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kkennedy2000 's review for:
Harlem Shuffle
by Colson Whitehead
An incandescent banger. Ba-boom. One of the best opening chapters of any book ever. Masterful meditation on America, class, race. With actual nuance, which takes incredible control and incisiveness in the 2020s. Whitehead’s proficient handle on craft is wild — so much layering, so many multiplicitous strokes, dazzling blend techniques. A definitive New York text, moreso than his “Colossus.” To this extent, it is also a definitive American text — Whitehead really lays a clear foundation for how NYC mirrors all the best and worst elements of what makes up America. Ray Carney is a miraculous character creation; frankly, he belongs in the pantheon of great American leads. Excited to crack open Crook Manifesto and keep on with his journey.
“Perhaps Carney was being too stark. Plenty of crooks were strivers, and plenty of strivers bent the law.”
“Here was every street corner in the city, populated by noisy, furious characters who were all salesmen, delivering dead pitches for bum products to customers who didn’t have a fucking nickel anyways.”
“Life is cheap, and when things start getting expensive, it gets cheaper still.”
“Nothing solid in the city but the bedrock.”
“Only a lazy God could deliver the meanness of things so unadorned.”
“He puzzled over these alien things she offered him. Kindness and faith, he didn’t know which box to put them in.”
“Crooks and civilians need to congregate every once in a while to reinforce their life decisions.”
“The city was one teeming, miserable tenement and the wall between you and everybody else was thin enough to punch through.”
Un capolavoro. STAMPED!
“Perhaps Carney was being too stark. Plenty of crooks were strivers, and plenty of strivers bent the law.”
“Here was every street corner in the city, populated by noisy, furious characters who were all salesmen, delivering dead pitches for bum products to customers who didn’t have a fucking nickel anyways.”
“Life is cheap, and when things start getting expensive, it gets cheaper still.”
“Nothing solid in the city but the bedrock.”
“Only a lazy God could deliver the meanness of things so unadorned.”
“He puzzled over these alien things she offered him. Kindness and faith, he didn’t know which box to put them in.”
“Crooks and civilians need to congregate every once in a while to reinforce their life decisions.”
“The city was one teeming, miserable tenement and the wall between you and everybody else was thin enough to punch through.”
Un capolavoro. STAMPED!