Harlem Shuffle

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Whitehead, Colson, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Whitehead, Colson
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

""Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger and bigger all the time. See, cash is tight, especially with all those installment plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace at the furniture store, Ray doesn't see the need to ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who also doesn't ask questions. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa -- the "Waldorf of Harlem" -- and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do, after all. Now Ray has to cater to a new clientele, one made up of shady cops on the take, vicious minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he starts to see the truth about who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle is driven by an ingeniously intricate plot that plays out in a beautifully recreated Harlem of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Too much tell, not enough show submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 20, 2022, 9:28pm I had a hard time getting into this book, although it did pick up for me. It felt wordy and overly descriptive, loading in far too much “tell” and not enough “show” through the early parts of the novel. I’m not sure if the style changed or if I got used to it, but I felt like the story picked up toward the end of the first section and held its pace through the second. It fell off for me again in the third section, and fell off with a thud at the end.

I did like the dive into the seedier side of Harlem just after the Harlem Renaissance and in the decades following. I appreciated the nuanced view of how Black business owners had to walk a line between worlds, and the pressures that Carney faced. When depicted with more “show” than “tell,” that was a driving story. The secondary characters were interesting and were sometimes more fun to read than the main character. I loved glimpses into their lives.

So overall a good but not great book in my experience.

It was a “yes” for me submitted by bcartm01 on June 21, 2022, 8:30pm Well I feel that the book was a little slow in the beginning, it definitely picked up near the end and I ended up really loving it. I am a big fan of this author, and this one was a little different than several of the other books that I have read of his, however I definitely recommend reading it.

Could be much better submitted by kath on June 24, 2022, 2:22pm This book could be and should be much better. The story line is there and interesting - but doesn't really go anywhere. The author is amazingly talented based on all his past work - but this book just doesn't come together. It would have been a great short story.

Good read submitted by hjzechar on July 15, 2022, 3:48pm This was a bit different than I was expecting. Engaging story with some great characters and unexpected dry humor. Didn't get me in the feels like Nickel Boys but I enjoyed it very much.

Good submitted by karenkay on August 5, 2022, 8:01pm Easy to read, kept me interested.

Friends in the Harlem Neighborhood Making a Living submitted by ekjensen on August 27, 2022, 1:38pm During 1959, 1961, 1964 (i.(i.e., 3 part) Ray Carney, furniture store owner/small type crook, and cousin Freddie, a more troubled crook, live through the everyday fraud, corruption and racism of uptown Manhattan/Harlem

Rather slow for a heist novel... submitted by foilista on July 13, 2023, 10:47am On balance, I much prefer Whitehead's earlier books - especially The Intuitionist, Sag Harbor, and Zone One. I do admire how frequently and deftly he shifts between genres! And I enjoyed his depiction of 1960s Harlem, and there's something interesting to be said here about how the Civil Rights Movement lurks in the background.

But as a crime/thriller/heist novel, Harlem Shuffle didn't really do it for me. Mainly because... not much happened? He almost seemed to be experimenting with how boring he could make a novel and still write about heists.