Whitehead places you in Harlem in the late 50s early 60s with a businessman who tries to convince himself and others that he isn't as shady as he appears. Following protagonist Carney through the turbulent years of this story, getting to know all the colorful characters he encounters on the way and wandering by his side through the vibrant streets of 1960s Harlem was an interesting way to introduce characters and plot. This is a total switch-up from Whitehead’s previous two acclaimed novels. The story of a furniture store owner in Harlem in the 1950s and 60s who walks the fine line between legit businessman and small-time (encroaching on big-time) criminal. Ray Carney and Harlem in the years 1959, 1961 and 1964. Ray Carney works as a furniture salesman who occasionally receives stolen goods through his furniture store, also helping out his cousin Freddie, a Harlem underworld criminal. Through Freddie, Ray finds himself getting involved in criminal activities. Ray’s father was a full time criminal underworld figure and Ray is trying not to follow in his father’s footsteps. This book is different from the previous book I have read by Whitehead and although the writing can be engaging at times the story and overall pace of the book really fell flat, I was disappointed in the overall book. Although this book is not for me I believe others may find it engaging and enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley, Colson Whitehead, and Doubleday Books for the ARC.

Morally gray characters are a special breed of protagonists (or antagonists). Their actions are one thing, but the reasons creators give for those actions are often far more interesting. In the case of Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead keeps his main character's reasons simple: money, and a racist social system set up against him. As easy as it is to define why Raymond Carney does what Raymond Carney does, it never feels obvious and I hadn't the faintest idea of how the book would end until the very last page.

Raymond—or "Ray," but mostly just "Carney"—is a young entrepreneur trying desperately to escape the cloud of his father's lengthy criminal career. He's got a good start to it, running a used and new furniture store on the up and up. New businesses take time to really be profitable, which his in-laws don't seem to understand, and things are a little extra rough when we meet Carney because he's got a whole lot of nice radio sets to sell when all his customers seem to be more interested in televisions. Still, he believes in his little store.

Then, his cousin Freddie shows up asking for a favor—rather, telling Carney he's volunteered him for a job. Freddie helps supply Carney with some of his merchandise (whose owners may or may not have consented to it being resold) and they're close like brothers, not to mention Freddie's already told all other involved parties that Carney's in on the gig, so Carney reluctantly agrees. The job turns out to be a heist of safes in a swanky hotel geared toward well-to-do Black people. Carney's role is to fence the stolen jewels. But the crew pulling the heist is not the only one in town and soon Carney is neck-deep in the same world he's more or less tried to remove himself from.

That's part one. Harlem Shake is a novel in three parts that all take place within about five years. During that time, Carney performs a delicate dance in and out of crime. At turns, he is a reluctant patsy, a man with a vendetta and connections to unsavory characters, and resigned to his mostly unwanted place on the fringe between legitimacy and criminality. But he is also shown to try—really try—to play it straight, but the world he inhabits won't let him. His in-laws make their expectations for their daughter and grandchildren clear and Carney can't provide that without the little extra he has coming in on the side. He tries to invest in his future but the upper-crust people he thought he could trust prove themselves to be worse than the crooks he's trying to distance himself from. And no matter where he goes or what he does, his race makes him a certain kind of invisible that no amount of legitimacy can remove.

Carney's story is one quite foreign to my own experience. I'm a white woman, for one thing, and I'm writing this about fifty years removed from the events in Harlem Shuffle. I have little lived experience that mirrors the events here, though Whitehead's writing is rich enough that that's not a huge deal. But it seems like just as glaring is my lack of familiarity with Harlem and the broader New York City area. (I assume it's hardly anything like the aggregate of Law & Order: SVU, Gossip Girl, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has taught me.) I live in a city but not THE city; the Big Apple's still on my wanderlust list, and with how this pandemic's going maybe it'll be safe to travel again sometime in the mid-2030s. Several jokes and references felt as though they would be more meaningful if I had the background to catch them rather than just watching them sail over my head—though to be fair, none were necessary to understand the main plot.

Whitehead deserves every honor thrown his way, and the acclaim he's gotten for Harlem Shuffle is no exception. I first encountered his work in his stunning zombie novel, Zone One, and have yet to be disappointed. His voice is so rich a soft, like a story whispered not to you but within earshot. That same voice drives the story in Harlem Shuffle; it also runs so insistently through the plot that you must pay attention or you will miss something vital, which I did a few times and had to go back and read more carefully. Whitehead also has little patience for reminding readers about this character or that, and I found after I put the book down for a couple of weeks when real life got hectic that when I picked it up again, I had trouble remembering some of the nuance of the story. Obviously, this isn't a criticism, but I would advise reading Harlem Shuffle when you can read it all. But do read it when it comes out next month (in bookstores everywhere Sept. 14!)—every last morally gray choice deserves your due consideration.

Posted on Ring Reads August 31, but I neglected to post until my year-end cleanup. Apologies.

Ray Carney is an upstanding citizen. He comes from a family of criminals, but he’s put himself on the street Enero. He runs a furniture store in Harlem and makes an honest living, although at his cousin Freddie’s insistence, he sometimes sells stolen goods through his furniture store as well. He’s a good, compassionate man - he too often sees family struggling and ends up offering installment plans. With a second child on the way, Ray is in some financial straits. Freddie is in on the seedier side of Harlem, and after a heist of a prominent Black hotel goes wrong, Freddie tugs Ray deeper and deeper into the dark side, sending all of his criminal contacts to fence goods through Ray.

I am so bummed to say that I didn’t love this book the way I thought I would. Colson Whitehead’s writing is unmatched - there’s no doubt about that. His prose is powerful, and the way he develops complex characters into good, bad, struggling, successful, empathetic, selfish - all of the contradictions - is such a close mirror to how humans actually ARE in real life. Ray is an intensely complicated character, and through the saga of his family and his (perhaps?) decline, you see him in every light possible.

But what was lacking for me in this book was the plot. It’s by no means necessary to have a strong plot moving the narrative forward (I admit I do like it when there is, though), but for a book that could be something like Fargo, with fencing and criminal activities and a HEIST, there was really very little excitement or intrigue in the plot itself.

I still enjoyed this book, what felt like a character study to me, but just wish there was a little more in terms of plot. Thank you to Doubleday for the ARC via Netgalley!

Harlem is fading. The crime isn’t as criminal as it should be. As it was. Soon much of it would be razed by progress. Ray Carney has a furniture store that is a legit success. But there is a dark underside. He fences stolen goods for his beloved cousin, Freddie. The same, “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble,” Freddie of their shared childhood. Colson Whitehead’s writing is so good. I wanted Carney to win and Freddie to get away. #HarlemShuffle # ColdonWhitehead
Thanks to #netgalley for an advanced copy of this good read.

Is this a series? Can this be a series?- These were the thoughts I had as I finished this book. It was everything I want from a noir-tinged heist book, and more. The setting of Harlem, NYC over the span of three sections from 1959 to 1964 comes alive in this book. Ray Carney is a clever family man who is pulled into a situation he wanted no part of by a cousin, but it takes him down a path of deeper side hustles, and darker connections. But he is a man who learns, grows, and is nothing if not enterprising.

What Whitehead does so well is to plant seeds so effortlessly that you don't immediately see the connections of this earlier NYC with the current state of the world. But as the story unfurls more, it becomes that much more clear that our past continues to inform and shape our present.

I thoroughly enjoyed the character evolution, the community of characters he interacts with, and the sharp dialogue. It was deeper and more engaging than I even expected, though I should have had high expectations given the fact that it's a Colson Whitehead book. And I really hope he revisits this setting and character in the future.

I would like to thank Doubleday for access to the digital advanced readers copy in exchange for a fair review.

2.5 stars rounded up.

I just noticed that in two recent reviews I've used the word "off-putting" to describe why the books didn't rate more than 3 stars. I hate to be redundant, so I'm going to try not use that term any more.

This book was not "that term" but I am wondering why it took me so long to finish it and to stay engaged. The story was unique and written well, just nothing special. I liked the main character, Carney, but felt something missing in conveying why he straddled the line between respectable businessman and sometime crook. I get that it was complicated. Just not very interesting. At times repetitive; other times meandering. I skimmed those parts.

My expectations may have been too high from this Pulitzer winner.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my early copy.

I had high hopes for this Colson Whitehead novel. Harlem Shuffle is such a great title. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the read and I about gave up on it many times. The story of the crooked men behind seemingly legit businesses in Harlem was disjointed and disappointing. I’m really glad so many love his stories. But I honestly just don’t. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced read and I’m sorry my thoughts weren’t more positive.

Wow. I had a totally different experience reading this than expected. Maybe I had too high of expectations due to the early reviews? Also, my lack of engagement has a lot ylto do with the subject. I just didn't fall in l9ve with the characters or the storyline.

I signed up to read an early release via Netgalley because Colsen is an amazing writer. I just thought it would be more historical fiction, less about robbery and hard times.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s not quite what I envisioned, but it did work on several levels. I think Whitehead does a good job of blending genres, although I’m not sure I would recommend this to someone who genuinely likes heist/action/thriller type novels. I don’t think there’s enough here to satisfy them. But as historical/literary fiction it’s good.

This was my first Whitehead nove and I’m eager to read his other award winning books.

I had to start this book twice and I’m still not sure that I enjoyed it. I can’t list anything I didn’t like, it just never grabbed my interest and kept it. It had bright spots that I enjoyed but overall it wasn’t for me.

A fun, twisty turning masterpiece from a wonderful, inventive writer. It makes you wonder what Colson Whitehead will do next! I turned the pages so quickly!

DNF HARLEM SHUFFLE - rating it at 5 stars as I didn't even start it, but simply do not have the time nor the energy to read it. May pick it up again at some point in the future.

I loved Harlem Shuffle. This book was excellent. It was very different from the other Colson Whitehead books I've read, and in some ways reminded me of Blacktop Wasteland and that style of book. Still, I loved the plot and found the book to be an excellent read.

Once again, Colson Whitehead has written a phenomenal book. The storytelling in this book is worth 5 stars by itself, but the story was woven together in such a way that really brought all the storylines together. While this is classified as a mystery, I didn't get much of a mystery vibe from this book. What I did get was a story about how your upbringing always plays a part in your choices. Even when you are doing your best to distance yourself from a less than ideal childhood and parents. It also shows how its difficult to overcome your socio-economic status, even with education and playing by the rules.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book. While I enjoyed the setting and the plot, reading it was not a pleasant experience. The author kept wandering off in different directions and almost every paragraph kept taking me out of the story. I think this is one of these rare books that would be much better as a movie (with a slightly different screenplay)

Thank you to Doubleday and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel for my honest opinion.

I am not a big reader of a heist novel. I had a tough time getting into Colson Whitehead's novel about crime in 1960's Harlem. I really wanted to root for Ray Carney but he just couldn't keep himself out of trouble, could he?
A cast of many, many interesting named characters had me struggling to retain who was who.

I am giving stars for the writing. Whitehead is a beautiful writer and there were parts of the story that I was really into.

Overall, Harlem Shuffle is a great read if crime novels are what you are looking for.

I enjoyed reading Harlem Shuffle. The characters were well drawn and the plot interesting. The era and setting were unusual. I would highly recommend this novel.

A sensitive and enlightening tale of one man’s journey to become a respectable member of society in Harlem.
No matter where you come from it seems there are always “right” and “wrong” sides of the track and Harlem is no exception. And, just like any other place, those on the “right” side have all the same character flaws and primal instincts as those on the “wrong” side though they are able to disguise them with money and influence. Oftentimes, they are just the more successful criminals.

I wish I could like this book but this was a miss for me. The writing as usual was lovely, however, the book felt like 3 different books and plots in the same book. The second part dragged for me too much and I didn't get the point of it. The last part was my favourite part though.

The characters were interesting though and I loved seeing the way the time was described. Will definitely read more from the author but I also think there was some mis-marketing with this where this book was described as a 'heist' novel and the heist bit got over in just a few pages.

I loved The Nickel Boys so much and this was one of my most anticipated releases for the year. Unfortunately, it just did not work for me. I think it was more of my expectations and not so much the book that made me feel that way. I still look forward to what Colson Whitehead writes next as the writing is also amazing.