It pains me to say this, because I loved The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad. But I just cannot get into this one. I’ve tried. I’ve tried three times. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just a case of right book, wrong time? Maybe I can only really get into fantasy, romance, and murder these days? I don’t know. Maybe someday I’ll come back to it but for now it’s a DNF.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead tells the story of Ray Carney, full-time furniture salesman and part-time hustler. He operates in that nebulous area between illegal and legal, between crooked and straight. The characters are so fully formed, the reader is able to get a full picture of people who only show up in one scene. The story has pace, but doesn't move too fast. This is a story to savor. And while there is tension, it is not unbearable. Highly recommended for all mystery fans.

Too many characters and too much action. It was hard to keep up and understand exactly what was happening.

listen, you hardly need me to tell you that when Colson Whitehead has a book out, you have to read it; however, you have to read Harlem Shuffle. the way he renders Harlem in the '60s is worth the price of admission alone. go read it.

I had a hard time connecting to this novel, even though I loved the time and setting, and the exquisite writing. I felt like I had been transported to Harlem in the 1960s and that all the characters who inhabited that world were three-dimensional, regardless of how big or small a role they played in the story. I think the sheer volume of characters and somewhat convoluted (or maybe it just seemed that way to me since I had a hard time focusing) storyline made it hard for me to stay focused as I was reading. If I hadn't recommended this to one of my book clubs, I probably would have set it aside and come back to it when I could give this book the attention it deserved. I think I was expecting more of a mad-cap heist-type tale; there is humor in here, but it's more sly and under the radar than I was anticipating, which likely impacted how I approached reading of the book. I really liked the female characters, especially Ray's wife Elizabeth, and enjoyed the scenes they were in quite a bit. I'm looking forward to reading additional works by this author because I loved "The Underground Railroad" and how he is able to create such believable worlds, no matter the time or location in which he sets them.

Many thanks to DoubleDay for a chance to read this NetGalley version!

This book is full of memorable characters, heists and shakedowns. The words jump off the pages and I could see this one play out as a movie.
Set in Harlem this ultimately reads as a love letter to Harlem. Crime and family drama keep me hooked in this one.

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Huge thank you to #doubleday and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday for granting me early access to a copy of this book.

I gave it 2 stars.

Ray Carney established an honest furniture business and has tried to live live as straight as possible, but he grew up and lives in Harlem. Surrounded by heist, crime and dangerous people, he finds himself involved in trouble regularly, especially because of his cousin, who for some reason tends to put his name up for things he didn't do.

This is an adult standalone historical fiction that takes us through the life of Carney for three decades from the 1950s.

I loved how it emphazises the importance of Juneteenth, explains what it means and what life was like for black people in those years. We should all become better allies and feel shame at how the white man treated others, segregation, racism, classism, oppression, slavery and an endless list of issues that continue to this day.

This book is character driven, so we get to see people act and reflect on their own reasons to live a certain life, understanding that you cannot always choose how it's going to go.

However, the story is full of reflections and remembrances that don't take us anywhere. Just in the last part is that we see the logic in some of what happened before, but throughout the book, the general feeling I had was that everything just jumped form one place to another, many characters where simply thrown in without explanation and there were pages that were just there, not having a purpose. Very messy indeed.

Shamefully, I gave this book 2 stars, having loved his previous work. Well, not all your books can be as good, right?

This was my first Colson Whitehead novel so maybe I went in with grandiose expectations but despite the tight, great prose the story fell flat for me. I don’t need a lot of action to love a book but when the plot is lacking and I’m not drawn to love and empathize with the characters it just doesn’t do it for me. I think The Nickel Boys or The Underground Railroad would resonate better with me. I can tell the author is gifted so I’m going to give his other work a try.

Thank you to NetGalley for advancing me a copy.

Harlem Shuffle follows Ray Carney, a furniture salesman and store owner in Harlem in the 1960s. He and his wife are expecting their second child. Cash is tight and Ray doesn’t question the origin of pieces when they come into his store. He gets pulled into a heist by his cousin, Freddie, but it doesn’t go as planned. Now Ray finds himself drawn into a new circle of clientele, forcing him to navigate a double life — One as an upstanding family man and businessman, the other as a crook. Can he pull it off?

I’m not sure any Colson Whitehead book will ever surpass my love for The Nickel Boys but that won’t stop me from continuing to read anything by him! My enjoyment of Harlem Shuffle was definitely enhanced by listening to the audiobook, read by Dion Graham, my favorite male narrator.

Colson Whitehead can write anything--and he writes beautifully. Not only is he a gifted storyteller, his sentences and narrative pacing are top-notch. Nowhere is this better on display than in the noirish HARLEM SHUFFLE. For fans of JOHN HENRY DAYS and THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Whitehead is here working in a (new to him) genre that affords him an even wider palette to showcase his formidable talent. I loved this book, right up through the twisty ending. I own every single book he's ever written, including this one, and will continue to read whatever he writes.

After having read and loved Underground Railroad and Nickel Boys, I knew this would be a different Colson Whitehead novel. I found it hard to get into the book, I didn’t connect with the characters or the somewhat rambling plot. I know he’s going for something different, but it just didn’t land with me.

Colson is a favorite of mine. This one was a bit of a slow burn for me, especially for a crime novel. Once I got into it I enjoyed the characters and getting to know the main character Carney. I could imagine the people , sites and sounds of 1960’s Harlem. Colsons writing and stories never disappoint.

I had high hopes for this novel, the plot sounded interesting, Harlem in the 60s was an interesting and unpredictable time period, and a story about heists would usually be right up my alley. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into this book. I'm not sure if it was the writing style or the inablility to connect with the characters or the fact that I tried to read it during a time period where I wasn't up to it. I know Colson Whitehead is a very talented and well respected author so I was bummed that I couldn't get into this work, I'll try his other novels and see if they work better for me.. However, this went into my abandoned reads pile, but maybe I'll revisit the story again some day. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the free e-book.

I had trouble reading this so I am not able to give accurate feedback because I did not finish reading the book in its entirety. Thank you for the opportunity.

Colson Whitehead can write a description like it’s nothing! Harlem Shuffle is a completely different genre for this Pulitzer Prize winner, but his top notch writing shines in any genre.

I loved the vibrant world he created for Ray and his motley crew of characters. Ray tries to be an honest business man, but the money isn’t in honest business in 1960s Harlem. His deep loyalty to his family and his desire to keep up with the Joneses (in this case his jn-laws), has him stumbling back into the crime underworld and dealing with the fall-out when all goes awry.

This one started a bit slow for me, but was required reading to become immersed in the culture of Harlem. There were more than a few “smack my forehead” moments for Ray, but I continued to root for him as his double life began to spiral out of control.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ecopy of this book.

Colson Whitehead has a unique style of writing and in the past I’ve been blown away by his writing. I enjoyed this story, but it definitely left me with a few questions and wanting more. Overall this was Interesting, but slow.

I struggled with Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle a lot more than I thought I would.
Mostly the disconnect might have been my expectation going into the book, as I was expecting an Ocean's 11 type heist story set in 1960's Harlem, but that's not what I got. I expected action, thrill, fast paced adventure, but instead received a lot of internal struggle and so so so much backstory.
Whitehead's writing itself is great, as always, he really has a knack for creating great characters and vivid settings, tho the pacing felt a little inconsistent.
I think I will give the book another try down the line, knowing what it is and isn't and see if it lands better with me, the reader, being in a different mood.

For those who've only read The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, Whitehead's new novel is going to feel like a huge departure; this is more like Sag Harbor, his 2009 novel set in 1980s New York City. (As you can see, Whitehead has range.) At the center of the story sits Ray Carney, a man caught between two worlds: he wants to be a respectable family man, but can't seem evade the pull of the crime scene of 1960s Harlem, and its profits. This has been often described as a heist novel—and it is—but please know going in that it is carefully-constructed and slow-building, with rich character development and a sly sense of humor.

I really like Colson Whitehead's perspective, and that he's willing to take risks and try new things in his writing. Somehow, though, his execution falls short. The concepts of Underground Railroad and The Intuitionists were really interesting, but the books were not. Nickel Boys was a pretty good story, but largely forgettable, and Harlem Shuffle walks in the same footsteps. The writing feels uninspired and flat. It's not a bad book, it's just not a great one. Three stars.

This books had such a unique and creative premise! It was a little slow and occasionally hard to continue going, but I loved the history and culture presented in this story.