The Intuitionist is the 1999 debut novel by American author Colson Whitehead. This award-winning novel tells the story of Lila Mae Watson, an elevator inspector working for an unnamed American city in an unidentified year. Lila Mae is a student of Intuitionism--the practice of "feeling" mechanical faults in elevators rather than relying on measurements or data. When an elevator that Lila Mae inspected fails catastrophically, Lila Mae is drawn into a dense web of politics and corruption in her attempts to clear her name. The novel explores themes of power, sexism, racism, and appearance vs. reality; verticality is a predominant motif throughout the novel.
The Intuitionist, a novel written by Colson Whitehead, illustrates many aspects of society through the parody of a detective novel. Since elevator inspectors have no detective talents, the idea is ju...
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