The Intuitionist is a story that sounds ridiculous on the surface. Society essentially revolves around the “miracle” of elevators and the inspectors are held in high esteem. The choice of an upward mobile vehicle is very purposeful, however, as this story takes place in early 1900s New York and follows one of the first black elevator inspectors. It’s a story of racial tension and conspiracy about rising up from the bottom. Though it can be dense at times, and the setting a bit strange, the message is grounded in reality and features some scenarios that are infuriating to read as someone living in the 21st century.

This novel follows Lila Mae Watson, one of the first African American elevator inspectors. She is good at her job, but one day an elevator she had recently given a clean bill of health crashes. Lila is then on a mission to discover what really happened to the elevator and gets caught up in political conspiracies, and used by multiple, powerful, white men in the process. She’s of the Intuitionist faction when it comes to inspectors, which means she relies on feeling to discern issues with the cable cars. The other opposing theory is Empiricism, which utilizes physical investigation methods for elevator safety. Each is in search of the “black box,” a theoretical, “perfect elevator” that a prominent, long-dead figure in the industry had supposedly developed in secret. For unknown reasons, the Intuitionist leader reaches out to Lila for information on said box after the crash. From there she gets entangled in a mystery that, from the outside, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her. It’s strange how disconnected she is from it all initially, and it’s mostly to do with her character. She’s not one to speak up most times, keeping quiet instead of making a fuss. Through some exposition, she’s never been able to express herself as much as she feels inside. This hints at an internal struggle, possibly mental health related, but doesn’t get explored much. She does form relationships with a couple characters, but for the most part, she’s on her own mission. Does she know what she’s getting into? Usually not, but she finds her own path in a world that doesn’t respect her and I can appreciate her tenacity.

This book is odd, so this review is too. Structurally it’s a bit all over the place as there are many flashbacks to Lila’s childhood and a few chapters from other perspectives and the main mystery doesn’t seem to have much to do with her at first, but I found the book to be relatively enjoyable to read. It makes many statements that I agree with, while some more conservative minds might not. The story has a lot to say about society and only by close examination of the text can one really parse a substantial amount of meaning as it’s a dense read. From the surface, it makes comparisons to society’s need for constant advancement (always moving upwards) and how people tread on one another to do so. It also illustrates the artificiality of racial divides through some clever plot mechanisms that I thought were very well done. If you like to read stories set in an alternate reality with grounded conflicts, this story will satiate your appetite.