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The Intuitionist cover art

The Intuitionist

Written by: Colson Whitehead
Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
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Publisher's Summary

In a marvelous debut novel that has been compared to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Joseph Heller's ,i>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.
©1999 Colson Whitehead (P)2000 Recorded Books
Literary Fiction Genre Fiction Alternate History
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Totally original

A grand metaphor which is not direct enough to form a direct shape. It lets you intuit there are important things moving and taking shape like Platos cave paintings. Mystical Engineering and the politics of people, race, gender are all layers, and facades within a mystery. A dual between rationalism and intuition. Its and a deep study into a metaphor: mechanical travel of people up and down a city scape, rising and falling. By wim? By chance? By plan? A completely original story. Whitehead is up there with the worlds great living writers.

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interesting concept

I'm going to have to read this again, some day. I listened to it, and I kind of just let the story wash over me/entertain me. The story, though, is pretty layered and intellectual, and I admittedly don't have the knowledge base needed to totally understand or appreciate everything. So yeah, I'll read it again at some point from a more academic standpoint, but...
As far as a mystery story goes, it is a weirdly entertaining tale that keeps you listening. The world building is solid and detailed, and despite it being an alternate universe, scathingly realistic.
The writing is enjoyable, evocative but not too flowery.
I liked it. I read it as part of an attempt to read through a list of "50 Essential Mystery Novels." Unlike some on the list, I definitely agree that this one should be on there.

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