- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books; New edition edition (11 Oct 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1862073104
- ISBN-13: 978-1862073104
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 684,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Lila Mae is the anti-heroine of this startling debut by American journalist Colson Whitehead. The first coloured elevator inspector in the city, she is a pupil of the Intuitionist school of thought and is able to tell what is wrong with an elevator through intuitive communication with the machinery. Most of her fellow workers however belong to the Empiricist camp, and prefer to carry out routine conventional inspections. The simmering animosity between the two factions comes to the boil when an elevator that Lila Mae has inspected unexpectedly crashes. Solitary and taciturn Lila Mae suspects a conspiracy, and when rumours start circulating of a lost black box that contains the blueprint of the perfect elevator devised by the founder of Intuitionism and Lila Mae's hero, the late James Fulton, her conviction in the philosophical beliefs of her dead mentor compels her to unearth the truth. The surreality of the plot beguiles the seriousness with which Whitehead treats his underlying themes of racial and gender tension, and the use of the elevator works as a brilliant abstract metaphor for the organisation of society within a metropolis. Whitehead litters his deftly honed prose with pithy observations on everything from the construction of individual identity to philosophical absurdities on the nature of "elevatorness". It's an absolute joy to read, and one of the most original novels to be published in 1998. --F.F. Garden
Product Description
As one of the Intuitionists, Lila Mae Watson, an elevator inspector, is able to detect defects purely by tuning into the machinery. The opposition, the Empiricists, practise routine physical inspection. When a new elevator on Lila's rounds goes into freefall, her solitary existence is shattered.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a strange book - hard to categorise, not because it lands itself neatly into the "uncategorisable" category, but because it so nearly falls into so many others. Almost thriller, almost philosophy, almost (sometimes) a love story, the Intuitionist is more than any of these. It all revolves around a bizarre, complex plot set in a near-real world of lift maintainance staff, which is twisted just enough off the side of believable real life to be beautifully fantastic. And above, below, even beside this is Whitehead's unique thesis about the importance of lifts, and more importantly, the frailty of humankind. Fascinating, at times gripping, and thoroughly readable.
Format:Paperback
This is a serious contender for my all-time favourite novel. Colson Whitehead is a New York journalist who writes for The Village Voice. His book is set in an unnamed American city that is plainly New York or Chicago where crime, politics, race, and technology all interact on each other in original ways. The time is a curious, yet completely convincing almagam of the present and the worst aspects of the 1960s. It is a little like the time frame in Terry Gilliam's film Brazil - "Twenty minutes in the future" - yet somehow stuck in a dystopian past where technology is hell.
In this city of high rise buildings, everyday life is critically dependent on the smooth running of the city's elevators, and so the Guild of elevator maintenance men (and they are men) has become politically powerful and part of the city's corrupt machine politics. They are solidly conservative ( they even have their own unofficial regulation short-back-and sides haircut) and are so powerful they can close down a high-rise building with the stroke of a pen. They are white, Anglo-Saxon, male racists. Moreover, their maintenance methods are based on the measurement and control of nature that is an implicit part of western scientific rationalism. Into this milieu comes the protagonist of the story. She - yes she - is black, and she is the intuitionist of the title. She does not rely on western scientific rationalism to maintain elevators, she relies on her feelings.
How Whitehead creates one of the best novels I have ever read out of these improbable ingredients is one of the miracles of modern literature, and this alone would probably get him in the top two of my list. But in addition, he proves himself to be a truly gifted writer, with breathtakingly original literary gems on practically every page. If you appreciate good writing, prepare to be astounded.
In this city of high rise buildings, everyday life is critically dependent on the smooth running of the city's elevators, and so the Guild of elevator maintenance men (and they are men) has become politically powerful and part of the city's corrupt machine politics. They are solidly conservative ( they even have their own unofficial regulation short-back-and sides haircut) and are so powerful they can close down a high-rise building with the stroke of a pen. They are white, Anglo-Saxon, male racists. Moreover, their maintenance methods are based on the measurement and control of nature that is an implicit part of western scientific rationalism. Into this milieu comes the protagonist of the story. She - yes she - is black, and she is the intuitionist of the title. She does not rely on western scientific rationalism to maintain elevators, she relies on her feelings.
How Whitehead creates one of the best novels I have ever read out of these improbable ingredients is one of the miracles of modern literature, and this alone would probably get him in the top two of my list. But in addition, he proves himself to be a truly gifted writer, with breathtakingly original literary gems on practically every page. If you appreciate good writing, prepare to be astounded.
Format:Paperback
The opening sentence was used as an example in a 'how to write' book, by a professional author and literary agent, so I ordered it on the strength of that recommendation.
I was looking forward to reading it but I personally found it slow, padded-out, dull and predictable. It was so slow I got to the point I really didn't care about the outcome.
I was looking forward to reading it but I personally found it slow, padded-out, dull and predictable. It was so slow I got to the point I really didn't care about the outcome.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Utterly Enjoyable Abstract Allegory
Whitehead's debut novel signals the arrival of talent one can look forward to reading for many years-a talent displayed as learned, playful, and enigmatic in this melange of... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2002 by A. Ross
Bizarre, enjoyable, genre-bending novel.
Colson Whitehead is a dynamic new voice in American fiction. He breaks into new territory for an African-American writer, and The Intuitionist earns the comparison to Thomas... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2000
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