“The Intuitionist”

Do you ever finish a book and think, “I don’t know if I liked that or not.” That’s how I felt about The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead. I loved The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad so I was excited to dive into this one.

Maybe it’s because I read it as an e-book and what I loved about Whitehead’s style was the intentional breaks and texts between major sections of the book. Perhaps it didn’t come through as well in this edition.

I read the book quickly because I wanted to know what happened next, but I probably could have put the book down permanently at many points.

It is extremely well written. The characters and the plot are interesting. I guess I just didn’t like it. There. I said it. I didn’t hate it either, but I guess I wouldn’t highly suggest it. I’d much more quickly recommend the other two books I mentioned by him in this post.

The book takes place in New York City (I think) in the 60’s-70’s (I think) it never gives a solid answer, just a lot of context clues. The whole story revolves around elevators, elevator inspectors, and a clash of theories. My mom worked for an elevator company for many years, but even with that connection I wasn’t super into the overall theme.

My final thought: the book is good, I just didn’t care for it. I even returned it to the library (shout out to the Libby app) before snapping a photo with the digital cover.