This book isn't quite what you think it's going to be, at nearly any time. It's slow at times, or maybe 'patient' is the better word. The prose is surprisingly restrained. It is *not* a caper in the sense of the breathless excitement that comes from reading classic crime novels -- but it does have a breathless quality as the third section moves to a close and Carney tries to keep everything together... but I admit, I had expected that from the start. Not getting it til the end wasn't a bad thing, per se, and I enjoyed reading this... but that's only because I shifted how I was thinking about it when I quickly realized it was a different book from the one I'd been pitched.

I cannot even begin to describe my excitement when I found out I had the opportunity to read this ARC. I don't think it is one of this best (The Nickle Boys is one of my favourite books ever), but, that being said, the characters stayed with me long after I finished the book and I still think about them even now.

Ray Carney, owner of a successful furniture shop and family man, also has some shady dealings... Change of genre for the author - not my favourite of his, but definitely a solid and well crafted book. Immersive and hopping atmosphere of civil rights-era 1960 Harlem and well wounded characters.

This historical fiction novel is set in mid 20th century Harlem and gives the reader a historical insight into the lives of black people in the United States which has led to the emergence and relevance of the Black Lives Matter movement. At the centre of the novel is Ray Carney, owner of a furniture showroom, son of a crook and proud husband and father. After Ray's mother died he was partly brought up by his aunt, living with her and his cousin Freddy as a child. He loves Freddy like a brother but is not always happy with his lifestyle choices and frequently helps Freddy when he gets into trouble. This relationship is the narrative around which the plot develops. The reader follows Ray and Freddy over a period of years while around them crime, increasing drug use and corruption explode. There are references to actual historical figures and events (Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement, the building of the World Trade Centre) but Ray and Freddy's day - to- day lives are not immediately impacted by these. However this puts the story in context and helps the reader reflect on what was happening. When a young black boy is killed by a white policeman who is exonerated from any crime it is a harsh reminder that the illegal killing of black people in the States by the forces of the state is not something that started with George Floyd and that the Black Lilves Matter movement has been a long time in gestation with many young black lives needlessly lost over the intervening decades and little said about it. Another context-setting device is the frequent reference to films and actors of the time and the role of the cinema in young people's lives. The young black people in Harlem Shuffle certainly enjoy the cinema but do not see themselves represented on screen with all the references being to white actors with the notable exception of a mention of Sidney Poitier. The film references reminded me as a reader that this novel was a creation of the author but one which used real events, people and histories to create a very realistic story.
I enjoyed reading Harlem Shuffle and it did lead to reflection on recent history but I found aspects of the narrative and the many characters (many of whom had names straight out of some of those afore mentioned films!) a bit difficult to follow at times. I would also have liked Ray's wife, Elizabeth, to have a more prominent role than she did as she was depicted as a strong minded confident woman who I'm not convinced was as unaware of Ray and Freddy's less law-abiding activities as we were led to belileve.
Thank you to the publisher via Net Galley for sending me a complimentary ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I was so happy to have the opportunity to read this arc as I loved The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. This novel is not what I was expecting and to me isn’t Whitehead’s best.
That said I love the characters and am still thinking of them the day and another book since I finished it. I usually hate it when books are turned into films but in this case it would be a brilliant movie. As a novel it seemed to lack a narrative drive and drifted along a bit. Jumps in time didn’t seem clear either but that could just be that the formatting on this arc wasn’t finished.
The feel of Harlem was totally captured though and the travel through the decades ending with the footings of the World Trade Centre was a contemporary history lesson of the New York behind the New York we all think we know.
The novel deals with the struggle between the desire to go straight and change the course of your life and the ease with which you can be sucked into a life of fencing, petty crime and paying into a protection racket. Worryingly I think Carney finds the sweet spot between the two which isn’t the best advertisement for staying away from crime!

I know very little about Harlem in the 50s and 60s. I think I know more now and was taught that in an interesting way. As a non-native speaker it was not always easy to follow, sometimes I had to read some passages twice, but I still enjoyed the book.
I liked the three parts which were connected together but also show the development of the characters and their situation. This life is something competely strange for me and I can't imagine living like that, but at the same time I can complete follow the trajectory of the protagonist and other characters. I was overwhelmed by the situation and the necessity of survival in such an enviroment, which was completely normal for the characters.
I can recommend this book!

I was lucky to get an early preview of Harlem Shuffle via NetGalley and was excited as I really liked The Underground Railroad and The Nickel boys was a good and interesting read too.

'Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...'

"To his customers and neighbours on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent 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 normality has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either.

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. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see 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 started very slowly, giving me a feel for Ray Carney, his family, his history and his community; slowly introducing more characters along with an increasing inevitability that he was going to lose some control of the faint line between honest work and his life of crime, initially only used to supplement his income. It showed how easy it is to get caught in the underworld and how choice can be taken away by poor choices, even when the choices are not your own. I enjoyed the insight into 1960's Harlem, with a few bits of genuine history worked into the plot.
Sadly however I found it a little lacking, the story ambled along but sometimes I found it hard to tell what was happening in that moment and what was a reminiscence as Colson would sometimes switch sharply back and forth between the two. I read another review that described the book as a crime caper and that describes it perfectly, some scenes you could almost imagine the Pink Panther theme tune playing in the background.
So all in all a decent read but certainly for me without the depth or seriousness of The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad.

I enjoyed his last two books and was eagerly looking forward to this one too. I certainly enjoyed it but it was totally different to what I had expected.

This was a comedy crime caper set in 50s/60s Harlem and it went off a a fair lick and never let go.

I loved the plot and the characters as well as the argot and decryption of Harlem at the time and of course it goes without saying that Mr Whitehead writes like a dream.

Not for me sadly, though I have enjoyed Colson’s last two titles, I think this one was to far a push from my realm of comfort. Though I appreciate it multi dimensional build up of all its characters, all from the community it’s set it, it also got a little muddle, and I struggled more then one to find my footing with it again.

That all said I am sure it will be an engaging story for some, full of bustling life.

I enjoyed this book. I haven't read any books that are set in Harlem in this period (1950s-60s), so I found it very interesting. It covered changes in Manhattan and Harlem of the era, gentrification, corruption, family ties, racism and riots, and seems to draw your attention to the things that have not changed over the last 60 years.
The story is well-written, and the characters are memorable.

Loved loved loved ‘Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead. Initially the book took some getting into as I tussled a bit with the language of the street but once I got into the flow, wow! Having visited Harlem about 15 years ago I could picture the area although doubtless it had changed quite a lot since the 50’s and 60’s.

I loved this book. Each of the sections had a distinct tone, and it pulled off the impressive feat of making me equally interested in each section/time period. Whitehead is obviously an incredible writer, and this book is him at the top of his game. It is a deeply fun caper that will also make you pull back to admire a single sentence. Highly recommended!

What’s a literary superstar to do after winning back-to-back Pulitzers for novels dealing with the more brutal aspects of African-American history? If you’re Colson Whitehead it seems the answer is: write a crime caper dramedy.

Harlem Shuffle takes us back to its titular neighbourhood during the huge social changes of the 1950s and 1960s, through the eyes of Ray Carney. Ray’s a devoted family man; upwardly mobile; owns a thriving furniture store—while running a shady side hustle that keeps threatening to get him in trouble with the big boys in town.

There’s a comprehensive cross-section of New York criminality represented: Ray, with his pretence of being a strait-laced entrepreneur, crosses paths with oily mob bosses, two-bit hustlers, untouchable old money types (‘stone cold original Dutch motherfuckers’), cops on the take, and everyone in between.

The Harlem setting, with its dive bars, greasy spoon diners, Strivers’ Row townhouses, is vibrant and definitely the novel’s greatest asset. Whitehead layers beats of Black history—from Seneca Village to Freedom Riders—throughout the story like a pulse, vivifying that sense of place.

Despite an appealing backdrop and milieu, this novel misses the mark on storycraft. Too much action happens off-stage, too much of the narrative is taken up with filling in back-stories or catching the reader up between time-jumps, not enough happens in ‘real time’. The best characters (hello, Pepper, a gravel-eyed glare in dungarees…) are not given nearly enough to do.

Harlem Shuffle is much lighter fare than Whitehead’s last two outings (you really can’t blame the guy for wanting a change of pace), with all the ingredients for a Fargo-style caper but it doesn’t quite live up to its promise. If you have a special interest in mid-20th century Harlem, definitely check it out.

Ray Carney is an upstanding furniture salesman. Ostensibly.

His family is not exactly squeaky clean. And the cracks in his respectable facade get wider when his cousin Freddie involves him in a caper at a local hotel....

One of the things I love about Colson Whitehead is that he writes across different genres. The first book of his I read was Zone One, which was a zombie apocalypse book, and then Underground Railroad and Nickel Boys which were very different, and now a heist novel set in the 60's. No matter what genre, his writing is always top notch and his characters unforgettable.

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 instalment 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 jeweller 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?
I enjoyed this story, it was well written, had good narrative and good pacing and the characters were well developed and relatable. I read this quickly and would definitely recommend it

Whitehead’s third novel has the familiar theme of racism in the USA but once again he’s come up with a different topic to produce a completely fresh, eminently readable, novel. Harlem Shuffle is set in he Harlem of the 1950s and 60s and all live is there from the petty thieves trying to stay alive to the wealthy who think taxes are there to be avoided and any money made on the backs of the poor is money we’ll earned. Carney tried to turn his back on the criminal world he was brought up in but even though his small time gangster father is dead and he can make a decent living with his own furniture store it isn’t enough to satisfy his wealthy in-laws who are sure their daughter deserves better. Events and his beloved cousin Freddie conspire to put him in the paths of dangerous criminals and he soon realises that he can’t escape and he likes making extra money on the side.
Whitehead’s previous novel Nickel Boys had such an unexpectedly sad ending that I spent the first half of this novel trying not to get too involved with the characters because the possibilities for tears at the end are too well-signposted but it was far too good for me to give up. An excellent read.

Harlem Shuffle is the story of a furniture salesman with a criminal sideline, set in 1960s Harlem. Ray Carney is known in the area for his furniture shop, selling new and gently used homeware, and he and his wife Elizabeth dream of a bigger home. However, money is still tight, and if Carney's cousin Freddie turns up with the occasional stolen items to sell, Carney doesn't say no. When Freddie falls into a crew robbing a fancy Harlem hotel, Carney is drawn deeper into the world of criminals and corruption, and he fights to balance his respectable side with the less reputable part of his business.

This is a complex novel that combines a lot of elements, spanning across early 1960s New York and showing a changing world full of unrest. The book has three sections, each with a time jump between them, and set piece moments each builds to. Both the crime elements and the social commentary work well together, and there are some tense moments throughout, though at times I felt the pace got a bit too slow, and I became lost in some of the histories of the other characters.

Carney is a sympathetic character, a man full of loyalty to his cousin, his wife and children, and to his furniture store, but also a man who holds a grudge like his crook father. As you might expect from a novel that is at least partly a crime story (at times almost dark comedy, as it verges on ridiculous), the characters do stand out, with quirks and downfalls especially amongst the criminal characters you tend to see more of. They come and go, but the ending brings together the main players in Carney's less-than-legal business dealings in a satisfying way, and shows where the power truly sits.

This book might suffer from comparison to some of Whitehead's earlier books (I loved both The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys) as expectations are likely to be high, but this is a clever, genre-defying plunge into historical Harlem that shows one man trying to strive for his dreams. It didn't quite live up to those other two for me, possibly as I found some of the digressions into the other characters' backgrounds a bit slow; nevertheless, it has a good ending and depicts an interesting struggle at an interesting time.

How do you follow up two classics : The underground Railway and The Nickel boys...well Harlem Shuffle certainly provides the next step from an excellent writer. Ray Carney is our hero in this novel. Ray strives to provide his wife Elizabeth and children with a better life. He owns a furniture store and has positive aspirations. But life doesn’t always go to plan and following involvement from the sidelines of a heist in a hotel, the tumultuous life of his cousin Freddie and his father-in-law’s Dumas Club, Carney is dragged into a multitude of escapades and confrontations with characters surviving by the skin of their teeth. Set against a backdrop of early / mid sixties Harlem with civil unrest, protests and police brutality Colson Whitehead has created a lead protagonist that we want to succeed. Through pathos and elements of dark humour, we enter the world of Ray Carney and follow his journey to survive in a continually changing New York. Language rich and strong imagery you just know that the screen version will appear at some point.Another winner from a writer of our times.

Harlem Shuffle is a book that comes with a weight of expectation and it delivers in spades.

Ray Carney is a slightly uptight furniture shop owner in 1960s Harlem. Married beyond his league (or so his in-laws think), a young family and a patchwork family history with criminal undertones on the paternal side. Ray is trying to keep on the straight and narrow. However, Ray gets manipulated and increasingly strays beyond the image that he tries to uphold.

Harlem Shuffle sparkles. It took me a little time to get into the rhythm but the characters and the tight plot soon pull you in. The visceral immersion into 1960s Harlem is a treat and the commentary on the black -v- white divide in New York is masterfully threaded throughout the story. A strong 4.5*

Thanks to Little Brown and Netgalley for the ARC.