I think there were high expectations going into this book written by back to back Pulitzer prize winning author Colson Whitehead. I enjoyed the historical contest of the story which is set in 1960's Harlem. Ray Carney is trying to move up in life and he works hard trying make his furniture store a success. However, this novel shows how hard it is to move up on hard work alone. There are people that need to be paid off and deals that need to be made just to get by. This is a novel in three parts and each part takes place in a different time period. Colson is master story teller and even though the pace is slow the story is immersive and pulls you in. Thank you #NetGalley for my ARC.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. In exchange, here is my honest review.

This is the first book I have read by Colson Whitehead. His other two more recent and popular books are on my TBR list, but I haven't managed to get to them yet, which is certainly my fault.

In this novel, Whitehead writes with a rhythm that flows naturally and almost musically, and some of the wordplay is absolutely sublime. It is, in itself, a type of shuffle, bringing you back and forth between the two storylines that are unfolding simultaneously: Ray Carney's world, and what is happening in the world around Ray Carney.

The story begins slow, introducing you to Ray, the minutiae of his life, the day to day struggles of a Black man trying to run a business in Harlem. You meet other characters, some of which are there for a long time, and others who are only a brief flicker and then gone, giving you a hint of how his life is changing, developing into the dual sides of himself that you see slowly merging and coming together into one version of Ray Carney that he probably wouldn't want to admit exists.

I think it's really interesting to see how Ray's life is shaped by events in society that (unfortunately) still mirror what is happening today. The death of James Powell is noted, as are the Harlem Riots of 1964, a topic I wasn't well versed in. Fortunately, the book doesn't go out of its way to explain what happens either. You see things unfold as Ray sees them unfold, and you get what mentions of them Ray is willing to give you. The man is busy and has a lot of other things preying on his mind - his cousin, inconvenient visitors, and the running of his business. Plus, he also has to balance being a family man, keeping that happy facade afloat.

It's a crime caper without the breakneck speed of a crime caper. Everything unfolding with the slow heat of a lazy summer day. I've never read a crime story quite of this caliber before, and I found that I enjoyed it. I still have so many thoughts about this book, my brain noting one thing and another - the parallels between him and his father, the value of revenge, and of course, my favorite character - Pepper. (He's just fantastic, and if Whitehead ever wrote a separate book about him, I'd be the first in line to read it.)

Colson Whitehead has a beautiful writing style and what especially appeals to me is that he doesn't have just one genre. Harlem Shuffle transports you to 1960s Harlem. Ray Carney is an educated black man running a furniture store by day and a few illicit activities by night. He is a devoted family man despite his own difficult childhood and unsupportive in laws. This story is told like a play in three acts with each act set in a new time period with a new challenge but with repeating characters. You can't help but root for Ray as he deals with mobsters, crooked police, fences, and unreliable relatives. The story is set against the backdrop of black in America, specifically Harlem, including riots over the police shooting of an unarmed black man. As always, Colson Whitehead draws you into his books and attaches you to his characters and doesn't let you go until the end. I highly recommend this novel whether you have read anything by this author or not. In fact, if his last few books didn't sound appealing to you, try this one.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

People in 1960s Harlem know Ray Carney as a respected furniture store owner, husband, and father. Fewer people know he comes from a family of crooks, and thanks to his cousin Freddie, he's got one foot in the family business himself. After Freddie pulls Ray into a hotel heist gone wrong, it becomes harder and harder to balance his two lives.

Colson Whitehead has an incredible gift of bringing historical periods to life, and incredibly different ones at that. Harlem is its own character in the book, and the way Whitehead weaves in so much history and nuance is wonderful to read. The web of characters in Harlem Shuffle is also fantastic. The part that left me wanting more was the thriller/mystery plot. A lot happened off the page, and I think more action would have brought the scene-setting and quirky characters together a little more clearly. But still really enjoyed this!

Great storytelling and a strong sense of place - Whitehead clearly draws you into the underbelly of mid-20th century Harlem and I loved every minute of it. Will be a great pick to help diversify my readers advisory recs for our library patrons. Thanks for the ARC!

Set in Harlem from 1959 to 1964 this is the story of Ray Carney. Ray is a striver. He is trying to make it as an upstanding, respectable small business man selling new and gently used furniture at his shop on 125th Street. But Ray's business and indeed his life have a back door that opens onto the less respectable side of life in Harlem. Sometimes Ray steps out of that door and sometimes things come through it but he still strives to keep up his respectability. This is the very engaging story of Ray's balancing act between these two worlds. It is also a beautiful portrayal of Harlem during those crucial years.
This is an excellent book and an enjoyable read.
(This review is of an ARC)

Raymond Carney loves his wife and children and his cousin Freddy, and because he does and he's a black man living in Harlem in the 50's and 60's, it's not easy to make an honest living. But he does his best in this powerful new story from a masterful writer who only gets better with each book he writes. Yes, this is a heist story that goes wrong, but it's also an exploration of what a person will do for their family, however they define family. While some things change over the years, the more things change, the more they stay the same as events in this story show in a way that comes across as realistic, without being preachy. This is probably the best book I've read so far this year and I highly recommend it.

Furniture store owner Carney is trying to live the straight life in the shadow of his crook father, but the world of crime keeps pulling him in.

Colson Whitehead is a fabulous writer no matter what he's writing. This book is a self-described "caper" book set in the Harlem of the 1960s. Atmospherically beautiful and full of character. The main character, Ray, is striving - to be better, to be successful, and the get his family to Riverside Drive. To get there, he feels the need to do a few shady things in addition to his furniture business. It took me a short time to get into the story (I acknowledge that the power of the last two books makes a switch to a crime book take a minute) but once I did it was a quick read. I liked Ray, his wife, and his two employees, Marie and Rusty, but especially liked Pepper. Highly recommend.

The book sets up three side-by-side vignettes in Ray Carney's life in Harlem in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the first, Carney's just struggling to get on his feet with his business, dreaming of a better life for him and his family. He gets involved in offloading the take from a heist his no-good cousin Freddie's involved in, and dives deeper into a life of crime. In the second and third stories/sections, this narrative progresses as Carney takes more conscious actions diving into this underworld that moves within Harlem. Whitehead moves us beyond understandings of crime as good or bad, as we consider Carney's involvement in various schemes. In one scene, he's driving along with a cop, collecting his cut from businesses around Carney's block, and Carney's shocked to realize how many of the businesses that surround him have a more devious underworld side. We're left with the feeling that Carney's just doing what he needs to support his family, but complex questions of ethics arise along the way, driving readers to question what they know and believe.

I appreciated the way that this book shows us how Harlem and questions of race relations are evolving into the 1960s. We see the emergence of civil rights activism (e.g. lunch counter sit-ins) and riots after the police kill a black kid in the city, and the impact of these actions on local businesses like Carney's furniture. We watch the city evolve as big powerplayers like the VanWyck family builds highrises, stacking money up high, changing neighborhoods like those Carney has visited along the way.

This book gave me all the feels - good and bad. It was delightful and exhausting and lovely and frustrating, and left me unsure which way was up. It moved slowly, but Whitehead used this time to build narratives of multiple sides of Harlem, of race and power, and of complex families. In some ways, this reminded me of James McBride's Deacon King Kong -- in its pacing, in its complex racial relations, its NYC setting, and its navigation of crime and ethics.

The premise of Whitehead’s new book was so intriguing, and I was fiendishly excited to dive in. I loved so much of his writing thinking back to 1960s Harlem, though there were many passages in the book that were tough to work through. It’s possible that the storyline just wasn’t for me, but I wish I did love it more. I did find Carney’s perspective as only a “slightly bent” man, Pepper, & Freddie interesting—I would love to see an adaptation of this and to hear/see more about them.

As a favorite author, and a living legend anything by Colson Whitehead is going to be on my must-read list. And I am glad I read this but I am a bit disappointed. As a whole, the work is a lovely read, a time capsule of time and place- but the plot itself, as a crime drama, starring a hapless but well-intentioned Ray Carney, was mediocre. The writing certainly carries this book, but there was a lack of tension that just did not call me. A worthwhile read, but if you are looking for a drama/crime book, check out Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books. Classics.

Colson Whitehead lives up to his other books with this one that made me think. This book settled for me that Colson Whitehead is a modern classic author whose books should be recommended for high school or college level students, particularly those with an interest in race relations.

When it's a novel by Colson Whitehead, you have to take your time. This is so jam-packed with delightful details of a time and a Harlem not many knew, with a timeless heist plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From Pulitzer Prize winning author, Colson Whitehead, a novel set in 1960’s Harlem. Ray Carney strives for more than the lawless life of his father and becomes the successful owner of a furniture store but, still, he leads a double life also fencing stolen items. His cousin gets him involved in a high stakes hotel robbery with disastrous results, and then again in a caper dealing with NYC’s wealthiest first families. Great read!

Of course I had high expectations of this book that follows a Black furniture store owner in Harlem in the 1960's caught between doing the right thing and getting involved in organized crime because of the author. I find when I have high expectations, I'm never quite satisfied and that was the case with this book. I loved this book as a work of historical fiction. The crime elements didn't work for me as much but I still enjoyed reading the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.
Colson Whitehead's new novel deals with racial tension in 1960s Harlem. Whitehead shows the struggles of a black man trying to move up in a society that creates oppression. Straddling the line between being an honest business owner and dealings with crooks, Ray portrays a man facing the pressures of the world in which he lives. Whitehead's prose is seamless and his tag-line descriptions add a flare of creativity.

Writing: 5.5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 4.5/5 (for me)

Colson Whitehead is a master of bringing a place and time to life. Harlem in the 60s — this is the story of a man who came from nothing and relentlessly made something of himself. But it’s not the typical rags to riches story with people “managing” to do this and that. This includes all the details of just what he had to do to make it in the world as it was — the pay offs (to gangsters and the police), the loyalties and trust, the “deals” made, the heists, and the constant jockeying for power, influence, and importance by the big shots while everyone else struggles to get by.

Carney is “only slightly bent when it came to being crooked”. He has principles but suspends them as necessary with full awareness. He runs a furniture store with a secret side line in low level fencing of stolen goods. He primarily manages to stay out of trouble except when his cousin Freddie pops up (Freddie’s most constant refrain — “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble”).

Fantastic scenes in Harlem — The Theresa Hotel, known as the “Waldorf of Harlem,” Striver’s Row for the African-American elite, Black Star Travel agency to help black travelers at the time make their way through parts of the US without getting lynched. Some vivid scenes from the 1964 Harlem riots, resulting from the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman. All narrated by Carney with his somewhat cynical (and pretty realistic) worldview.

Whitehead is a fantastic writer — this had a little more focus on unsavory elements for my taste but it was very hard to put down.


A few quotes (out of many):

“Carney took the previous tenants’ busted schemes and failed dreams as a kind of fertilizer that helped his own ambitions prosper, the same way a fallen oak in its decomposition nourishes the acorn.”

“There was a hole in the air where the Ninth Avenue el used to run. That disappeared thing.”

“He reconsidered: The consequences remained, but the reasons had turned spectral, insubstantial. Harlem had rioted — for what? The boy was still dead, the grand jury cleared Lieutenant Gilligan, and black boys and girls continued to fall before the nightsticks and pistols of racist white cops. Freddie and Linus were gone, their heist unwound as if it had never happened, and Van Wyck kept throwing up buildings.”

“Death took Freddie from Carney and mourning returned to him a visitation, an invisible companion who shadowed him everywhere, tugging at his sleeve and interrupting when he least expected: Remember what my smile looked like, Remember when, remember me. Its voice grew quiet and Carney didn’t hear it for a while and then it was loud again: Remember me, This is your job now, Remember me or no one else will.”

I did not finish this book because it just was not grabbing me or my attention. I firmly believe that some books are better read as a physical copy and I think this might be one of them, I will pick this up again and finish it when I can read a physical copy. But I totally nominate it for library reads because his writing is phenomenal.

Thrilling, suspenseful and complicated crime novel that will likely reward repeated reads. Whitehead is one of the best novelists of our lifetime.