Member Review
Review by
Richard P, Reviewer
I'm embarrassed to admit that "Harlem Shuffle" is my introduction to Colson Whitehead, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author and National Book Award-winner as well.
I'm also somewhat embarrassed to admit that I struggled mightily with "Harlem Shuffle," a novel set in 1960's Harlem amidst a world of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs and the slightly bent Ray Carney. Carney is a compelling figure who practically demands a cinematic imagining, a seemingly straight furniture shop owner and family man with a family tree that might indicate there's a little bit more underneath Carney's surface than the facts might initially reveal.
Truthfully, while I struggled with "Harlem Shuffle" I expect that fans of the wildly popular Whitehead likely will not. This is a fun book, a more entertaining read, per my understanding, than we can usually expect from Whitehead. I've also read, however, that Whitehead is not one to be easily pegged and we ought to expect the unexpected.
I was never tempted to give up on "Harlem Shuffle." I simply struggled to get into its unique rhythms, a semi-expository, semi-dialogue heavy structure that feels disjointed at times and that kept me from relating with the characters in any real way with the exception of lead figure Carney and a later figure, Pepper, who's just downright engaging in all the right ways.
I tried reading "Harlem Shuffle" in binges hoping I would eventually ride its waves.
That didn't work.
I tried reading it chapter-by-chapter.
That didn't work.
Sometimes, a book simply doesn't completely click and for me "Harlem Shuffle" was such a reading experience.
I never hated it. I never loved it. I found it engaging and I'm glad I read it. I just never felt completely immersed in it, never completely cared about its characters, found myself bothered by the structure, and wound down my time with the novel somewhat grateful that the laborious read had finally concluded.
Again, if that sounds like I hated the book, well, I didn't. In fact, I found enough here that I want to go back and read some other works by Whitehead. I'd simply hoped to find myself completely enthralled by "Harlem Shuffle" and I wasn't.
Have you ever watched a film where you ended up with oodles of narration telling you background and various other goings on?
That's what "Harlem Shuffle" feels like much of the time.
Instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally, it feels like we're being guided toward plot points and spoon-fed narrative facts that don't always feel relevant to the story.
At times, I longed for more pages like the book's closing chapters where whip-smart characters go back-and-forth with Whitehead's quippy jabs and action to induce a few goosebumps.
Instead, too often I felt like I was getting a description of the action rather than the action itself. Side characters, including to a degree the fairly essential character of Freddie, feel more like transitional links on this semi-entertaining, semi-thrilling journey.
On the flip side, Whitehead does a masterful job of creating the culture of 1960's Harlem and this world where even the seemingly ordinary joe working down the street has more layers than Dante's inferno and where working class corruption makes for compelling storytelling.
While I didn't quite engage with "Harlem Shuffle" on the level that I hoped, I look forward to reading Colson Whitehead's other books in the near future.
I'm also somewhat embarrassed to admit that I struggled mightily with "Harlem Shuffle," a novel set in 1960's Harlem amidst a world of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs and the slightly bent Ray Carney. Carney is a compelling figure who practically demands a cinematic imagining, a seemingly straight furniture shop owner and family man with a family tree that might indicate there's a little bit more underneath Carney's surface than the facts might initially reveal.
Truthfully, while I struggled with "Harlem Shuffle" I expect that fans of the wildly popular Whitehead likely will not. This is a fun book, a more entertaining read, per my understanding, than we can usually expect from Whitehead. I've also read, however, that Whitehead is not one to be easily pegged and we ought to expect the unexpected.
I was never tempted to give up on "Harlem Shuffle." I simply struggled to get into its unique rhythms, a semi-expository, semi-dialogue heavy structure that feels disjointed at times and that kept me from relating with the characters in any real way with the exception of lead figure Carney and a later figure, Pepper, who's just downright engaging in all the right ways.
I tried reading "Harlem Shuffle" in binges hoping I would eventually ride its waves.
That didn't work.
I tried reading it chapter-by-chapter.
That didn't work.
Sometimes, a book simply doesn't completely click and for me "Harlem Shuffle" was such a reading experience.
I never hated it. I never loved it. I found it engaging and I'm glad I read it. I just never felt completely immersed in it, never completely cared about its characters, found myself bothered by the structure, and wound down my time with the novel somewhat grateful that the laborious read had finally concluded.
Again, if that sounds like I hated the book, well, I didn't. In fact, I found enough here that I want to go back and read some other works by Whitehead. I'd simply hoped to find myself completely enthralled by "Harlem Shuffle" and I wasn't.
Have you ever watched a film where you ended up with oodles of narration telling you background and various other goings on?
That's what "Harlem Shuffle" feels like much of the time.
Instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally, it feels like we're being guided toward plot points and spoon-fed narrative facts that don't always feel relevant to the story.
At times, I longed for more pages like the book's closing chapters where whip-smart characters go back-and-forth with Whitehead's quippy jabs and action to induce a few goosebumps.
Instead, too often I felt like I was getting a description of the action rather than the action itself. Side characters, including to a degree the fairly essential character of Freddie, feel more like transitional links on this semi-entertaining, semi-thrilling journey.
On the flip side, Whitehead does a masterful job of creating the culture of 1960's Harlem and this world where even the seemingly ordinary joe working down the street has more layers than Dante's inferno and where working class corruption makes for compelling storytelling.
While I didn't quite engage with "Harlem Shuffle" on the level that I hoped, I look forward to reading Colson Whitehead's other books in the near future.
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