THE INTUITIONIST by Colson Whitehead

In this novel there are two competing factions of elevator inspectors—the Empiricists and the Intuitionists.  The Empiricists examine the machinery visually, whereas the Intuitionists draw conclusions based on their experience in the elevator when it is in motion.  This really is a strange world the author has concocted here, with these groups which seem like political parties, influenced by corporations and infiltrated by the mob.  Lila Mae Watson is the only black inspector, and she is in the Intuitionist camp.  She has a perfect record until one day an elevator that she has just inspected crashes in a freefall.  Now the intrigue begins.  Is she being framed by the Empiricists, who currently rule the department, or did she make a catastrophic mistake?  Fortunately, the elevator was unoccupied when it crashed.  Also, a newspaper article describing a black box that will revolutionize “vertical vehicles” is quashed at the last minute, as are the fingers of the journalist.  Lila Mae goes down several rabbit holes in an effort to mend her reputation as well as to find the blueprint for the black box.  This book is supposed to be an allegory about racism, and I get that the Empiricists are a metaphor for people who judge others by their color.  However, I am sure that there is a lot I am missing here, including the implications of elevators rising and falling.  The accelerated pace at which I read this book probably contributed to my not catching everything.  Not that this was a page-turner.  On the contrary, I was just eager to move on to something else.  The downside of rushing through this book is that I paid a price in having to reread some sections in which I missed a critical piece of information.