Member Review
Review by
Vivienne O, Reviewer
‘Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked...'
My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. Fleet for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead in exchange for an honest review.
This is another outstanding novel from Colson Whitehead. It is a family saga with crime fiction elements set in Harlem between 1959-64.
Ray Carney runs a furniture store on 125th Street. Despite a seemingly upstanding reputation, Carney descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks. With cash tight, Ray has been accepting a few items that have ‘fallen off the back of trucks’. His cousin Freddie also occasionally drops off pieces of jewellery and Ray doesn’t enquire about their provenance. He knows a discreet jeweller downtown who also doesn't ask questions.
When Freddie falls in with a crew planning to rob the Hotel Theresa - the 'Waldorf of Harlem' - he volunteers Ray's services as the fence. When the heist goes wrong, it brings Ray into the orbit of a new clientele, that includes shady cops, minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes.
This novel was a surprise. I had read ‘The Underground Railroad’ and ‘The Nickel Boys’ and experienced both as powerful and disturbing. However, I found ‘Harlem Shuffle’ notably different in tone as it is comparably light-hearted, even though there is still plenty of grittiness and noir. Humour, even of the dry, ironic type, wasn’t a quality I had expected to find in Whitehead’s work.
Clearly the cityscape of Manhattan and New York City is very central to the narrative. I found it cinematic and easy to imagine it translating to a limited series.
Given the recent anniversary there is a small poignant moment in the 1964 section in which Carney visits downtown and sees the blocks of the old commercial district that had been razed to make way for the construction of the World Trade Centre.
Overall, another exceptional work of literary fiction from Colson Whitehead that I felt powerfully evoked the complex and vibrant Harlem community of the early 1960s through the lives of its various inhabitants. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gains him further literary prizes.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. Fleet for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead in exchange for an honest review.
This is another outstanding novel from Colson Whitehead. It is a family saga with crime fiction elements set in Harlem between 1959-64.
Ray Carney runs a furniture store on 125th Street. Despite a seemingly upstanding reputation, Carney descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks. With cash tight, Ray has been accepting a few items that have ‘fallen off the back of trucks’. His cousin Freddie also occasionally drops off pieces of jewellery and Ray doesn’t enquire about their provenance. He knows a discreet jeweller downtown who also doesn't ask questions.
When Freddie falls in with a crew planning to rob the Hotel Theresa - the 'Waldorf of Harlem' - he volunteers Ray's services as the fence. When the heist goes wrong, it brings Ray into the orbit of a new clientele, that includes shady cops, minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes.
This novel was a surprise. I had read ‘The Underground Railroad’ and ‘The Nickel Boys’ and experienced both as powerful and disturbing. However, I found ‘Harlem Shuffle’ notably different in tone as it is comparably light-hearted, even though there is still plenty of grittiness and noir. Humour, even of the dry, ironic type, wasn’t a quality I had expected to find in Whitehead’s work.
Clearly the cityscape of Manhattan and New York City is very central to the narrative. I found it cinematic and easy to imagine it translating to a limited series.
Given the recent anniversary there is a small poignant moment in the 1964 section in which Carney visits downtown and sees the blocks of the old commercial district that had been razed to make way for the construction of the World Trade Centre.
Overall, another exceptional work of literary fiction from Colson Whitehead that I felt powerfully evoked the complex and vibrant Harlem community of the early 1960s through the lives of its various inhabitants. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gains him further literary prizes.
Highly recommended.
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