The Intuitionist

Whitehead's The Intuitionist is something else! Who would have thought a book about elevator inspectors set in an alternative New York City of the Jim Crow era would be so compelling? Blending, in his own unique way, of course, Ishmael Reed and Pynchon, this speculative novel uses the metaphor of elevators to describe the conditions of African Americans. Intuitionism, a successor of sorts to Jes Grew, is the competing ideology of elevator inspection that challenges Empiricism, a "white" system of thought that requires actual examination of an elevator. 

Intuitionism, founded by Fulton, is the new thing on the block that threatens the hegemony of the Empiricists in the Guild (for elevator inspectors) and may hold the secrets to a new, utopian black box which will revolutionize vertical technology. Said elevator will make the cities of the day obsolete, and pave the way for a radically new form of urban modernity. Needless to say, said technology would appeal greatly to African Americans, especially in an era when the vast majority faced nearly insurmountable obstacles to progress, North or South. 

Combining elements of speculative fiction and detective fiction, the novel's protagonist, Lila Mae Watson, must figure out her place in these changing times and if an elevator she inspected was sabotaged. Along the way, the reader is entertained by shifts in perspective and blending of fact and fiction to elucidate the history of elevators and their importance in this alternate reality. Much like Papa LaBas in Mumbo Jumbo, Lila Mae has to locate the "text" which will determine the future of the race. A fascinating and suspenseful thriller that is both about and not about elevators.