3.5 stars
HARLEM SHUFFLE is my first book by acclaimed author Colson Whitehead, and I enjoyed this step back in time to Harlem in the late nineteen-fifties and early sixties. The writing is lyrical and evocative, and the characters are well drawn. The story reads like three novellas featuring protagonist Ray Carney. Carney is relatable, a mostly honest family and business man who finds himself plagued by small time crooks, mob bosses, dirty police, and crooked businessmen. His desire to be out of his disreputable father’s shadow and move up in the world is a common thread that binds the three sections of the book together. This is a lighter read than his Pulitzer Prize winning works, but I still found it pretty heavy at times and not as quick reading as I expected. Overall, it is an interesting, informative, and entertaining read.

I received an ARC of this title from Doubleday Publishers through NetGalley and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.

I just love Colson Whitehead’s writing—no one does a turn of phrase like he does. Harlem Shuffle was an interesting saga of the changing culture in the late 50’s & 60’s, seen through the lens of the “slightly bent” Ray Carney who skates the edge of criminality. He keeps getting pulled deeper into by his cousin Freddie. Almost 3 separate stories that are woven together, it was a unique historical fiction that I really enjoyed.

Ray Carney is the son of a crook. He’s college educated and owns and operates a furniture business in the heart of Harlem. Ray has hopes and dreams of a better life for himself and his wife and children. Ray is caught between two worlds . His outward profile is as a successful, professional upstanding citizen, however some of his success and income comes from selling “pre-owned” (stolen) appliances and furniture along with fencing stolen goods. The author provides an interesting history of Harlem in the late 50s early 60s.

Harlem Shuffle was my introduction to Colson Whitehead—what a phenomenal writer!
Whitehead depicts Harlem in the late 1950’s-early 60’s. His characters jump off the page, from the not quite bent furniture salesman Ray Carney to his ne’er-do-well cousin Freddie, to his uppity father-in-law, to his wife who does not know of his shady side. Whitehead paints a picture of the culture and the underbelly of this Harlem. Carney’s greatest desire is to be respectable, to rise above his father’s criminal past, to succeed and live on Riverside Drive, to live up to this wife’s standards. But it is just so hard, particularly with Freddie jumping in constantly with another caper.
I love that throughout the book, Ray remains the consummate furniture salesman—everywhere he goes, he notices the furniture. This reminded me of a method actor, who get into character and stays there throughout the run of the show.
You really need to read this book—it is just that good.

I have absolutely adored every book by Whitehead and the way that he constantly delivers a new and unique time of novel shows just how talented that he is. With that being said, it is important to always expect the unexpected. This book was an incredibly well done time piece novel set in the 1950's-60's. This is a crime novel set in Harlem during this time period and I was completely entranced in the story he is telling. I highly recommend if you are a fan of whitehead's other novels!

I so wanted to really enjoy this book but unfortunately I didn’t. I gave this book 2.75 stars and rounded it up to 3 stars on good reads.

This book is about a man named Ray and it goes through several years of his life in Harlem. He owns a used furniture store that he bought or inherited from a former employer. Business is slow at the beginning and he has to go to people who are saling off things either because they money or a family member has passed away. He is so worried about following in his footsteps. He has a wife who is pregnant and a daughter. He does want to do better by them. His in-laws really don’t like him because he is a furniture sales man even though he owns his own store.

As the story goes on it tells about him always being there for his cousin who is constantly in trouble. He allows his cousin to do this to him. This causes him to actually follow in his father’s footsteps.

Those were some of the things I didn’t like. Now the things I learned and were interesting. Harlem is a rough area and blacks had it rough even in this area. Cops and drug lords or gang leaders required you to make a weekly pay off to keep your business safe. Learning about Harlem and how people survived and interacted back then was an eye opener.

In conclusion, I like his writing style because once I opened up the book I was able to read quickly. The wanting to open the book was the problem it just didn’t draw me to it. I enjoyed his book The Underground Railroad so I will continue to read his books.

If you took a historical fiction novel and a murder mystery novel and married it to an old detective radio show your get this book.

I have several of this Whitehead’s books on my TBR list but this is the first I’ve read so I was excited to read Harlem Shuffle. I found myself easily able to picture the characters and the locations within the book as the writing itself was well done. I found the concept intriguing and especially loved the iconic imagery.

With that said, I found myself unable to connect with or get into it for extended periods. I felt my interest in the story ebb often. This particular book just wasn't for me. However, I believe that others will love this book.

Voluntarily reviewed after receiving a free copy courtesy of NetGalley, the Publisher, and the author, Colson Whitehead.

Colson Whitehead is a new to me author whose past successes I had heard of so when I had the chance to read his newest book, Harlem Shuffle, I decided to take the chance. The story begins in 1959 Harlem with Ray Carney, the owner of Carney’s Furniture. Carney was mainly raised by his criminal father and has worked hard to make himself into an upstanding citizen and good husband to wife Elizabeth and father to his children. Unfortunately for Ray, his cousin Freddie pulls him occasionally into the other side, bringing him into contact with questionable people he begins to do business with. He makes justifications for his forays into the criminal side of things and as things get more intense, he must decide which side he will walk on.

It is very evident that Whitehead has a knack for putting words on paper. I was mesmerized by the story at times, but at other times had a hard time keeping up mostly due to the multitude of characters. The story jumps into three different times and occasionally I found myself lost. Some of my favorite parts were when Ray reminisced or talked with family which gave me insight into his backstory. This book intrigued me enough that I look forward to reading his backlist.

I gave this book three stars and I thank the publisher Doubleday and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this it for my honest review.

This is by Colson Whitehead, need I say more? I mean there is a good reason he's won some many big awards! This is a different kind of book than his two Pulitzer prize winning novels. There a lot of fun in this one, but tension too. Just a really good read.

We have a tendency to want to categorize writers, to pigeonhole them. We like to label them by way of their output: sci-fi writers and literary writers and mystery writers and horror writers and romance writers and on and on and on. It’s easy to do and generally accurate – even authors who diversify tend to be primarily identified by one label, so when we get writers that aren’t so readily tagged, we’re not entirely sure what to call them.

Colson Whitehead is an author who defies those sorts of labels. He’s written speculative fiction – sci-fi and horror. He’s written historical fiction. He’s written immersive participatory nonfiction and literary satire. Really, one of the few descriptors shared across his body of work is “excellent.” As far as previous books go, he’s eight-for-eight.

His latest is “Harlem Shuffle,” a crime novel of sorts that offers a vivid look at the Harlem of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. It’s got potboiler DNA, packed with capers and unsavory elements, but all of it is informed by the narrative brilliance of the author. The result is a wild ride of a novel, one that focuses on one man’s inner struggle with his past and present, wherein he seeks to do right by his family while also being the man he wants to be.

Any book by Whitehead is an event – the guy’s last two novels each won the Pulitzer Prize (“The Underground Railroad” in 2017; “The Nickel Boys” in 2020) – but this one feels like something of a throwback. It’s plenty sophisticated and carries forward many of the themes Whitehead traditionally explores in his work, but “Harlem Shuffle” is a looser read, content to lean into the narrative and let the story be what it will be.

And what it will be is outstanding.

Carney lives in Harlem with his wife and child; they’ve got another on the way. He’s a hard worker, a striver; he owns his own furniture store right there on 125th Street. It’s been a climb – he comes from a family of crooks and cons – but he’s played it straight. Well … mostly straight, at any rate. Sure, his wife’s parents don’t think he’s good enough for her – they’re among the city’s Black elite – but he does what he has to do to take care of his family.

He’s doing pretty well for himself, offering a selection of new and gently-used furnishings to his discerning clientele. He’s also reasonable with regard to installment plans, which earns him some goodwill but sometimes leaves him a touch cash-strapped. So if part of his income springs from the sale of items delivered with … questionable provenance, well, what of it? Maybe his cousin Freddie shows up with some jewelry or whatever, Carney knows a guy who can help move it along. As he himself thinks of it, he’s only slightly bent when it comes to being crooked.

But as time passes, Carney finds the draw of the shadier side of the street more and more compelling. And when Freddie’s actions pull him into the periphery of a heist that brings him to the attention of some of the bigger fish in the Harlem pond – on both sides of the law – he’s left to confront his own morality. Like it or not, he’s in it. He’s in the game, torn between the upstanding citizen and the unsavory criminal. How deep remains to be seen.

How far is he willing to go? Can he stay on the (mostly) straight and narrow? Is he going to prove to be far more his father’s son than he ever would have believed possible? Or can he somehow maintain this balancing act, a foot in both worlds? All while operating in a powder keg of a city set to explode?

“Harlem Shuffle” is divided into three sections, set a few years apart – 1959, 1961 and 1964. Whitehead takes us along on Carney’s journey; we’re right there as he deals with the myriad shifts and changes in his world. We’re privy to the choices he makes – both good and bad – as he floats in the gray area between the straight world and the shadows.

The evolution of Carney is fascinating to watch. We’re introduced to his fundamental dichotomy early on, but he’s engaged in a constant struggle. He wants to succeed; ideally, that success would come through socially acceptable means, but he’s enough of a pragmatist – not to mention smart and self-aware enough – to recognize that the paths provided him by the world in which he lives are limited. With each leap forward in time, while Carney’s interiority remains largely the same, the manner in which he presents to the world at large gently shifts. It’s a duality that makes for one hell of a character study.

Prominent among Whitehead’s many gifts is a remarkable ability to evoke a sense of place. “Harlem Shuffle” is no different, packed with tossed-off details that come together to breathe life into the setting. It’s so rare for a writer to be able to fully transport you, but Whitehead is so good at sending you where he wants you to be that you almost can’t help yourself – you’re going, so you might as well pack a bag.

We also get the exploration of racial dynamics that so often permeate Whitehead’s work, though in this case, they’re baked into the setting. With a few exceptions, Carney’s orbit consists entirely of fellow African-Americans – racial inequity here is an invisible constant, the water in which these fish are swimming. Even as resentment simmers and flares into protests and even riots, Carney and those of his ilk view the uneven playing field as simple reality. To their mind, you don’t protest reality – you accept it, as unpleasant as it may sometimes be. That mindset – as well as the stratified social echelons within Harlem society – provides compelling insight into this cast of characters.

And lest we forget, “Harlem Shuffle” isn’t afraid to get into the pulpier aspects of crime fiction. There are notes of inspiration drawn from the sorts of dime novels that Whitehead references numerous times within the context of the narrative. His prose isn’t nearly as purple and his storytelling isn’t nearly as grimy, but there’s some spiritual overlap there, not least in the almost compulsive readability of Whitehead’s prose. Once you’re in, you’re in – get ready to spend some time.

Look, “Harlem Shuffle” probably won’t be Colson Whitehead’s third straight Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That likelihood doesn’t change the underlying truth – that this book is fantastic. This is the work of a man who loves and respects the possibilities presented by genre, a man who is unafraid to tell the stories he wants to tell in the manner in which he wants to tell them.

Make it nine-for-nine.

Set in Harlem throughout the 1950s-1960s, Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle follows Ray Carney during three separate heists. Carney, trying to deviate from his father's background in crime, tries to keep his furniture business legitimate. However, his family and environment keep leading him back into the criminal world, and sometimes he embraces it.
I immediately knew I wanted to read this book because of the Colson Whitehead hype, but it was not what I expected. The over-arching plot is fun, and it's interesting seeing Carney evolve throughout the three parts of the book. I think Whitehead did a great job fleshing Carney out into a realistic character.
Out of the three parts, I liked the third one the best. I especially liked that Whitehead set the novella during the race riots, as it emphasized the underlying racial tensions in Harlem. Without the third part of the book, I probably would've rated this book 2 stars.
Overall, I was not engaged at all. The writing was choppy (definitely a style choice, and it just didn't vibe with my preference), and the structure was jarring to me. The three "novellas" tended to end abruptly, and I found that the endless detail made me want to skim the text as opposed to engaging with it. I also felt that most of the dialogue didn't add anything to the plot besides maybe ambiance, and the space could've been utilized better.
Although I didn't love it, I would recommend this title to those who prefer pulpy crime novels and those who don't mind a sentence fragment, lol.

Thank you to NetGalley and DoubleDay Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the writing style and vibe of this book but I found it easy to put down, I don't think this book was not for me but that doesn't make it a bad book. It was a bit slow though in addition to my lack of interest in the characters. If you're a fan of Colson Whitehead, I say give it a try.

Colson Whitehead once again proves that he can master and subvert any genre he decides to try his hand at!
I loved every page of this book and appreciated and SAVORED all the research that he put into the story (as it takes place in the neighborhood in which I live) and his characters.
Totally recommend to lovers of history, mystery and New York!

Harlem Shuffle is a lighter historical fiction/dramedy novel than Colson Whitehead’s two most recent Pulitzer winning novels (both of which I enjoyed immensely). The main character, Ray Carney, lives in Harlem in the 1960s, owns a furniture store, and wants to be successful through this legitimate business. However, his father was a small-time crook, and his cousin Freddie occasionally brings him stolen goods to resell. So, Ray struggles as he tries to escape a background of crime while enjoying the extra income it affords him. Will he attain his goal of success legitimately, or will he always be embroiled in the hustle?

Ray is a well-developed character, who I couldn’t help but cheer for. Whitehead beautifully describes the hustle of the crooks, Harlem in the early 1960s, and a diverse cast of characters.

I enjoyed this novel. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this book! Beautiful writing, loved the characters, loved the pacing. I can’t wait to read whatever Colson Whitehead writes next!

This book was so different from his last two books. I have read his earlier books but I plan on reading them, I have heard they are also much different than The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad.
I love when an author is this versatile, yet the beautiful writing is a constant.

I found the setting to be very interesting, I enjoyed reading about Harlem and New York in the 50s and 60s. The setting felt real. The characters, especially Carney were well developed. You could understand his motivations and also his struggles.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a book with a great setting and well written characters. I think it is a great choice for those who have wanted to read Colson Whitehead but maybe were hesitant to read The Nickel Boys due to the subject matter.

Full disclosure: I have read The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and thought it was amazing. I wanted to read Harlem Shuffke. I enjoyed this book and found it totally different than Underground Railroad. Set in Harlem in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, it is a story of Ray Carney who is trying to make his way by owning a radio-television and furniture shop. His father was a crook. Ray’s in-laws feel their daughter, Elizabeth, married beneath her. His father-in-law called him a peddler. Ray was trying to make enough money to buy a better apartment. He found he had to pay protection money to different people and this does not help him save money. Ray agrees to fence some items for a heist his cousin, Freddie agrees to participate in of the Hotel Theresa. There is a large cast of characters which is sometimes hard for the reader to remember who they are. I think a character list would be helpful.

I liked the writing and descriptions in the book most of the time. One of the characters I liked was Pepper. He had a hard time growing up and the fifth time he got in trouble, the judge told him he could sign up for the army or go to jail. An example of Whitehead’s writing when Ray was driving his truck and Pepper was the passenger. “Pepper rode shotgun but was in the driver’s seat.” Many times Whitehead lets us know something without just saying it. There is a bit of humor. An example of humor was when Ray inherited his father’s truck.. One day he had a flat tire and when he got the spare tire out he found $30,000 in the spare. He was so glad he had not sold the tire. Ray really does want to do good but does his environment force him into some things he should not need to do? This book was an enjoyable read. At times, however, some of the descriptions did seem to be too long. my thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

*** I received this Arc from NetGalley for my honest review.***



Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is a fictional story taking place between 1959-1961. The main character, Raymond Carney, is a Black man trying to run a successful furniture business and take care of his wife and children. He struggles to prove that he doesn’t have to rely on the crook side of himself (a legacy passed down by Big Mike, his dad.) Yet, his cousin Freddie keeps coming up with new schemes and Carney is always looking to make money. Can Carney balance the crookiness of Harlem, his business, and keep his family safe?



I was hesitate to read this novel because I didn’t care for Whitehead’s Zone One’s (a literacy Zombie fiction) writing style. But Whitehead’s (sometimes long winded) reflective writing worked for me in Harlem Shuffle. Perhaps, I prefer his realistic fiction. Or he just has a knack for historical fiction because I love this book, the plot, the themes, and the characters.



I am cautious when reading historical fiction. Will it be too depressing? Will it piss me off from all the injustices my people face? But, Harlem Shuffle had the elements I love: colorful characters, world building that places you right into that place and time—taste the food, hear the music — and high stakes hijinks that were strangely fun and pushed the story along quickly.



In Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead created a world where Black characters were the center. Like a Toni Morrison book, the usual white American narrative did not dominate this book. Colson Whitehead grounded the novel in the Black experience. There are only brief interactions with white Harlem and the white characters were too interested in money and/or power to insult Black people who were making them dough.



I never felt the rage that happens when a book is full of overt racism. Yet, the racism was there, quiet and insidious. The big issues of internalization racism, classism and colorism within the Black community poured through Carney’s narrative. Deep stuff. Yet, with all the nastiness and violence that happen it the book, I said to my partner we need to go to Harlem for a vacation. I added 60s music to a playlist so I could escape more into the atmosphere as I read Carney’s journey. I don’t know how to describe it but there is something terrifying, exciting, and addicting about Carney’s/Colson’s Harlem.



The book reads like a collection of short stories or novellas about Carney’s life. The stories all connect, but each part is a new “problem”. Carney’s life is in constantly in upheaval and conflict. But there is a balance between domestic drama and the Carney’s hidden life. Deep down, we have a Black man with a family that is just trying to make it in this world.



This book is best labeled as literary fiction. It is for readers who like well-developed characters, a clear setting, and who want to learn something about the past and the current state of society, they will love Harlem Shuffle.



Every single character got a brief story of their own. It’s brilliant how Whitehead can bring a character or place alive with a paragraph or just a few sentences. If you are a reader who likes powerful character writing, then definitely read this one. Also, adult readers of Black lit, literary fiction, historical fiction or slow burn crime fiction should give this a try.



I gave Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead a 5 out of 5 stars for the amazing character development, world building and an engaging plot.

“He’d spent so much time trying to keep one half of himself separate from the other half, and now they were set to collide. But then—they already shared an office, didn’t they? He’d been running a con on himself.”
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Harlem, 1959. Ray Carney lives in the grey area between the straight and bent. With a family and a furniture store, Ray strives to be a respected member of the neighborhood and a beloved husband and father, hoping to provide things for his family that he didn’t get as a child. Ray’s cousin, Freddie, runs with a different crowd, and convinces Ray to participate in a scheme to make some big money. Ray slowly finds himself entangled with various members of the community where he learns that everything has a price.
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This is the first book I’ve read by Colson Whitehead, so I can’t speak to how this compares with his other work, but I’m intrigued! I found Ray to be a complex and interesting character. I always appreciate a book with morally grey characters - I feel like it’s so much more accurate to how the world really is. The writing was like a walk through the park with a friend, meandering in a roundabout way along a curved path, where you can kind of see your destination but you’re not sure where you’re going until you’re there. The writing was beautiful and nuanced, but there were times I struggled with the pacing and got a little lost. This is definitely the type of book where the writing forces you to slow down to absorb every word. It started slow for me, but I was truly invested by the end. I found the last third section of the book to be my favorite, because that’s where a lot of the tension between Ray’s two lifestyles converged. A beautiful love letter to Harlem, and now I can’t wait to read more of Whitehead’s work. 4/5⭐️
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Thanks to @netgalley and @doubledaybooks for an e-arc of Harlem Shuffle!
Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4215045231

Ray Carney's father was a crook and Ray is determined to be different. A college graduate, he owns his own business, married a woman with upwardly mobile parents who don't approve of him, and has two children. But he wants to improve their lives, and if his cousin, Freddie, occasionally provides an opportunity to earn some extra cash on the side, he's not going to refuse.

Getting involved in the robbery of a hotel cements his involvement in the Harlem underworld, and he juggles his straight life with his "bent" life. But the combination of racial unrest and increased drug use in the neighborhood brings a new element of change--mainly to Freddie.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead creates such an evocative setting featuring 1960s Harlem, Midtown, and Lower Manhattan that I wanted to crawl in and experience it myself. His prose is occasionally breathtaking. #HarlemShuffle #NetGalley

This one has its moments, but wasn’t what I hoped for.

I have greatly enjoyed Whitehead’s other novels and his writing is as lovely as ever in this one, but there just wasn’t enough substance here for me.

Lighter crime novels need to be rife with action or intrigue, and this book has little of either. It’s very much a character study, which I don’t think works particularly well in crime fiction unless it figures into a complex mystery, and here’s there’s almost no mystery at all.

The book is a portrait of time and place, and a well rendered one at that. But from that perspective it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Whitehead may paint the picture better than most, but the plot isn’t especially original or exciting, and I frequently found myself desperate for more movement in the story.

I do like slower novels when they’re especially atmospheric or full of mystery, but this book’s biggest strength is in Whitehead’s masterful dialogue, so that was the high point for me. The humor is subtle but satisfying, and it’s the best part of Harlem Shuffle.