Sofa Spotlight - The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead

This is another excellent novel by Colson Whitehead. The story is about two schools of elevator inspector – the Intuitionists, who can intuitively know what is wrong with an elevator or if it needs maintenance, and the Empiricists, who rely on instruments to determine the status of an elevator. When I first hear that this was what the story was, I was skeptical that I would enjoy it. But in true Colson Whitehead style this is about more than just elevators.

The time in which the novel is set is not specified, but there are clues all through the story about where this society is. The main character, Lila Mae Watson, is black, which forms one of the struggles she faces in this novel. Integration is a big theme in this and as well as being black Lila Mae is also a woman in a predominantly male workforce, as well as an Intuitionist. Intuitionists are the minority, although Lila Mae finds a community that is looking for the truth behind the theory.

Lila Mae is a character on a quest – initially to find out the truth behind a fatal elevator accident that is being blamed on her. But then her quest becomes to get to the heart of the Intuitionist theory and the perfect elevator envisioned by the theory’s founder.

You should definitely read this book or listen to it as I did. It is intriguing, thought provoking and keeps you guessing until the end.