Not having read any of Whitehead's previous novels, I wasn't sure what to expect, other than a good read. TBQH, I'm still not sure what to expect, and I finished this days ago. The writing was wonderful, the story was gritty and somewhat violent, and yet there was such a depth of feeling and love. This is not the usual type of book I would gravitate towards, and I don't know exactly what I read here, but it was good, and it was worth it, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience it.

My thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the ARC. My review is based on honest opinion and has been in no way influenced by either company.

The book sounded promising. Set in Harlem in the 1960s, Ray Carney is the central character straddling being a decent family man on one hand and a loyal cousin on the other. The latter is what leads up down a crooked path, despite his misgivings and is the fulcrum of the book…or maybe Harlem is? The storyline of Ray getting embroiled in a burglary that cousin Freddie is involved in is set against the historical backdrop of 1960s Harlem. Along the way we’re introduced to a cast of characters so vast it was difficult to keep track. Some are directly related to the plot, many others not, but introduced to provide perspective and background of Harlem during that time in history. Overall it felt like the story drifted precariously in the wind and the author didn’t provide much incentive to be vested in any of characters. I felt the plot played second fiddle to the glorious ode to Harlem, which may have been the author’s intent. One can totally feel the author’s love and affection for Harlem - warts and all. In that regard the book gives the reader great historical insight into what Harlem was like in the 1960s. I wish the plot and background complemented each other better - that would have made for a much smoother read. Overall, still an okay read; others may enjoy it more than I did. Many thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Colson Whitehead could write about the nail polish drying on my fingers and I'd give it five stars. Beautiful writing, engaging plot (if slower-moving than his other novels) and interesting, nuanced characters.

At first, Harlem Shuffle seems like a departure from Colson Whitehead's most recent two novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, which were both overtly about race in America. Harlem Shuffle begins with the story of Ray Carney, a man who was born and raised in Harlem, left behind by his mother's death at age 9, and forgotten more often than not by his father, a small-time criminal. Initially, it seems that the story is just about Carney, but as you progress through the novel, you see all of the same conversations from The Underground Railroad, and the Nickel Boys, hidden underneath the capers and family drama.
At the open, we find Carney running a small furniture store, a graduate of Queens College, father of one with another on the way, married to a beautiful, smart wife. Carney is trying to be bigger than his origins.

The events of the novel really set off when Carney's cousin Freddie, who is more like a brother than a cousin, brings Carney's name into a heist that's being planned. Carney, who occasionally sells stolen TVs and radios that his cousin brings his way, is suddenly playing a much bigger role in the underground. Freddie's decision to suggest Carney as a fence in the caper is the moment that Carney's trajectory is really set. Each decision he makes going forward is downstream of that event.

While the story moves through periods of Carney's life, jumping from 1959 to 1961 to 1964, the effects of Freddie's momentary lapse of judgement always appear. The dynamic between Carney and Freddie, from boyhood to manhood is seen in the refrain "I didn't mean to get you in trouble," which Freddie utters every time his fortune entwines with his cousin's for the worse. Whitehead really makes you consider though, if the blame for Carney's situation really lies with Freddie. Given every opportunity to turn away from the more criminal of his enterprises, Carney still usually takes that path, in spite of his constant turmoil of wanting to give his wife and children the security and comfort that he never had.

Whitehead paints a vivid picture of the Harlem of the fifties and sixties, through the lens, not just of Carney, but also his wife Elizabeth, born to a light-skinned, respected family, who chooses to forgo the more upright path her parents saw for her, instead working for a travel agency that caters to African Americans looking to ensure their safety while traveling, and also activist groups like the Freedom Riders, CORE, etc. We also see Harlem through Carney's Aunt Millie, mother of Freddie, a hardworking nurse at Harlem Hospital, whose husband leaves for large stretches of time to stay with his second family in Miami. Carney's in-laws openly disdain their son-in-law, who they see as a the son of a petty criminal, beneath their daughter and not fit to be the father to their grandchildren. The in-laws project old-time values onto an ever changing Harlem. When Carney is invited to interview for a coveted spot in a fraternal organization that his father-in-law belongs to, it is understood that he is there as a diversity pick, to show how they are opening their doors to darker skinned men who are not judges or doctors. The Harlem of Carney's time is less Duke Ellington and more Muhammad Ali. Even the police officer that Carney works with says of the men who work for him that "two of [them] are college types, look like Jewish civil rights agitators, and the other two are young Negroes who walk around with copies of The Fire Next Time in their back pockets. You hear old-timers grumbling about the number of Negro cops, but who else is going to go inside? Some fat, red-faced Mick who hasn't done a day's work in years?" Carney's father's childhood haunts are either completely boarded up or have been supplanted, making room for nicer, shinier businesses.

The city's changes shape Carney's life. Near the end of the novel, Carney spends the night at his store, watching for looters during the '64 riots after a police officer kills a 14-year-old boy. Carney's father was killed by the police also. Whitehead doesn't have Carney reflect on that when the riots begin, leaving you to consider if Carney's father's death at the hands of the police being accepted as just more of the same was meant to contrast with the communal outrage only a couple of decades later of a young black child at the hands of police. Everywhere Carney goes, the scourge of drugs has laid its hands on the city. The final events of the book pull Carney into the web of the drug crisis as well as the power struggle of old Harlem and shiny, new Manhattan-adjacent Harlem. Carney walks downtown to the spot where he used to have TVs and radios repaired by an old mom-and-pop electronics shop, long ago turned into a fancy TV store, only to see the entire block's been razed to make room for the World Trade Center site. This is where we leave Carney, the shifting tides of his world, the smallness gone, and Carney left to manage in the same way of the generations before him, faced with social turmoil and upheaval.

This was a romping, goodtime of a book, managing to be contemplative and visceral, gritty and heartbreaking, all at the same time.

*****
It's an absolute blast to read @colsonwhitehead's Harlem Shuffle (out today!). A smart, funny and vivid crime story that goes down easy, while never forgetting the complexity of its roots. A sequel is already in the works and I can't wait.

What I really loved about this book was that it enabled me to enter into a world and a culture that was totally different than my own. Raised as I was in a pristine , all white, New England community in the 1960's , getting to know Ray Carney and the variety of other characters that were doing the Harlem Shuffle during this same era was eye opening in the best sense. Whitehead's novel makes that word real and accessable through creating characters that are both interesting and fully human, and then putting them in situations that fully engage the reader's attention and empathy. A wonderful reading experience.

Yesterday was #pubday for Harlem Shuffle and try as I might I couldn’t get it finished in time for posting! Thank you to @netgalley and @doubledaybooks for the eARC.

I wanted to read this one because I adored The Underground Railroad (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) and I want to read The Nickel Boys, but just haven’t gotten to it yet. After reading Harlem Shuffle, though, I might be bumping it up. 😉

Harlem Shuffle follows the slightly shady, mostly straight and narrow character of Ray Carney in Harlem circa the 1960s. Carney grew up in a family of slightly shady individuals just trying to get by and marries the daughter of a well-to-do African American family less than thrilled to have him as a son-in-law.

Carney navigates life on a slippery slope of heists, furniture sales, rip offs, etc. You just don’t know how he’s going to handle the next punch and you can’t help but like the guy!

One thing I really liked about this book was I learned something new! Did you know that before the invention of the light bulb we used to have two sleeps? Whitehead has Carney’s character go through a period of dorvay, which is actually a mishearing of the French term “dorveille.” This was a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night where most people took care of certain businesses (i.e. read, prayed, wrote or even conceived ::wink wink::) during the midnight hours. Simply put, we’d go to sleep when the sun went down, wake for a bit, then go back to sleep until the sun rose. Our normal sleep rhythm before Thomas Edison came along💡. Needless to say, I did a little side research while reading this novel.

I highly recommend this one, especially if you’ve read his previous work(s). Harlem Shuffle does not disappoint and it officially published yesterday, so go pick up a copy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

"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."

How do you follow up a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel? If you're Colson Whitehead, the answer is easy. You simply write another Pulitzer winner. That's what he did with his last two efforts, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. Each of those books told powerful stories dealing with slavery and racism, unflinching portraits of a nation's tragic history. I adored both novels, and have been not so patiently waiting for Whitehead to write something new. The hype surrounding his first Pulitzer win was massive, so you can imagine the anticipation with which the world has waited for this follow-up to his second. The fine folks at Doubleday granted me access to an advanced copy of Whitehead's latest book Harlem Shuffle. While this new work is not nearly as serious as his previous two efforts, it is nonetheless impactful.

Ray Carney is a man between two worlds. In 1959 Harlem, everybody knows everybody. To most of the community, Ray is known as the upstanding owner of Carney's Furniture, a modest business on 125th street that sells good quality furniture at a reasonable price. It isn't much, but it's an honest living. Could things be better? Of course. Despite a decent living, money can be tight. Ray and his wife live in a small apartment that the impending birth of their second child will officially render too small. This is where the other side to Ray begins to emerge. You see, he's the son of a well-known crook, the kind of man who is completely counter to the honest businessman Ray has worked to become. Ray's struggled to carve his own path away from the shadow of his father for years, but the need for a higher cash flow is about to darken that path again.

It begins innocently enough. Ray's cousin, Freddie, periodically shows up to the store with a random piece of jewelry. Ray doesn't ask where the items come from, but he's happy to take them off Freddie's hands. A little extra income off the books never hurts. But then Freddie begins to escalate things. He joins a group of gangsters in a plot to rob a prominent hotel and volunteers Ray to hold and sell whatever loot is gained. The heist goes off with plenty of complications that place Ray in the sight of the worst kind of people. Suddenly his quiet family business becomes the meeting place for criminals, dirty cops, and other lowlifes who call Harlem home. As the novel progresses, Ray struggles to balance the two sides of himself, the cracks between them threatening to dismantle his entire livelihood.

Harlem Shuffle sees Colson Whitehead writing a story that places his readers directly into the heart of Harlem during the early 1960s. His descriptions of the place and people who inhabit it are as real as any of his previous characters, the kind of folks whom you could easily see passing on the streets as you visit the city. There's a lightness and sense of fun to this novel that wasn't present in his previous two works but don't let that fool you. Beneath the surface lies the kind of thoughtful commentary on race, class, and morality that readers have come to expect from this celebrated author. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed this book as much as I did other Whitehead novels. The opening portions of the book took a bit too long to establish the story for my taste. Still, the latter half of the novel had me breezing through the pages, breathlessly reading to see how the ending would play out. The uneven pace of this one is perhaps more noticeable because of the stellar plotting of Whitehead's last two books. Still, there's plenty about Harlem Shuffle to marvel at. Sometimes a great author writes a great book while other times they merely write a good book. I think that's the case with this one. It won't be my favorite book written by Colson Whitehead, but it certainly is a joy to read.

I never thought I would say this about a Coleson Whitehead book, but Harlem Shuffle is not for me, which I’m disappointed about because it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The writing is fantastic, sharp and crisp. But I just can’t get excited about the characters. There’s a lot of stuff going on, but it just doesn’t feel interesting to me. I decided to walk away from this book halfway through and will try to revisit at a later time.

3.5 stars

A love letter to Harlem.

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

Ray Carney wants to go straight. He really does but when he opens a furniture store and money gets tight so when his cousin Freddy drops off a ring or two, Ray doesn't ask questions. Neither does the jeweler downtown. But it doesn't stop there, good ole Cousin Freddy and his crew plan to rob the “Waldorf of Harlem” Guess what? It doesn't go as planned. Now Ray who hoped to go straight, to provide for his wife and family has a new shadier clientele. Now Ray is walking a straight rope so to speak between being a bad guy/crook and being a hard worker running a business.

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

Set in the 1950's and 1960's, Colson Whitehead gives readers a glimpse into Harlem during that time. Harlem is very much a character in this book as well.

Colson Whitehead first caught my attention with The Underground Railroad and I was curious about this book. While this one did not grab me or leave me thinking as The Underground Railroad did. I found this book slow to start and it took some time for it to grab my attention. But it eventually grabbed my attention and I found this to be enjoyable. He is a gifted writer and storyteller. He does a little humor here and if you are looking for this book to be like his other books you will either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised. While I enjoyed this one, I wasn’t blown away.

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Bygone era in Harlem brought to life
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2021
This was a great read on so many levels. The story is compelling. Ray’s double life as a furniture salesman and a fence infuses the narrative with lots of challenges (both moral and otherwise) to be overcome. The characters are well drawn and easy to like even if they are not always on the up and up.

The best part of this novel, however, is the way it animates the Harlem of the 1960s. Clearly, Whitehead is a fantastic writer and he uses his well-honed skill give the reader an immersive experience.

I hope this is the first of many Ray Carney novels because I am curious about what happens to him and his family moving forward. Bravo!!

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Although the writing style and atmospheric tension of the novel was great, there were various sections of the story where I was incredibly bored and confused by the convoluted pacing of the novel. One thing I noticed was that there was way too much technical discussion on the culture and regularities of carpentry/radio; I understand that since this is the main character’s line of work, it would be reasonable for this to be mentioned, but many of the discussions on his work were too technical to be understood by someone who isn’t in that field, and appeared too frequently to brush off and move on from. Characters would be introduced once by name on page 30, for example, with little to no context as to who they are and how they correlate to the main character, and then brought up again on page 200, again, with little information about their character. Also, much of the heist scenes were very robotic and monotonous, devoid of any excitement.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4140496512

Harlem Shuffle

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Colson Whitehead’s newest novel takes us to Harlem in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Rough around the edges, Ray Carney is determined to make his furniture store a success and move past the stereotypical tropes about his race in pre civil rights America.

Told in three parts, Harlem Shuffle explores Ray’s world as he grapples with the struggle of being his ideal citizen vs. what his past says he should be.

Marketed as a thriller, I found Harlem Shuffle slower moving and harder to get into vs. some of Whitehead’s earlier works. While compelling and a window into a moment in time, I struggled to connect with the stories and the character development outside of Ray which could have added great context to the work.

Thanks to DoubleDay Books, Colson Whitehead and Net Galley for the ARC!

Such a great book! I don't want to call it fun, because that's not quite right, but engrossing and entertaining might be better. The setting, the characters, the heist, and the payback are all so good. I can definitely see this going straight to movie or series.

The setting is New York City and specifically Harlem during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and that gives the story such an awesome vibe. The main character is a self-made man with a furniture store and a little something shady, too. He is a small-time middle man who takes items of questionable provenance to the right people. And then his cousin gets him involved in a heist where he will be the driver. But that’s not exactly what happens.

Mr. Whitehead shows the reader a peek at the underbelly, while also reveling in the successes. Drugs and poverty are present. Racial tensions turn violent at times, but always people keep on keeping on. The importance of family and those you consider family runs through the novel, as does pride of ownership.

My thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Whitehead steps away from the supernatural here to follow the life of a man trying to live a lawful life but unable to resist the needs of family, friends, and others who seek to lure him into being the middle man for all sorts of exchanges. The plot seemed almost secondary, as the real story was about the city, and specifically about Harlem during several decades of the mid-20th century. Shops open and close, people come and go, the drugs change, the music unfurls through it all, and the city heat and chill envelop you as you read.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is the story of what it was like living in Harlem in the 1960s. There were crimes, riots, racism, more importantly, families.

Ray Carney is a furniture salesman with a secret: an upstanding man by day, a malefactor by night. The only thing on his agenda is to keep his family safe.

It's not easy to keep a family safe with a cousin like Freddie. Freddie and Ray are as thick as thieves.

The pair run into situations that involve a cast of chancy characters.

I got a kick out of this read. I love the crime genre. This year I have had the opportunity to expand my horizon and read many books by and about other cultures. I appreciate the power of diversity.

A well-written book that you cannot miss. Problematical and very entertaining!

Colson Whitehead is an undoubtedly skilled writer! This book reminds me a bit of James McBride storytelling style, but with a lot less humor. I really like the characters Whitehead created in this story, but the action of the story feels less engaging. I would try reading this at another time, but at the moment I haven't finished. This is my first attempt at reading this author, and while I'm putting it aside I am not at all discouraged from his blacklist. On the contrary I can see what an excellent writer he is and I am eager to read his other work which might be better suited to me.

I am recuperating from a visit to the ER over the wet, so my review is coming later this week! I loved it!

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is a historical fiction novel following Ray Carney, a furniture salesman trying to make a living to care for his wife and children. However, Ray becomes wrapped up in his cousin Freddie's illegal activities after he robs Hotel Theresa with a local gang. Soon Ray is intimated by the gang to peddle the stolen goods, bringing out the conflict between who Ray wants to be and the illegal activities historically performed by his family.

The characters in this novel were richly developed, that evolved throughout the novel. It is clear Ray is trying his best but feels conflict on how he can help his own marriage and children and his childhood family. Freddie was also an interesting character, one that you are frustrated with, but also likely recognize as the troublemaker or hurricane in your own family. However, somehow you still felt at a distance with the characters like you are watching from the outside rather than in the world. At the beginning this distance made it difficult to get into, but then the reader quickly falls into the narrative.

The novel started off slowly in the beginning, but the pacing picked up quickly once Ray become involved with Freddie's dealings. The setting that the writing create is descriptive and you can tell is well-researched and of the time. The storytelling is fantastic that is so well-written you will reread passages. Overall this was a novel with a unique premise that was well-written. I highly recommend this for those who want to read something different from what is currently in publishing and is well-written! Previous readers of Colson Whitehead will enjoy this novel!

Many thanks to the publisher Doubleday Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

As always, Whitehead's writing is engaging, detailed and a notch above everyone else! Even for a more lighthearted novel, where the material is less emotionally distressing than either The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys, Whitehead keeps the reader deeply involved in 1960s Harlem.

One of the best parts of Whitehead's novels is his strong world building. The amount of historical detail that he is able to convey without it detracting from the actual plot of the novel is tremendous.

The main character, Carney, makes for an excellent straight man and tour guide through a world that I was unfamiliar with. Sometimes, there were abrupt changes in POV that slightly confused me but once I got used to the rhythm, I greatly enjoyed it.

I know need to go back and finish up the rest of Whitehead's backlist!