"The Underground Railroad" 에서

  

"Arnold Ridgeway's father was a blacksmith. The sunset glow 

of molten iron bewitched him, the way the color emerged in the

stock slow and then fast, overtaking it like an emotion, the

sudden pliability and restless writhing of the thing as it waited

for purpose. His forge was a window into the primitive energies

of the world." (p73)

"She said that white towns had simply banded together to

rid themselves of the black stronghold in their midst. That is

how the European tribes operate, she said. If they can't

control it, they destroy it." (p280)

"She never seen him rush or hurry. The man moved with

exquisite calm, like a leaf drifting on the surface of a pond,

making its own way on gentle currents. Then he opened

his mouth, and you saw that the forces steering him to your

presence were not gentle at all." (p282)

"'... Sometimes a useful delusion is better than a useless

truth. ... And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest of all.

The white race believes -- believes with all its heart -- that

it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war.

Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn't exist, if there is

any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft,

and cruelty. Yet here we are." (p285)

"She wondered where he escaped from, how bad it was,

and how far he traveled before he put it behind him."

(p306, 소설의 마지막 문장)

     *     *     *

Whitehead's writing does what writing should do;

it refreshes our sense of the world.

-- John Updike, The New Yorker