this to be a profound, reverberating work, stunningly conceived, and brilliantly executed.
Rating: 5There was no one else to blame. The Intuitionist was my pick for a tandem read with my wife. We read it in a single day, one which left us bruised from all the cliches and the noir tropes which were further wrinkled with the riddle of race. I recall Mr. Whitehead was reported to have been spit upon by novelist Richard Ford. No, I wouldn't go that far. . .
Rating: 2The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead is included in the list of 100 titles chosen by American citizens for The Great American Read hosted by PBS. (More info on the books on the list and how you can vote for America's favorite novel can be found here.) In an effort to read more diversely (and to have the ability to recommend books for the adults in my branch) I started with this book as I had never heard of it despite it being listed as a 'classic'. The story follows Lila Mae Watson who is the first female person of color to be an Elevator Inspector. In the world created by Whitehead elevators are the height (ha!) of technology and the majority of the population see them as somewhat mystical and beyond the realm of ordinary comprehension. (There are even guilds which seek to elevate the status of Elevator Inspectors in society to those in political office.) Even more confusing to discern are the two distinct sects of theory as to the maintenance and future of these machines. One school of thought is firmly rooted in the reality of the technology while the other views them as metaphysical creations that can be 'sensed'. Lila Mae belongs to the second school of thought which further compounds the problems that she faces among her coworkers and the public that she encounters on her daily rotations. This sci-fi novel is rooted in the reality of race. What drives the story are the veiled discussions of race but it is told through the lens of technology innovations. It is ultimately a story of hope for a better world where we are 'elevated' from the weaknesses and barbarisms of our current reality. Whitehead challenges our perceptions of our accepted reality as he argues that established views are not solely based on what we see with our eyes. This is a book with a seemingly simple premise about elevator manufacture and maintenance in a world so very similar (and familiar) to our own but instead what we get is a complex discussion of race and how we can (hopefully) rise above. 9/10
Rating: 4Sentence by sentence, Whitehead is a dang master. Lila Mae is an elevator inspector and a new elevator that she just inspected, using a new method called Intuitionism, has crashed. Political intrigue ensues. A wonderful allegory about race and misogyny.
Rating: 4This started out really interesting, but as I went on I had a harder and harder time staying focused and into it. I barely finished it. I think the author was trying too hard to make it allegorical--more specific details about the time and place and world the characters inhabited would have made it better. As it was, I had a hard time picturing the story and setting in my head and couldn't keep a lot of the characters straight.
Rating: 3It is so, so rare to find a novel that is truly original, but The Intuitionist is that and more. Allegory, but with such a twisted premise. Brilliant prose, bizarre characters and a truly surprising plot. I loved every word. Whitehead's riffing on race, culture and religion are so offbeat, so fresh you can't come away unchanged. Plus the guy is a scream! (John Henry Days is funnier, tho.) On my "read again" list for sure.
Rating: 5Both my wife and I read this book and enjoyed it.The story follows the journey of a female African-American elevator inspector at some point in vaguely defined recent history.This book has a style and content that borders on surrealism, magical realism, and outright fantasy; but yet it never quite crosses over into any of those genres entirely, and I found it remained quite down to earth in it's tone.While I just found it an enjoyable read, my wife found a certain degree of correlation between the visualizations experienced by the protagonist as part of her intuitive approach to inspection, and her own apprehension of certain complex systems or situations.- Peter K.
Rating: 5An odd novel set in a universe in which elevators seem to be the highest form of technology, and there are disputes between two schools of inspectors, the Intuitionists and the Empiricists. Lila Mae Watson, the city's first female black inspector, is being framed for an elevator crash designed to show up the Intuitionists.It's kind of a whodunit about a search for lost blueprints from a visionary Intuitionist designer, with thugs and spys. I'm not sure I got all the subtext. I liked its quirkiness, the alternate universe, but ultimately I was bored and disappointed. I probably missed its subtleties and metaphysics.
Rating: 2I found this mesmerizing. It's a noir-ish novel set in a very vaguely alternate version of New York City in a time that seems mostly like the 1950s. We have a mystery closely connected with two rival schools of thought about the fine art of elevator inspecting. The events surrounding an elevator accident implicate Lila Mae Watson, the city's first female colored elevator inspector, who then sets out to clear her name and ends up discovering a much larger, more profound conspiracy.The writing is amazingly vivid. Whitehead is so successful at crafting a very visual, tactile environment that I kept imagining how this could be presented as a graphic novel or on film (which would, naturally, defeat the purpose, but still). The experience of reading it is like borrowing Fritz Lang's eyes. If it were not so impeccably well done, it might veer a tiny, tiny bit into an excess of world-building.Grade: ARecommended: To readers who enjoy very writerly novels and those who like vertical transportation. It nicely combines an allegorical setting (which does create a very sharp awareness of reading while you are reading) with characters who are compelling and believably emotional
Rating: 5Imagine a world where elevator inspectors are among the most important civil servants out there. They have there own widely read trade magazines and the elections for their guild leadership are widely covered. Lila Mae is the first African American female inspector and when an elevator fails on her watch its up to her to uncover the truth about what happened.
Rating: 4I wanted to like this book set in the unlikely environment of the elevator inspector business, but id did not do so much for me. Did not finish it.
Rating: 3It doesn't take long to realize that this book is about a parallel universe, a universe with a city similar to New York and a social class structure full of racism and union struggles. It is a parallel universe of gender inequity and stereotypes similar to our own. It is a parallel universe where ideologies begin to take on a life of their own, directing human thought and perception, until the ideologies are put to the test of reality. It is a good read.
Rating: 4This was my introduction to Colson Whitehead and I was impressed. The Intuitionist takes place in a city (implicitly, New York) full of skyscrapers and other buildings requiring vertical transportation in the form of elevators. The time, never identified explicitly, is one when black people are called "colored" and integration is a current topic. The protagonist is Lila Mae Watson, an elevator inspector of the "Intuitionist" school. The Intuitionists practice an inspecting method by which they ride in an elevator and intuit the state of the elevator and its related systems. The competing school, the "Empiricists," insists upon traditional instrument-based verification of the condition of the elevator. Watson is the second black inspector and the first black female inspector in the city. The failure of an elevator the Lila Mae had inspected leads to a search for the roots of intuitionism. The result is a metaphysical meditation on the possibility of a perfect elevator. For those, like this reader, who are interested in ideas this is a great read and an auspicious start for the author.
Rating: 4I think this novel is brilliant, really, and many of the reviews here explain why. So why only 4 stars? Because, while I enjoyed it immensely, I felt un-satisfied by the ending (though I understand why the author should choose to end it that way.) Still, this is certainly the product of a Great Writer.
Rating: 4So, on the jacket, it's called "sidesplittingly funny", and I don't know if I totally missed the humor or the person writing the cover copy just read it completely differently to me (or didn't read it at all), because I don't know what they're talking about. Anyway, it was definitely interesting, even if I couldn't totally get into the whole "in this universe elevators are the biggest thing ever" premise. I liked the intrigue, though was a little disappointed with the ending. I see a lot of people in reviews raving over Whitehead's prose, but I found his style really off-putting. It seems like it might be one of those love it or hate it things. Still, I'm interested in reading more by him.
Rating: 4A strange tale that is not really what it seems; deserves more than one read. It's about more than elevators.
Rating: 3This debut novel is absolutely brilliant! Whitehead's writing reminds me of Ayn Rand, of Millhauser and Auster. Under the guise of a political battle amongst factions of the guild of elevator repairmen, Whitehouse is able to at one and the same time tell a gripping, suspenseful story and also offer up scathing commentary on racism, on human striving and lack thereof, of man's fear of lack of control, and the ups and downs, so to speak, of the human imagination. At once witty, yet raging, at once absurd and profound. I will definitely read more of this author's work!
Rating: 5What an oddball story! The author has succeeded in bringing racial tensions to the fore in a yarn about the mundane subject of the elevator. Our society is not ready for the perfect elevator which allows all its citizens to rise.
Rating: 4In a parallel world the Department of Elevator Inspectors are very important and influential. It is a commentary and metephore about morality, politics, race and greed. What it does to a person when they put on a persona to fit in. The searching for the perfect elevator.
Rating: 4This clever novel tells a very suspenseful and gripping story that centers on … the city's Department of Elevator Inspectors!? Throughout the book, the mystery of which city, and what time period, are both in the back of your mind. But your mind is more perplexed about the huge role that elevators and elevator inspectors play in this society. The dark moody world of the Department is constantly reported upon in the major popular elevator magazines and on the front page of the city's newspapers. The department is split into two rival camps which are separated by their methods of inspection. There is the one group of inspectors that crawl above, below, around, and through each elevator to determine its condition. The other group, the Intuitionists, simply stands nearby and sort of reads the vibes of an elevator, to determine what repairs and adjustments are needed. These two factions don't get along, and the friction between them has grown lately because it's an election year. There is plenty of political intrigue swirling around a young black woman, the first in the department. Disaster strikes, and all hell breaks loose.This description must sound rather in-bred and focused on some small little world in an elevator, but if you read The Intuitionist you will see that Whitehead has used a fictional setting to allow himself to write about some very large issues. The real world may philosophically view the issues of race, politics, and spirituality on a grander scale, but no issue is ever really about anything larger than how two people relate to each other. Using the incredible depth, heart, and humor of his writing, Colson Whitehead shows a world not that different from our own—we just get to see it from a fresh angle. There are several mysteries that play major roles in this book, but I'm not telling. This review isn't here to ruin the fun of a good story, just to try to get you to check it out. (6/99)
Rating: 4Lila Mae Watson is the one! I loved this book, from start to finish it took the reader on an elevator ride to a world where things are different enough to open your mind to the previously unseen. Isn't that what a good book is supposed to do? Riding an elevator will never seem the same again.
Rating: 5