The Intuitionist : A Novel

What a wonderful novel "The Intuitionist" is. Amazingly, it was his first novel too. Whitehead weaves the tale of an alt-America obsessed with elevators. The setting is a pseudo-1960s era metropolitan city, where Lila Mae Watson is the first black female Elevator Inspector. The book manages to work in many elements from the 60's: racism, the mob, "progress." And it does it all with an interesting story, yet doesn't beat you over the head with anything either. It's original and creative, along with dealing with some heady issues with aplomb. I'm giving it a rare 5 star rating, as it's definitely worth a read, and I'm putting some of his other works on my list as well.
Next up is JPod by Douglas Coupland.