Ray Carney is doing his best to thrive and survive. As a black entrepreneur operating in the heart of Harlem during the period just before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, he is trying to build a legitimate business selling furniture while generating some additional cash flow by fencing stolen goods. As the son of a well-known crook, Carney is well versed in the local criminal community, but still tries his best to stay above the fray in order to support his wife and two children. However, when his cousin Freddie—with whom Ray was raised for long stretches of his youth—drags him into a few complicated (and poorly conceived) thefts, Ray’s future is put at considerable risk. How he manages to walk the fine line between remaining loyal to a family member while staying alive and out of jail creates the dramatic tension in the story.

Harlem Shuffle chronicles about a half dozen years of Ray’s tale, along with a substantial amount of the backstory on his upbringing for context. Split into three connected parts starting in 1959, the novel provides a chronological series of snapshots that add up to a compelling portrait of the main character. That is an important point to make because while the book is nominally billed as a crime story, the actual capers described are the least interesting thing about it. In fact, where Colson Whitehead’s prose really shines is in the meticulous way he recreates a sense of the time and the place during an era when things were changing so rapidly. This is impressive historical fiction that builds a world filled racial tension, shady business dealings, corrupt police, rampant drug use, as well as loyal friends, hard-working folks trying to climb the ladder, and a lot of people with solid family values.

I did enjoy this book, but it seems like one that I should have loved. The story itself starts off very slowly and only builds to a page-turning crescendo right near the end, perhaps due to the careful way in which the author chose to create Ray’s character. However, that focus came at the expense of developing the rest of the supporting cast, most of whom were neither fully formed nor particularly engaging (Ray’s crime associate Pepper being a notable exception). Also, it is difficult not to compare this novel to James McBride’s Deacon King Kong, which covers similar ground in terms of the social issues portrayed but does so in a far more joyful and entertaining fashion. So, Harlem Shuffle is a novel that I can easily recommend for what it does best, but it is one that falls a little short of the Whitehead’s own considerable catalog of past work.

Retro Harlem springs to vivid cinematographic life in this delicious romp. Family man Ray Carney is trying to be an upstanding citizen but his cousin Freddie and his gangster dealings won’t leave Carney alone. Generous helpings of heists and shady conmen make this a fun narrative even if sometimes there’s more flash than substance. Worth reading for Whitehead’s exquisitely crafted sentences alone: “You want to know what’s going on, you ask the block wino. They see everything and then the booze pickles it, keeps it all fresh for later.” Whiteheads fans will love it, newbies should read Underground Railroad first.

I’ve read several of his prior books and really enjoyed this. It is really 3 separate novellas in the life of Ray Carney, with the same essential characters but with different stages of his life, spanning the late 40s to the 60s.The central themes seem relevant even today-family, racism, police brutality, payoffs for protection etc but his inside look at Harlem in that era is simply masterful and well researched, and a joy to read. Having grown up in NYC, the geography was well known to me,and many of the events/ upheavals of the era familiar. Ray walks a fine line-legitimate furniture with an illegitimate side hustle in stolen merchandise, but this reader was pulling for him throughout.
You’ll have to read it for yourself to find out if he makes it.😂

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available Sept 14 2021

"Harlem Shuffle", Colson Whitehead's seventh novel, focuses on the seedy underworld of 1940s to 1960s Harlem. It is a revel in Black entrepreneurship and Carney, son of notorious crook Big Mike, struggles to make a name for himself in the furniture world. Inevitably, Carney's past catches up to him as his cousin Freddie drags him into one caper and then another. Bound by a sense of family loyalty, Carney struggles to protect his cousin, his own family and his business.

What really draws me into this novel is the way Whitehead immerses his audience into the era he choses. I truly felt like I was in Black Harlem, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the era, from the decline of radio to the rise in space tech. It's a fun historical drama which also tackles some pretty serious issues of race relations, families and morality. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

Ray Carney describes himself as an entrepreneur, after graduating from college and purchasing a furniture store on 125th St. In Harlem. However, his father was a criminal respected in his circle and Ray still has ties to the criminal community, especially when he becomes involved with his cousin Freddie's criminal activities. As Ray struggles to provide for his family, he takes on some side jobs with Freddie and finds that decisions become much more difficult when he feels he must protect not only his wife and children but also Freddie from some catastrophic consequences.
Whitehead portrays a Harlem of the 1960s as a place with racial tension and a place where businesses must pay tribute to various gangsters in order to survive. But, as Carney finds, the most dangerous and nefarious, criminals do not live in Harlem and are disguised as upstanding citizens.
Whitehead gives the reader a story of love, of family obligations, of revenge and retribution.
This book is recommended for readers interested in Harlem history and the connections between Harlem and the rest of New York.

Look the book is really good! Covering three vignettes over a five to seven year period, the book is about changing Harlem, Black struggles with police, crooked real estate corporations, the main characters’- Carney and his cousin Freddie -evolving, earnest, and embittered relationship with each other, and ancillary crimes and heists of them as they strain and struggle to stay ahead of the curve. It isn’t about any one theft or caper, but the arc of those ancillary crimes committed by the leads as part and parcel of their general lives. The closest the book gets to being wholly consumed by a shady operation is in the second vignette, when Carney is bilked by Duke, a local scammer, for $500, and commits himself and all his resources to revenge. Harlem Shuffle is out of the league of a mystery, thriller, or suspense novel, and though it should be considered for a general fiction award, it doesn’t fit here.