Harlem Shuffle was my first book by Colson Whitehead. I look forward to reading his other books because I have heard so many great things, but this particular book was just not for me.

Harlem Shuffle is set in Harlem in the 1960s. An interesting setting for sure, and I did enjoy the atmosphere of this story and learning more about life in Harlem in the 1960s. This story mainly focuses on a black man named Carney who runs his own furniture store in Harlem and is trying to keep his life on the up and up. But he is also swayed by the temptation to make more money through various crime schemes and ends up living a double life--operating the furniture store in daylight and getting involved in more seedy operations at night.

This is a slow paced novel, and I just did not ever really figure out the plot or the point. I tried so hard to stay interested, but it never connected with me. The story is told through many small stories, and it felt disjointed. Much of the action is told by characters recollecting the events in hindsight, and that led to a lot of "telling" without much action.

Many other reviewers call this an entertaining crime noir novel. I saw someone compare it to a Tarantino movie. And perhaps that is the problem for me, as those are movies that I also have never connected with either.

While this book had an interesting setting, it ultimately did not connect with me. However, I still hope to pick up Whitehead's other books in the future, and perhaps a different reader would enjoy Harlem Shuffle more than I did.

🚨Book Review

Harlem Shuffle
By Colton Whitehead

Unpopular Opinion Warning: ⭐️⭐️/5

Sole Behind the Story: To begin, happy pub day to Colton Whitehead. You can tell a lot of time and effort was poured into these pages, but unfortunately the book didn’t do it for me. I felt like the pages just trudged along, you weren’t ever totally sure where you were in time in the book and honestly I felt like the book could be best described as a man with his hands in his pockets walking slowly down the street. There was a lot of opportunity for the action to be described and for the characters to have more personality but everything was a slow nod. Ray Carney owns a mostly honest furniture store with the occasional “hot” item. Faced with supporting his family during slow business and keeping his crooked cousin Freddie from going to jail for one thing after another, Carney bends his “rules” a bit and works with a local jeweler to keep the cash flow coming. After a heist that goes array, Carney gets involved with new clientele including a few gangsters and corrupt cops. His only hope is to come out safely on the other end. Great concept, talented writer, but maybe not another Pulitzer. Or maybe it just wasn’t my jam.

Story Behind the Soles: Carney’s wife, Elizabeth, works for a travel agency in the 1960’s. Both professional and a nice little flair, I felt these shows would fit her vibe well.

Thank you to Doubleday for the gifted copy of the book.

Colson Whitehead is a fiction's chameleon. He has never repeated himself. Going through his backlist shows that he writes about subjects that vary. Most admirably,.Whitehead isn't afraid to tackle genres.

The Harlem Shuffle is Whitehead's foray into the crime novel. The novel takes place in Harlem. between the turbulent time of the early 60's. It revolves a furniture salesman who finds himself in a world of con artists, criminals, and gangsters.

Whitehead fully emerses himself into the story. He brings the reader into this world by bringing the reader into Harlen. I was engrossed from the first chapter. I felt like I was in this world thanks to Whitehead's keen sense of atmosphere. He has definitely done his research and embraces Harlem during this time.

Colson Whitehead once again proves with The Harlem Shuffle that he is a born storyteller.

“Big mouth, small time.”

Harlem Shuffle is an historical fiction novel from double Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead.

Carney is a small business owner in 1960s Harlem with a cousin who has from childhood often led him down a troubled path. While as kids they were shoplifting and talking back to parents, the book kicks off with adult Freddie suggesting Carney’s name for a robbery. Soon Carney becomes a fence—holding stolen goods and selling them to a third party.

The book is about Carney’s journey from a troubled, traumatizing childhood to a seemingly happy marriage, family and successful business. It’s not that Carney isn’t happy but he’s got a “crooked” side as he says.

This is an intricately plotted novel and a departure from his blockbuster Underground Railroad. It’s a departure but boy is it good. There are layers of trauma, security, inheritance and risk that cannot be explained quickly here but stay with the reader. There are many sad parts—Carney’s mother died when he was young and he was left in the care of his father who was volatile and often on the make. His best times were when he and his cousin Freddie shared a room during Carney’s time living with his aunt. When his father came back for him, he cried. This seems like his only idea of what family is and one he seeks to recreate yet risks.

The details make this book; some completely gutted me. In particular, the middle of the book where Carney tries to gain entry to a gentleman’s club and is forced to bribe a leader to allow him in, was a favorite part of the novel. In fact I liked “dorvay” the book’s middle section the most. The entire book was so moving. As I imagined the world it was easy to build an image in my mind of what Carney’s New York City looked like.

I don’t know how this book will be received and I’m sure there will be those who don’t like it. However I can’t imagine why. I knew as soon as I heard about this book that it would probably be a favorite novel for this year. I read a lot of books within the suspense-mystery-thriller genre. This book,
categorized as historical fiction, feels like a suspense novel. I keep picturing grown-Carney trying to process the trauma of his childhood while becoming a go-between for thieves and shady businessmen. It’s not easy to parse and it is this undefined main character who will stick with me.

I also appreciated that the biggest and worst scam in the book was perpetrated by white guy.

There is only one author that can pull off a book like this: Colson Whitehead. He grabs the reader immediately with his action-packed novel with cops trying to keep up with robberies, killings and the mob in NYC in 1959. One cop said, "There is a circulation, a movement of envelopes that keeps the city running."

The main character, Carney, married a beautiful woman, Elizabeth, with her father's disappointment. Carney owned a furniture shop in Harlem but also sold stolen items on the side. Elizabeth's father called her husband a "rug peddler" and always felt she deserved more. A percentage of his showroom was stolen TVs, radios and lamps -- a "wall between the criminal world and straight world."

At nine-years-old, his mother died and father disappeared. "When he was little, Carney and his father played a game where he had to guess whether or not his daddy was wearing his revolver under his pants leg." His father was testing his tailor's competency. Later, his father was killed by a cop when he broke into a pharmacy.

Carney was determined to acquire a better life. He earned a business degree and later learned how to determine the color, clarity and cut of precious and fake gems. After their second child was born, his wife helped by going back to work at a travel agency specializing in places and driving routes that were safe for Blacks. Later, the book gave the reader a glimpse of protests, riots and continued discrimination in the 60s which made their work an additional hardship.

The writing is incredibly good which is no surprise with the author's previous awards. The story has a lot of characters to remember, but there's a clear image of each one from the description that is created. There was a lot of research done and the timing of each part was perfectly presented without repeating pieces which takes skill. He added in a lot of thought-provoking expressions from what was happening in their life. It is, however, such a huge sadness to read more about the history of discrimination and rights taken away from Blacks that has not changed. "We're not going to rise unless we all rise, right?"

The cover art by Oliver Munday is colorful and striking with a sense of the 60s which makes you want to open the book.

My thanks to Colson Whitehead, Doubleday and NetGalley for allowing me to ready this copy.

Another great book by Whitehead. I enjoyed this one mostly because I love Whitehead’s writing. His sentences are so descriptive I could practically see myself walking down the streets of Harlem in the 50s/60s. Heist books (and movies) aren’t necessarily my go to genres, but for those that enjoy them I think this could easily be a 5 star book!

I've read many of Colson's books so knew I was getting a look into a true period piece. The backstory of Harlem runs a thread through the whole book. In 1960, you would not expect to find a Harlem native with his own business. Ray Carney sells furniture, earning enough to just get by....but he wants more for his family. He earns a little on the side to keep body and soul together. That is until his cousin decides to drag him into a plan he wants no part of. How he keeps from getting killed will keep you reading longer than you meant to, but it's okay, you've done this before and a Colson book is well worth the headache the next day.

I was so excited to receive an ARC from NetGalley and Doubleday Books. If you haven’t read Colson Whitehead before, do yourself a favor and pick up one of his books. His writing is lyrical and gripping—he is a master wordsmith.

“Harlem Shuffle” is a family drama, a revenge story(ies), a discussion of racism and white supremacy, and a historical look at Harlem in the 50s and 60s. Basically, it is an incredible, complex, and absorbing novel. It follows Ray Carney, Harlem, born and raised. He’s a furniture storeowner and salesman who has worked hard all his life to be an upstanding citizen. However, Carney has an angle (don’t we all?) and has a slightly crooked side job. Now, he is no means a crook like his father, but he does pretty good with his side business. The story follows Carney as he navigates the different circles of Harlem. He meets memorable people along the way, tries to keep his cousin Freddie out of trouble, and raises a family. Whitehead captures the energy and feel of Harlem and makes it so real that you can reach out and touch the city.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing me with an ARC. This was exceptional. The minor issue I had was that there were a few errors in the ARC and some parts felt too lengthy, as if they hadn’t been edited yet. But, Whitehead’s writing is spectacular that I was swept away in the drama.

So different from the Underground Railroad, Harlem Shuffle is an entertaining read. A romp through 1960s Harlem with Ray Carney, trying to work both sides of the law. Harlem itself nearly leaps off the page. While an entertaining story about heists, capers, and double-crosses, it's also the story of family.

'“Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked…” To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver’s Row don’t approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it’s still home.

Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.

Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either.

Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, the devil does a little dance (something like that).

That is the predicament that our MC is in. Ray Carney is a simple man who wants to be “GOOD,” but FUCK, it's hard, and he’s not even sure what “GOOD” is.

Good sometimes, is keeping the lights on.
Good sometimes, is paying your rent on time and keeping food in your belly.

Good sometimes, is exactly what Ray Carney is.

Want to know what isn’t good?

The writing in this book…

The writing is FANTASTIC!!

Every line is intentional with no fluff or filter. Every word feels written with assuredness that it was the right one. No scene or storyline extension is unnecessary. It's all on purpose.

Admittedly, this book will NOT appeal to every reader. You must be a patient reader, and I recommend you go into it expecting an experience rather than quickly ingesting a story.

It's slow, and methodical. The scenes are akin to the way a play unfolds, with each scene leading to the next. This sounds like it should be the usual, but actually, I feel is quite rare.

So many books are trying to surprise readers with a sheathed twist or a quick-to-pen, unreliable narrator. This book tells you the entire story. Laying his hand open, Colson Whitehead wows with words we all know yet could not string together in the same way.

4/5 Stars.

Thanks to @netgalley @prhaudio @doubledaybooks for this advance copy!

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead was my first novel by this author. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner two times in a row. When I got the chance to read Harlem Shuffle for review, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind I wanted to read it. However, I was disappointed.

This novel was one crime after another. The story didn’t have any cohesiveness. It all seemed pretty random to me. The main character was Ray Carney. His life style was handed down and learned from his father. Ray had two sides. The good side was a family man and a furniture store owner. I would have liked to know more about his wife and family but, they were mostly in the background. Sadly, I think that is how he liked it.

I wish I could say the writing was beautiful but, I was often confused with all of the slang and talk of Harlem. This just adds one more to the pile of books I don’t care for by male authors.

He was very good at setting the atmosphere of the book. I’m sure many people will love this book. It was just not my cup of tea. Those that love hard crime novels will most likely love this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from #Netgalley and #DoubledayBooks. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

🌟Book Review🌟 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5/5. Not quite crime camper, but not quite introspective historical novel either. Might have been a knock-out punch if it had fully committed to one or the other.

My sincerest gratitude to @doubledaybooks, @netgalley, and Colson Whitehead for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It is 1950s Harlem, and furniture salesman Ray Carney is *mostly* on the straight and narrow (in his words, he’s “bent” but not “crooked”). He definitely doesn’t want to be like his father, who was a big-time criminal and all-around shady character. But when his less-than-upstanding cousin Freddie pulls him into his latest scheme, cash-strapped Ray rationalizes helping him out, and from there is slowly sucked into the underbelly of Harlem. This book is being marketed as an old-fashioned heist/crime novel with a little “something extra,” and I’m not sure I agree with that characterization. Yes, there is a heist. But it’s not the kind of event that leaves the reader breathless with anticipation, or with any mystery to solve. Oceans 11 it was not. What I think makes this novel fascinating is the concept of trying to break free — from your parents, from your legacy, from a cycle of poverty and crime. The whole thing brings to mind The Godfather and Michael Corleone’s famous line, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Ray wants to provide for his family and feels like he has no other option than to turn his side-hustle into something bigger. He wants to protect his cousin Freddy who brings him nothing but trouble but is like a brother to him (again, the comparison to Fredo Corleone is apt here). Ultimately for me, this novel doesn’t completely work as a crime novel (there just wasn’t enough action or intrigue) or as “something extra” (I wanted more of Ray’s inner desires and more about the race riots and protests that were happening on the periphery). I also wish we could have heard from Ray’s wife, who is left voiceless and completely in the dark about his double life. I did get glimmers of what a great writer Whitehead is (he is a back-to-back Pulitzer winner, after all), and I am even more eager to read his other work soon to see what else Whitehead has to say!

This review will be published to Goodreads and Instagram @sanfranliterarygal on publication day.

A seductive historical crime novel set in the late 50's and 60's is filled with a vibrant ensemble of characters and its atmosphere. Ray Carney makes a living as a upstanding furniture salesman and as a devoted husband to his wife Elizabeth and as father to their daughter and expectant son. Only a few lines of people know Carney's descendant from crooks where his family is left in the dark on his cracked portion of his life. His cousin Freddie joins a group who plans to rob the Hotel Theresa and volunteers Carney's services. Navigating a double life, will Carney survive from getting killed, save his cousin Freddie and continue maintaining his reputation as a upstanding salesman and a family man?

A moving testament to New York City's Harlem, this is a multilayered social novel about race and power. Colson Whitehead conjures the nostalgic sentiment in Harlem of that era. Illustrated with exquisite writing steeped in rich and colorful details that breathed Harlem to life. The author masterfully engineers the subtlety of humor and social commentaries that the observant readers will discover in-between the lines. A thought-provoking premise with so much to unpack within the story. A well-drawn and engaging protagonist and secondary characters with an evenly measured pacing that mirrors life as a whole. A powerful storytelling that gripped me until the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first work from this author and I know he tends to get rave reviews so I was very excited to dive into his latest book. Sadly, I was insanely disappointed. The best way to describe the writing is circular…it just goes round and round, seemingly without much of a point. It was superfluous at best, confusing at worst.

I very nearly did not finish this book. Someone on Bookstagram mentioned loving the ending, so I held on to hope. I should’ve listened to my gut. This book just left me feeling so bitter and negative. Why trust anyone? Why trust anything? Typically the things I love about historical fiction are exactly what I hated about this book. Normally, I like seeing echoes of the past that still seem current today. I enjoy seeing that those before us shouldered much of the same heartache and persevered and still made the world a better place. In Harlem Shuffle, that was all missing. The lack of morals didn’t even have depth, and just seemed to be completely selfish. There was absolutely no connections with his wife or children. They didn’t seem strongly anchored in “the good side” of Carney but rather a ruse only for appearances. I would’ve liked to feel some strength in his relationship with Elizabeth but instead felt only rage as Carney himself admitted she would leave him if she knew him. I didn’t truly get to know her as a character at all, but I know she deserved better.

Then there was the relationship with Carney’s cousin, Freddie. In a twisted, unhealthy way, you could label their connection as “loyalty” but if you look any deeper, you will see it’s simply enabling. Even these characters “like brothers” could never be straight with each other. They would lay it all out, but again, the connection was not there.

The heists, murders, mysteries and lies embedded in this plot simply weren’t strong enough to carry the complete lack of developed characters. I felt no connection to anyone and only grew to dislike them all the further we got into the story. Will never recommend this one.

There were a few passages in the book that caused me to reread them--because the imagery was so freaking good! I loved the cast of characters--some who were crooked and some just a little "bent." Though I did have a little trouble keeping up with some of bad guys and who was connected with who. It was interesting that I was reading in the novel (on Sept 11) about how a neighborhood was being torn down to build the World Trade Center. This book gives the reader a great glimpse into Harlem history and its people.

Harlem Shuffle is a descriptive delight through Harlem in the late 1950's-early 60's. It is centered around Ray Carney, a furniture salesman in the thick of Harlem, who sees himself more bent than broken, still a striver. While completely at ease dealing small-time resale of stolen goods, Ray continues to see himself morally above real criminals. That is until his cousin Freddy brings trouble to Ray's door. Raised closely together, Freddy is family. When Freddy gives up Ray's name as a fence for what will be a potentially lucrative haul from the Theresa Hotel, Ray cannot say no.
Author Whiltehead spends as much or more time describing the atmosphere and physical aspects of Harlem as he does on the the crime adventures. Harlem Shuffle is not about a single heist, it is about multiple crimes over a few years and a revenge plot for a social slight. It is about family within the black community. There is the obvious racism from whites and white police toward the black community but colorism within the black community is explored as well.
At times, I felt like I was reading a few connected novellas. There were time jumps that almost left what seemed to be the main story of the Theresa Heist behind. In the end, all the big and small criminal activities and Ray's heart for both his family and his town defined him.
Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review

Special thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for gifting me with an ARC of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

It took me about 30 or 40 pages until I took a shine to Colson Whitehead’s newest novel, Harlem Shuffle. Parts crime caper, parts historical fiction; Whitehead vividly paints Harlem in the late 50’s, early 1960’s when gangsters, hustlers, cops and regular neighborhood men were each running a scheme, trying to achieve the American Dream be it on the straight or slightly bent.
Ray Carney is one just such man, son of a petty thief but proudly college educated, he’s trying to live his life on the up & up but sometimes the temptations from his past won’t let him be. When his well meaning but dubious cousin Freddie drags him into a sure thing, you know it’s not going to end well.
The dialogue is snappy and tight, it’s as though Whitehead has written the script for a joint Spike Lee/Quentin Tarantino film. There’s a zany cast of secondary characters with the right level of comedic touches and fun mishaps & misadventures. The only draw back wasthere isn’t much action and the story stops & stalls at times.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this “love letter” to Harlem😢; to a particular time and place so beautifully drawn, but it may disappoint some Whitehead fans who are used to a more polished reading experience.

I received an ARC of Harlem Shuffle in exchange for an honest review. I'm not sure exactly what to say. This book was not for me. I could not read it without my mind constantly wandering. It took me a week to read this book which should have only taken me 3-4 days. Just not my cup of tea.

Any Colson Whitehead release is a must-read. I was intrigued by the concept, the description made me think of an Ocean's 11 type heist, but the book was a slow start and I was never able to fully immerse myself into the story. Beautiful writing as always and I particularly liked the character Ray, but this was a lukewarm read for me.

Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This is my first Colson Whitehead novel. I have a number of his books on my TBR but I always tend to put off reading books that are what I put in the category of "heavier novels". However, this one was a great balance.

This book chronicles the life of a business owning black man in 60's era Harlem. Ray Carney comes from a crooked family. Raised by his father who was a known crook. As an adult, Ray went to college and got his business degree and now owns a furniture store. He's legit and provides for his wife and 2 children. Even he if does meddle in products that were acquired by less than honest means. He's only "a little crooked". There is also a heist of a prominent Harlem hotel that Carney is pulled into by his cousin Freddy, that doesn't go all that smoothly.

I loved Whitehead's writing. There were points in the book that fell flat and made me a little bored but they were easy to get through due to the beautiful writing. This book chronicles what is was like in 60's Harlem as a black man, an entrepreneur, and as a crook. The characters are all interesting and there's even some humor that if you don't pay attention, you could miss. I am very excited to read his other books now that I've dipped my toes. I recommend this for those that enjoy a good crime book and historical fiction.

Thank you Netgalley and Double day for providing an eARC for an honest review.