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A review by kelly_inthe419
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
3.0
I read, and loved, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroaded. And Nickel Boys is waiting patiently on my shelf to be read this fall. So when the opportunity came along to read Harlem Shuffle, I couldn’t pass it up.
Unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed with the story overall. I actually liked protagonist Ray Carney, son of a small-time Harlem crook. He’s a college graduate married to the daughter of a well-healed, well-respected family who constantly look down on Carney & his roots. He runs an aboveboard furniture store but also has a side gig peddling small pieces of jewelry and TVs that his cousin and other petty thieves drop off.
I also enjoyed the atmospheric setting of Harlem in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was awash in character and portrayed both the majestic and vibrant as well as the more disreputable and seedy parts of the community.
The book is really three short stories, woven together as a portrait of Ray’s life and his struggles between doing good for his family and the continuous lure of adventure that pulls hime toward crime. It’s labeled as “crime fiction,” which I think is a bit misleading. If you’re looking for hard boiled detectives and gruesome murders, this is nis not that book.
But the story itself was rather slow, even for me who is fond of slowly evolving character studies. I felt the plot and storytelling were uneven - sometimes rushed, sometimes meandering through flashbacks of Ray’s childhood. Whitehead has built a solid reputation as a “don’t miss” author and I think this may have been a case of wrong book, wrong time as many other readers seem to love it.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for my eARC of Harlem Shuffle.
Unfortunately I was a bit underwhelmed with the story overall. I actually liked protagonist Ray Carney, son of a small-time Harlem crook. He’s a college graduate married to the daughter of a well-healed, well-respected family who constantly look down on Carney & his roots. He runs an aboveboard furniture store but also has a side gig peddling small pieces of jewelry and TVs that his cousin and other petty thieves drop off.
I also enjoyed the atmospheric setting of Harlem in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was awash in character and portrayed both the majestic and vibrant as well as the more disreputable and seedy parts of the community.
The book is really three short stories, woven together as a portrait of Ray’s life and his struggles between doing good for his family and the continuous lure of adventure that pulls hime toward crime. It’s labeled as “crime fiction,” which I think is a bit misleading. If you’re looking for hard boiled detectives and gruesome murders, this is nis not that book.
But the story itself was rather slow, even for me who is fond of slowly evolving character studies. I felt the plot and storytelling were uneven - sometimes rushed, sometimes meandering through flashbacks of Ray’s childhood. Whitehead has built a solid reputation as a “don’t miss” author and I think this may have been a case of wrong book, wrong time as many other readers seem to love it.
Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for my eARC of Harlem Shuffle.