While it does give you a very strong sense of place and time it feels like a series of short stories stringed together. I would have probably preferred this if it'd been a short story. i also found the writing somewhat...passive? It was too heavy on the telling that is. We have these very long paragraphs that simply failed to grab my attention. While by no means terrible, I found this novel boring and not quite the noir/heist story it promised to be.

Witty and well observed heist story. Whitehead’s work is always cleverly woven, however I did occasionally struggle to follow the chronology of events with multiple character diversions that took me off-piste.

The award winning Colson shifts genres to write a light hearted and beautifully crafted piece of multilayered historical fiction, crime and family drama, an astutely observed and atmospherically vibrant picture of 1950s and 1960s New York City's Harlem. It depicts the hustles and bustle, the culture, the community, detailing and describing the neighbourhoods, with its wide ranging cast of diverse characters, the offbeat, the high, the low and the shady, amidst a background of social and political change the author provides a commentary on. This entertaining and humorous novel celebrates black crime writers such as Chester Himes, whilst touching on a number of critical areas, political corruption, white privilege, exploitation, race, power, policing, class, ethics and morality, the criminal underbelly, black history and the civil rights movement.

The ambitious Ray Carney is looking to move on from his crooked personal family history, married to Elizabeth, now expecting their second child, he is doing well running his furniture store, but money is tight, his in-laws look down on him, and he dreams of moving to better neighbourhoods as he aspires to climb the social ladder. The respectable side of him juggles with the more illegal parts of his enterprise, while his cousin Freddie manages to drag him into deep trouble as with a planned heist of the Theresa Hotel, the 'Waldorf of Harlem' where it could be predicted that things would go wrong. We follow Ray through time as he tries to negotiate the pitfalls and dangers that come his way, is he going to be able to survive?

Ray finds his eyes opened to the truths of the parts of New York that so often remain below the radar, the powerful elites, mobsters, corrupt cops and other criminal elements. The complex plotting, the comic touches, the great characters, particularly Pepper, and the nuanced storytelling make this a joy to read, whilst showcasing Whitehead's versatility as a writer. The Harlem of this historical period and its community holds centre stage, so wonderfully evoked, so different to the place it is today with the rise of gentrification. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I'm afraid I DNF'd this book after 175 pages. It's not that it was awful or that I disliked it, it's just that there wasn't really a gripping story to it. It's more a huge characterisation study of life in Harlem in the 60s, and all the people living and working therein. It focuses on Ray and his family, his furniture business, and all the crooks and wheeler deelers, and policemen 'on the payroll' that you can imagine existed at that time (and have seen aplenty in films of that period). There are too many backstories for me - I like to read and stick with one main story, but I found myself drifting off when we were introduced to yet another character and had to find out their life story.
However, in true Colson Whitehead style the writing is impeccable, the atmosphere and scene building very clever. I actually preferred reading about his family life, his business, and Rusty and Marie, rather than all the heists and hold ups. I do agree with another reviewer that Pepper is a character that we should see more of too.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for letting me read an arc of Harlem Shuffle. Let me just say, Colson Whitehead is fast becoming my favourite author. I knew I had to read this and felt so lucky to be given the chance to read this arc. And I loved it! It must be so hard to follow up the heavy weights of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys but he's done it.

"Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked" A brilliant first line for a brilliant book. Split into 3 parts we follow the same characters over 3 different timelines. Part 1 takes place in 1959. Part 2 in 1961 and part 3 in 1964.

Set in Harlem, Ray Carney is a well respected businessman in his community. The son of a career criminal, he's worked hard to stand on his own two feet and owns a furniture store that just so happens to acquire a few stolen items now and again. But then his cousin, Freddie "I didn't mean to get you in trouble" gets him involved with hardened criminals who try to pull off a big robbery. This puts Ray on a certain path throughout the rest of the book.

This is a crime caper full of hustlers and cool characters. What Colson Whitehead does best is create characters we care about. I fell in love with Ray and wanted him to succeed. And watch out for Pepper who really comes into his own in the last third. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Hard to describe ...
To be honest, I couldn't quite bring myself to like Ray Carney, but I couldn't stop rooting for him either. Especially, as he thinks of himself as an upright citizen, a local entrepreneur who made something out of himself, and maybe just a tiny little bit crooked. Which might be true just at the beginning. Before he gets drawn into some serious crime and even more serious trouble by his cousin Freddy. He manages to get out of the trouble, but the crookedness gets bigger all the time, unnoticed by his sensible wife and her condenscending family and it takes a while for Ray to realize it himself.
All this is set in Harlem in the early 1960ies and it wouldn't be Colson Whitehead, if racism wasn't a topic. But as in Underground Railroad and Nickle Boys it is there all the time in the background, sometimes in the foreground, too, but it never steals the characters' thunder.
I found myself reminded of the Godfather, equally appalled by the actions of the characters and fascinated by their ruthlessly caring for their aims and their family.

Harlem in the 1960s, and the focus is on Ray Carney, furniture dealer and sometime fence, his cousin Freddie and any number of small-time crooks and bent cops. Colson Whitehead brilliantly evokes the seedy bars, the mean apartments, the shabby stores and the grungy hotels of Harlem, out of which these people operate. Carney wants to do the best for his young family but, as an African American, his options are few: ‘“I may be broke sometimes, but I ain’t crooked,” he said to himself. Although, he had to admit, perhaps he was.’
Whilst this novel does not grasp the reader in the way that Whitehead’s previous Pulitzer Prize winners have, it is a superbly written depiction of aspects of the New York black community, their struggle against racism and the second-class status afforded them as a matter of course. Whitehead’s prose brings alive these feelings of alienation; Carney thinks that ‘The people on the street were shadow-shapes moving around him. It was a normal afternoon and he’d been shunted out of it.’ Equally the author’s depictions of the city in flux are compelling. We read of ‘…those days of the riots when his streets were made strange by violence’ and ‘The buildings of the old city loomed over the broken spot, this wound in itself.’
‘Harlem Shuffle’ is presented as a crime novel but underneath this hard-boiled surface there is the story of a family man - a caring man who takes his responsibilities seriously, a city that worries little for those who are struggling, a country that sees nothing wrong with everyday racism. Beautifully written, this protest against inequality and lack of opportunity also suggests that change will be a long time coming.
My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I did enjoy Harlem Shuffle, it was my first book by Colson Whitehead and seems quite different from his previous work. The world building was so detailed and you definitely felt like you were in 1960's New York. It is a character driven heist novel with lots of back stories so there's not huge action sequences. The themes of race, class and civil rights go across the three sections of the novel and I found the final section the most enjoyable to read.

Harlem in the 1960s. Unrest in the black community as another police killing occurs. Ray Carney is a businessman with his name on a furniture store but is not averse to some criminality, acting as fence to petty crooks.

Carney has a growing family and aspersions to moving up in the world. He copes with snobbery (from other black business people) and racism and the grift of police and organised crime. And the antics of his footloose and foolish cousin, Freddie, test Carney's patience and wiles.

In essence, this is a crime novel, detailing the crimes of mobsters in the neighbourhood but also the corruption of lawyers and big business. The descriptions of Harlem and the city are detailed (and presumably accurate) and events take place on the fringes of the rising of the civil rights movement.

For a crime novel, however, there is very little action or gritty dialogue or even humour. Instead there is much backstory and pages of exposition. Carney himself is an interesting character but others are pale stereotypes, from the cop on the take to the faithful wife ignorant of Carney's criminal enterprises.

The political underbelly is the most illuminating aspect of the book: black travel agencies advising their customers on safe places to visit; police violence and corruption; the ways business operates above the law and to the detriment of ordinary folk. All with continuing relevance to this day.

Whitehead is to be applauded for his desire to explore various genres (Zone One is a great zombie thriller) but this one doesn't quite hit the mark.

I was keen to read this novel having previously enjoyed 'The Underground Railroad' and 'The Nickel Boys'. 'Harlem Shuffle' further demonstrates Whitehead's versatility as a writer, and I enjoyed reading it, even though it is tonally a bit different and therefore doesn't pack the same emotional punch as the two aforementioned novels.

'Harlem Shuffle' is a caper novel that tells the story of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman in late 50s/early 60s Harlem who is (at first reluctantly) drawn into the criminal world whilst trying to retain a respectable façade. This "striver versus crook" dilemma is at the heart of the novel, and there is a sense in which Ray is trying to escape his upbringing: his late father belonged to this underworld and it is his wayward cousin Freddie who keeps getting him entangled in various criminal escapades, while his wife Elizabeth somehow remains blissfully ignorant of his exploits.

The novel falls into three sections, which read like separate but linked stories, allowing us to chart Ray's development as he tries "to keep one half of himself separate from the other half" - when we first meet him in 1959 he becomes an unwilling accomplice to a daring heist, but by 1961 he has become more calculating, prepared to use his criminal contacts to plot revenge against someone who has double-crossed him.

Ray himself is a compelling character and I found myself rooting for him throughout. Many of the other characters are also very well-drawn. The novel is pacy with some clever narrative flourishes where Whitehead surprises us by flashing forward or back in the middle of a scene of high tension, although in a few places I struggled to follow the intricacies of certain plot points, although this is possibly down to my own lack of familiarity with this genre. There are also some very entertaining moments of dark comedy.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the novel lies in Whitehead's evocation of time and place - he brings 1960s Harlem to life with affection but without sentimentality. The shifting racial politics of this era are also insightfully explored without being the central focus of the novel.

Overall, this is another enjoyable and impressive novel from Whitehead. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an online uncorrected proof of the novel to review.

Whilst Harlem Shuffle lacks the obvious hooks of The Underground Railroad or The Nickle Boys it is an incredibly written and observed book. There are some ingenious touches in terms of the plot and structure that work so well with the themes of the novel but the 1960s Harlem setting and characters are the stars - really cinematic and evocative - and the split between the ‘good’ and ‘crooked’ plays out brilliantly in the figure of Ray.

Synopsis/blurb ....

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

To his customers and neighbours 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?

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.
------
My take ....

My first time reading Pulitzer Prize Winning author, Colson Whitehead with Harlem Shuffle, a 60s set novel.

The novel follows the fortunes of Ray Carney. Carney outwardly is a respectable businessman, trying to improve his family's fortunes in order to move to a nicer part of the neighbourhood. While he's long given up on trying to secure the approval of his in-laws who look down on him, he'll do it for himself, fulfilling a promise to his wife and child. He's a man with a plan.

There's another side to him as well. Ray's not a stranger to the shady side of the street, moving on a piece of dodgy merchandise for his own cut. Son of a Harlem criminal, Ray keeps it all on the down low and under the radar; for a while at least.

Through the indiscretions of his cousin Freddie he gets sucked ever more into danger and the world of hoods and criminality. He's his father's son, even as he tries not to be. Through the course of the novel, we see just how accomplished a tightrope walker Ray is keeping his two sides upright.

Race, upward mobility, snobbery, class, Harlem, civil rights, riots, social change, crime, furniture, business, plans, expansion, children, fences, thieves, family, disrespect, opportunity, murder, naivety and getting ripped off, injustice, a long game for revenge, bent cops, diamonds, mistakes, danger, repurcussions, and a lot more.

It's a tough novel to do justice in a review. While crimes and criminality form a large portion of the narrative, I don't think you could label it as an out and out crime novel. It's also a novel about family - love, loyalty, history, loss, anger, regrets and forgiveness. Again it's small vignettes and incidents occuring over time as opposed to huge isolated dramas that advance the story.


The setting of 60s Harlem is lovingly rendered. There's a great sense of time and place which draws you into Carney's tale. Society is changing and Whitehead documents the advances during the early 60s. It's depicted through one man's tale. His ambitions for something better for him and his kin, his confidence over-coming his self doubts and pre-ordained place in society.

Really enjoyable and definitely an author I want to read again in the future.

4 from 5

Read - July, 2021
Published - 2021
Page count - 336
Source - Net Galley
Format - Kindle

https://col2910.blogspot.com/2021/08/colson-whitehead-harlem-shuffle-2021.html

Having loved The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, I couldn’t wait to read Colson Whiteheads latest book.
Set in Harlem, in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, we follow the life of Ray Carney. A respectable furniture shop owner to the outside world, who’s not adverse to making a little extra on the side.
As the story unfolds, he’s drawn further into the criminal underworld by his cousin Freddie.
The characters are great and the story believable. Whitehead transports you back to Harlem, to the hustles, the seedy joints, the corruption and the racism of the era.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

With thanks to #NetGalley #ColsonWhitehead #HarlemShuffle

A nostalgic slice of American life, written in a vein not too dissimilar to Steinbeck, Kerouac or the echoing observational commentary on life in Harlem that wouldn't feel so out of place in the set up of a Morrison novel.
Harlem Shuffle is styled in the zeitgeist-worthy early phases of a mainstream traditional noir crime caper.

Not what I was honestly expecting from the creative prowess of Whitehead... then again it was perhaps again time to trade tact and move away from the Underground Railroad/Nickel Boys themes and heavy-handedness of African American blighted history. Returning to a dramatic yet witty tone which frequented much of his earlier works, Harlem Shuffle is adept in scene setting, storytelling with a basic premise and entertaining manner, and though distant from the weight of historical eventualities covered in recent Pulitzer-bound releases, still packs some weight behind the socio-cultural points it inevitably makes.
A three part shindig, following the life and times of Carney in the five, [or thereabouts], years living in the post-war, pre-Vietnam Harlem neighbourhood of New York. Civil Rights are really pressing forwards, but with a renewed focus away from the historical and more the social and cultural, the slice of life we experience is one of crime and the essential skill of chancing your luck.
As Carney and his cousin Freddie take centre stage, a revolving cast of supporting characters accompany them, their adventures and their misdeeds.
Not distanced or distinguished enough to be short stories on their own, the sections of the book chronologically track three particular events in Carney's life, as he attempts and often succeeds to obtain success, fortune and status in a community which is positioned square against him. Running with criminals and low-key mob-style groups, Whitehead entertains rather than educates or shocks his reader this time. The narrative tone and shift in genre are refreshing in their wit and self-awareness. We as readers have the company of the writer in how bemused we perhaps are be by the way Freddie behaves; or in other moments, the ways in which Carney juggles the criminality of his daily life with the truly virtuous family values he centres his love and affection around. Each story tells of a crime, yes, but actually also reflects on the tenacity of human nature and the ways we endure even when fighting against a tide of oppression or misfortune.

The setting and pace are particular strengths of this novel, with echoes of Whitehead's non-fiction cityscape again appearing as it does for the duration of The Colossus of New York, to this time situate reader with character. We are essentially dropped adeptly into the life of this community, without much precursory positioning, or equally without much epilogue at the novels end, which though infuriating or enigmatic in premise, is brilliant in keeping pace, focus and curiousity moving. Nothing feels stagnant.
The characters are not necessarily developed or with depth, yet they are curiousity provoking and pull you in. No - Carney, Freddie and Linus are not necessarily 'likeable' characters, yet by the final pages, as we leave them behind, there is a sense of hope that they can achieve their hopes. THAT is what allows Harlem Shuffle to just sit slightly above the precipice of its contemporaries as a piece of writing that retains integrity in it's social message, yet dives without apology into entertaining and amusing readers with this capture of the early sixties Americana zeitgeist.

The first Colson Whitehead I have ever read, and the best encouragement I needed to dig his two previous Pulitzer Prize-winners from the disorganised mess that is my Kindle TBR. Focusing on the "only slightly bent" Ray Carney - family man, reasonably-priced furniture salesman, son and cousin of notorious local hoodlums - this book is a vividly-realised portrait of the Harlem of the 1960s, rich in detail and full of three-dimensional characters. Carney is a protagonist you'll be rooting for as he tries to make his way in both the "straight" world and the Harlem underbelly that seems to be his birthright despite the snooty in-laws, dishonourable pillars of the community, violent thugs and complex system of protection "envelopes" standing in his way.

Whitehead is one of America's finest contemporary authors, and it seems there is no historical period he cannot fully immerse himself in. Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for giving me access to pre-publication ARC of this fantastic book.

Set in 1960s Harlem, Colson Whitehead's latest novel follows Ray Carney, a furniture salesman and part time crook. Ray sees himself as a man of two sides - a 'crooked' one and a more respectable one. When his dodgy cousin Freddy gets him involved in a heist, Ray finds himself further on the wrong side of the law than he'd like. He has to negotiate a world of bent coppers, ruthless gangsters, incompetent criminals, riots and the ever looming racial oppression suffered by black people in the era.

Ray is a likeable and interesting character - certainly no saint, but not essentially a 'bad' man. His 'respectable' side was admirable, having worked his way from humble beginnings to earn a business degree and then build up his own successful furniture business. He'd also found himself a wife from a higher social class and established a family with her. But despite these achievements he was still looked down on - by society in general, in a place where black people were not treated anything close to equally - and also by other black people with better family connections and/fairer skin. His turning to crime could be seen partly as a way to offset that inequity in his life.

Whitehead has a lively and easily readable style with a good turn of phrase. He is one of those writers I consider 'literary' - his prose is inventive and playful - but without being too obscure or self-indulgent. He conjures up the place and atmosphere of 1960s Harlem, and I liked the positive tone of the novel. It has an energy and optimism which makes it more enjoyable to read. Sometimes novels about black characters in this era can portray them simply as victims or servants (or both) of white people, whereas this book gives a much fuller and more nuanced portrayal whilst still reflecting the inequity they faced. Harlem is a world within a world - a black neighbourhood set into a white dominated city, with its own rules and power structures, but nevertheless still at a disadvantage to other areas.

Overall this is a well written novel with a likeable main character and an interesting setting. Whitehead once again shows he is a consistent and classy novelist with a wide appeal amongst those who enjoy literary fiction.

I thought the story struggled with pacing and repetition, but really picked up towards the end. In its best moments it recalled Ishmael Reed's writing.

This is a fantastic evocation of a particular time and place. I can only imagine it must have taken stacks and stacks of research, into furniture brands alone, but it’s all worn lightly, there to serve the story rather than the other way round. Some of the prose is terrific, real I’m just going to go back and reread that paragraph to appreciate it again stuff. It’s good to see Colson Whitehead returning to genre fiction. Zone One was one of the best zombie novels of the last few decades, and while, let’s be honest, the crime fiction field is a lot more crowded, Whitehead can hold his head high with this one. Can’t wait for his SF novel!

I loved this book- lighter than other Whitehead books I’ve read but incredibly enjoyable. It tells the stories of small cons in Harlem who get caught up in a scam. The characters are fun and believable, the setting in Harlem is evocative and the historical details are lightly woven into the plot. Highly recommended as a summer read and respite for dreary times.
Thank you NG for the loan.

PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION:
'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 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?

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.

NO SPOILERS

This is probably the most detailed and in-depth publishers’ blurb I have come across and it tells you all you need to know about the story and plot; but what of the author’s method of delivering this? I’ll add that bit: astounding. Colson Whitehead writes with deceptive simplicity and apparent ordinariness but his writing is complex, evocative and totally immersive.

Although I have read Whitehead’s two (yes, two!) Pulitzer prize winning books and loved them both, this story is not one I would usually be drawn to, but the writing drew me in and wouldn’t let me go.

Harlem Shuffle is written from each of the main characters' perspective, running concurrently (I like this technique very much) in the third person, yet Whitehead’s way with words achieves a feeling of a first person narrative without the restrictions this can involve. Back stories are dropped in with no break in stride as and when needed, extending the reach of the plot beyond the timeline of the story. The troubles faced and the events leading to and the aftermath of the Harlem riots are not presented like a history book but are portrayed in the everyday lives of those living in 60s Harlem.

A mark of Whitehead’s skill is I never felt I was a bystander peering in the window. I was standing within, looking round, present at every moment. Superb stuff!

My only criticism is every time I put the book aside, my head filled with “Yeah, yeah, yeah, do the Harlem shuffle…” but as a big Stones fan, I didn’t mind.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for the complimentary copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.