Overall a fun read! Definitely felt the super 60s vibes. It did feel a little slow, but overall nice!

This book is a family saga, a tribute to Harlem in the 60's, and a story of race and power. A real multilayered story perfect for discussion.

I’ve got to believe that Colson Whitehead enjoyed writing this book as much as I enjoyed reading it! Harlem Shuffle is a heist story, but unlike the genre’s typical plot-driven action tale, this book is all about the characters in late 1950’s New York. Ray Carney is a man divided between his deep desire to become a respected business and family man, and his upbringing as the son of a crook. On the sunny side is his furniture business which relies on used (legitimate and not-so-legitimate) goods to stay profitable. Ray’s wife, brought up on Striver’s Row, and his two children provide him with a deep incentive to prosper. On the shady side, though, are his connections with criminal New York, his cousin Freddie who is always bringing in a new hustle, and his father’s old cronies.

Written with the color and verve that are Whitehead’s gift, Harlem Shuffle is a delicious read.

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked ..." Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

These first words set the tone for Colson Whitehead's newest novel. It shares the life of Ray Carney, a Black man, in the roles of husband, father, furniture store owner, employer, community leader, and fence in New York City from 1959 to 1964. Key themes include exploration of father and son relationships, consequences of the Harlem riot of 1964 which were triggered by a police shooting that killed a 15-year-old Black youth, and the slippery slope of compromising one's values to achieve success.

The setting, New York City and specifically Harlem, is central to the plot and an important character. I'm not familiar with NYC geography, and didn't care enough to research it, so I missed a big piece of the story. My favorite sections were recountings of heists - think Oceans 11 on a much smaller scale. I appreciated that they were told in the past tense rather than as they were happening. It was a surprise to see Omaha, my city, mentioned a couple of times.

I'm sure this novel is brilliant, and discussing it with other readers would give me greater insights into Mr. Whitehead's genius and greater appreciation for its craft. I'm glad I read it, but it's not likely to be on my top 10 books of 2021. Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the review copy.

I was very excited to receive an advanced e-ARC for Colson Whitehead’s latest novel, “Harlem Shuffle.”

Ray Carney is a furniture salesman. And he does alright. But he also fences some jewels and other property on the side. As far as he’s concerned, it’s not stolen because he never asks where they come from. He’s a small time crook. Until his cousin Freddie brings him in on a big robbery that Freddie is involved in with some big time gangsters.

And Ray learns that upright citizens, even police, aren’t as straight as they appear.

This book will make a great movie! Colson Whitehead tells a great story and it will be brilliant on the silver screen!

For me, there were parts of the book that lagged. We get Ray’s father’s story told in flashbacks. We meet Freddie’s mom, who is a great character. We see Ray’s wife and two small children. This book is set between 1959 and 1964 in Harlem. There’s racial conflict, and there are socio-economic differences among those residing in Harlem.

This book is good in 3 parts. I enjoyed some parts more than others. Overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to #netgalley and #doubleday for the advanced e-copy of #harlemshuffle .

“Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…”

The Gist: Ray Carney, furniture salesman, finds himself caught up in a series of criminal schemes in 1960s Harlem.

My Thoughts: I’m a big fan of Colson Whitehead, but I have to admit some relief when hearing that his latest was much lighter fare than his previous two books. There are some darker moments in here, to be sure, but on the whole this heist novel was much funnier and madcap than expected.

Whitehead is an expert at immersing you in a setting, and in this book I really got a sense of life in 1960s Harlem. Both the “straight” world and the “criminal” underworld felt so vivid and real, and just like Carney I felt equally engaged in the two.

(Anyone else want to try dorvay in their own life now? lol)

The various heists were fun to follow, and I loved seeing Carney win and move up in the world. My only qualm with this book is that there are a LOT of time shifts, a lot of flashbacks and flashforwards. It became a little confusing at times to keep it all together.

But overall, I really enjoyed this. If you’re a fan of Whitehead or NYC history or heist stories, definitely check this one out!

This is the story of Ray Carney, a man from a criminal family, striving toward a better life as a furniture store owner, but with one foot (or at least a few toes) still in the criminal world. Set in Harlem New York, from 1959 to 1964, the novel is full of details, from the furniture lines Ray sells, to the sounds and smells and sights of his world in Harlem. Ray is doing pretty well in his legitimate business, but his liberal installment policies sometimes have him coming up short on cash flow to pay his store rent and expenses, so he has a side business selling used furniture and appliances, mainly televisions and radios with a less than spotless provenance. He also sometimes is called upon to find new owners for jewelry and coin collections.
Ray also has other expenses; the “envelope” system. Envelopes full of cash that are picked up by the enforcers for the local crime boss, and also envelopes picked up by the local police, protection money paid to both sides of the law.
Ray is married to Elizabeth, and has a daughter and a son on the way as the novel begins. Elizabeth’s parents are well to do, live on Strivers Row, and do not approve of Ray. Elizabeth works as a travel agent for an agency specializing in arranging travel for Black travelers, steering them to Negro-friendly hotels and restaurants, and advising them what places to avoid. Her involvement in this work makes her aware of the growing civil rights movement.
Ray also has a rather feckless cousin, Freddie, who while constantly apologizing for getting Ray into sticky situations, seems unable to resist falling into various schemes and involving Ray. One of those schemes is the main plot of the first section of the novel. Another frequently appearing character is Pepper, an enforcer who was a long-time friend of Ray’s father, who appears to have a soft spot for him and often helps to get him out of the trouble Freddie gets him into.
This novel, while primarily following Ray’s journey as he navigates between his two worlds, also illustrates much that goes on beneath the surface. A walk along the street with his police contact illustrates how many businesses he has been unaware of, and their function as fronts for less savory enterprises. We also come to see how racism plays a part, not only between black and white, but also within the black (or Negro, as the term is used at the time) community. One’s skin color plays a part in where they stand in the community.
The novel is in 3 parts, the first and third centered on schemes that Freddie gets Ray into, and the middle section where Ray runs his own scheme of revenge on someone. All in all, a satisfying read.

With his newest book, "Harlem Shuffle," Colson Whitehead has once again proved himself to be one of the best writers of the era. Though this book is much different than the two other books I have read by this author, I devoured it just the same. "Harlem Shuffle" follows Ray Carney, the owner of a furniture store in 1950s-1960s Harlem. Though Carney strives to keep his business mostly on the up-and-up, he is plummeted into the criminal underworld when his cousin's schemes drag him into a heist gone wrong.

Whitehead's writing is always exquisite, and this book is no exception. Though it started slow, I was quickly drawn into the world created by the author's language. This multilayered story is interesting and entertaining, and I was utterly captivated. This book is much more than a simple crime novel; it's the story of a man trying to find a place in a changing world.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the amazing privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

I tried reading Harlem Shuffle, but it didn't grab me. I don't know if it was the mood I was in or the style. I'll have to try another time since I do think it has potential.

Good book, a little slow but so far I am liking it.
thanks NetGalley and Doubleday books for the ARC copy.

After reading The Nickel Boys, I was so excited to read this latest Colson Whitehead novel. I have a distinctly white and western-US background and have never visited NYC, so I really enjoyed this recreation of 1960s Harlem. The atmosphere was rich and easy to picture, even as someone who's never visited that part of the country. This book always has one of my favorite things: a morally ambiguous protagonist. I wouldn't go so far as to call Carney an anti-hero, but his moral grey areas make the action very tense and palpable. A bit slow moving if you're reading it in chunks over a long time like I did, but nevertheless entertaining. Another banger from Colson Whitehead.

<b>Harlem Shuffle</b> is the story of Ray Carney. Being the son of a crook, he strives to lead an upstanding life as the owner of a furniture store in Harlem. He is happily married with children and has goals for their life such as owning a house on Riverside Drive. Everything is going well until unknown to Ray, his cousin Freddie volunteers him as the fence for a heist. I was not familiar with the term fence being someone who moves stolen goods, so that was an interesting fun fact to learn.

Based on the synopsis, I was really expecting the heists to be a major part of the story, but they actually are not. Unfortunately, going into this book with that expectation probably played a part in my rating of the book. This book focuses on Ray and his internal struggle between his wants/goals and the slippery slope of what he needs to do to get there.

I found the pacing inconsistent and the story at times moves quite slowly. This book is told in 3 parts: 1959, 1961, and 1964. I found the time jumps to be jarring to the point that the story seemed disjointed and confusing in parts. There are so many minor characters to keep track of in this book, and the author went into a lot of detail regarding their backstory which didn't necessarily serve the story in any way. That being said, my favorite character was Pepper. I wanted more of him and always looked forward to his return to the story.

Colson Whitehead is a wordsmith and a very talented author, and I like that he moves fluidly between genres. His writing in this book painted a very vivid picture of living in 1960s Harlem. I've only read one other book by this author and really enjoyed it, so I look forward to catching up on some of his previous books. 3 stars.

Many thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ray Carney has a foot in both worlds, and he isn’t given to thinking too deeply about that. As the son of a badass criminal, he considers that he has turned out quite respectably; yet, when Cousin Freddie occasionally brings a consignment piece of jewelry to his store, he doesn’t ask many questions about its history. Thus begins a slow, steady slide, from being a mostly-straight retailer, to a mostly-crooked fence. But oh, what a glorious story it makes!

My thanks go to Doubleday and Net Galley for the invitation to read and review. You can buy this book now.
The first time I read Colson Whitehead was when The Underground Railroad was published five years ago. It was unquestionably a work of genius, but it was also a fair amount of work to read. Then The Nickel Boys came out, and when I finally found a copy, it was well written yet so harsh that I thanked my lucky stars that it wasn’t a review copy, and I gave myself permission to abandon it. So thus far, my admiration for this author has been tempered by the awareness that I would need to roll up my sleeves, or to brace myself, or both.

Harlem Shuffle contains none of that. It’s told in linear fashion, beginning in the late 1950s and ending in the late 1960s. The writing is first rate, as one might anticipate, but it’s also an unmitigated pleasure to read.
Our protagonist, Carney, has married up. His beautiful wife Elizabeth comes from a family with lighter skin, higher social position, and a good deal more money. Elizabeth loves him, but she has expectations. As his young family grows to include a son and daughter, the pressure increases. But let’s not kid ourselves; this isn’t just about Carney supporting his family:

“If he got a thrill out of transforming these ill-gotten goods into legit merchandise, a zap-charge in his blood like he’d plugged into a socket, he was in control of it and not the other way around. Dizzying and powerful as it was. Everyone had secret corners and alleys that no one else saw…The thing inside him that gave a yell or tug or shout now and again was not the same thing his father had. The sickness drawing every moment into its service…Carney had a bent to his personality, how could he not, growing up with a father like that. You had to know your limits as a man and master them…His intent was bent but he was mostly straight, deep down.”

Freddie comes to Carney with a plan: he and his confederates intend to rob the Hotel Theresa, which is the pride of Harlem, the place to stay for Negro patrons of breeding and taste. It was almost sacrilege; and yet, it would also be a fantastic take. Would Ray Carney put out some feelers to find out who could move the sorts of valuable baubles that might be found in the hotel safe? Ray tells him of course not. No no no no no. A thousand times no! And then, he commences doing exactly that.

There are several aspects of this tale that make it exceptional. Whitehead resists the amateurish urge to fall back on pop culture of the period, instead imparting the culture and the pressures of the time more subtly. Racism against Negroes (the acceptable term of the time) by Caucasians; racism by light-skinned Negroes against darker ones, such as Carney; cop violence against all of them; the difficulty faced by Harlem merchants that want to carry first-class products but must first persuade snooty Caucasian company representatives; protection rackets endemic to Harlem, run by Negro criminals as well as cops, so that envelopes had to be passed to multiple representatives every month; and a plethora of other obstacles, stewed into the plot seamlessly, never resembling a manifesto. There’s Whitehead’s matchless ability to craft his characters, introducing each with a sketch so resonant that I had to reread them before moving on; highlight them; then go back and read them a third time after I’d finished the book. My favorite secondary character is Pepper, an older thug so terrifying that even the cops wince when they’re near him. And then there are brief shifts in point of view, and again, my favorite of these is Pepper’s.

Carney isn’t a brilliant decision maker, but he is an underdog, and he’s a survivor as well, and both of these things make me cheer him on. I haven’t had so much fun in a long damn time. When events escalate, Carney finds himself rolling a corpse into a fine carpet, and I can only hope that he chose a relatively cheap rug, because otherwise, what a waste!

Those that love the genre mustn’t miss this book, filled with everything anyone could ever want in a noir-style crime novel. Do it, do it, do it!

Ray Carney is a man stuck between a rock and a hard place. Trying to overcome his father's criminal legacy, Carney strives to support his family with a furniture business. But times are tough, and scary in 1960's Harlem, and he has a wayward cousin to keep an eye on. Ray feels he is an honest man who is forced to keep on foot on the other side of the line and this tension runs throughout the story. No other character is as well defined and I love how deep we get into his character as we follow along through the various events of his dual life. I will think of Ray every night when I remind myself it isn't insomnia, it is dorvay.

Harlem Shuffle by Colton Whitehead provides a social and historical glimpse into life in 1960s Harlem. Told from the perspective of Ray Carney who’s married to Elizabeth, now expecting their second child, it focuses on Ray’s goal of upward social mobility. Elizabeth’s parents look down on Ray whose father was a crook, but Ray has ambitions; he attended college, owns a furniture store, and plans to move into a better neighborhood. It all looks good, but Ray also dabbles in small time crime, accepting questionable products, fencing a few pieces to get ahead,. When his cousin Freddie involves him in some big time crime, Ray must find a way to navigate the dangers that come with mobsters, corrupt cops, and corrupt politicians. Unique writing with unusual descriptive phases makes this a pleasure to read, but following the plot proves challenging at times. The pace picks up towards the end as Ray tries to survive all the forces that seem to conspire against a man trying to succeed in a white privileged world.

Where some fine novelists may content themselves with revisiting the same settings, characters, and plots, Colson Whitehead challenges himself and his readers with every novel. <i>Harlem Shuffle</i>, Colson’s most recent novel, explores the turbulent Harlem of the late 1950s and early 1960s, bookended by the riots of 1943 and 1964. <i>Harlem Shuffle</i> is a noir crime caper sandwiching Colson’s commentary about the varied cultures and society of mid-century Harlem, increasingly stressed by official corruption and the burgeoning drug trade. For lovers of New York and Harlem’s rich history, Colson reminds us of famous and not-so-famous landmarks, some remaining, some transformed, and some disappeared: Mount Morris Park, Hotel Dumas, Hotel Theresa, Strivers’ Row, the old diamond district on Canal Street, among others. Ray Carney, <i>Harlem Shuffle</i>’s nuanced protagonist, embodies the ambiguities and discordances of the era. <i>Harlem Shuffle</i> is rich in atmospherics, but for this reader the atmospherics sometimes enhanced and sometimes detracted from the plot and the characters, leaving me to wonder whether the crime caper was sandwiching the atmospherics or whether the atmospherics were sandwiching the crime caper.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

Once again, Colson Whitehead proves that he can conquer any genre. With Harlem Shuffle, he takes on the caper/crime novel schema and employs his amazing talent to elevate it from its typical genre fiction roots to true literary fiction. This book is multifaceted, incorporating incisive social commentary and true historical events. It’s enveloping and time-spanning plot compels readers to face and acknowledge some uncomfortable truths. This time, Whitehea’s main character is Ray Carney, an ambitious business owner in 1950s Harlem. He is a dedicated family man who strives to achieve the best he can within the limits placed on him. Ray also happens to be a criminal who uses his furniture store as a front for dealing in stolen items. Due to his seedy upbringing and criminal experiences from his past, Ray has inside knowledge of Harlem’s underbelly. This double identity helps support his family, although they know nothing about it. Ray is forced to lean more heavily on his crooked side in order to protect his feckless cousin Freddy. When Freddie pulls off an especially foolhardy heist, he and Ray become targets for some influential people of the Park Avenue crowd. This time, he needs to tightrope between his two identities in order protect all that he has built. As Ray’s interior conflict rages, the escalating riots and looting in the background mirror his turmoil. A flawed but sympathetic character, Ray’s flexible moral compass is a consequence of the surrounding systemic racism. Whitehead points out how the resulting dichotomies reflect a lack of choice—a reality that forces some to bend the law in order to thrive. Ray becomes a crook because society does not permit him to achieve his desires and goals without doing so. Written with great wit and style, Harlem Shuffle is a perfectly paced and engrossing novel. It underscores Whitehead’s prodigious talent for blending strong social commentary with pure entertainment.

Thanks to the author, Doubleday and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Doubleday
I enjoyed this book immensely. It was extremely evocative of the time and place. It seemed to me to bring Harlem of the mid 20th century to life and I felt I could be a fly on the wall. Okay, so Carney was a little bit, maybe more than a little bit, bent but he tried so hard and loved his family so much, cared for his employees and he was just kind of a lovable guy.
And another plus, it hardly made me cry at all, which I cannot say for some of his previous books. It kind of made me think of the Leonid McGill series by Walter Mosley. In fact, I wish there would be a sequel to this book.
Four resounding loved it stars.

REVIEW: ⭐⭐⭐
I was so interested to read Colson Whitehead's newest novel for a couple of reasons. First, I loved the Underground Railroad and have The Nickel Boys on my shelf and secondly, because I like to immerse myself in a world that is different than mine. The only experience I have had in Harlem is running through it in the NY Marathon. I feel like each time I read a novel about things I have little knowledge, I can only grow and gain perspective. I feel like this book gave me new understanding of the people of Harlem in the 60s. That being said, I struggled through this book. I listened and had the digital copy in front of me, but could not get into it...there was something missing. I do appreciate Whitehead's beautiful words and descriptions...I truly felt Harlem, just felt like the story moved around too much and didn't grip me. I really wanted this to be a 5 star read because I am a fan. I just wanted to be grabbed like I was in Underground Railroad...and I wasn't.

I practically tore through this book. The writing, the story, the interactions of the characters, the descriptions it was raw, and thoughtful and beautiful. It seems simple at times but is complex at the same time. I really enjoy the writing and the story and sat there thinking "if something happens to Carney I will lose it!"

I own The Nickel Boys but haven't read it yet, and that is going to have to be rectified soon after reading this.