A review by andyourstruly
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

dark reflective tense

4.5

After Underground Railroad, I'd wanted to read more by Colson Whitehead, so when I came across Harlem Shuffle initially, I decided to give it a try without reading the summary.  It's structured very differently from the outset from UR, so it took me a while to figure out what to make of it, but once I got properly into it, it was every bit as gorgeous.  Somehow, he manages to keep all of the history and style and the way peoples' lives weave into one another even without a sci-fi train ferrying you from one place to another.  His way of handling characters is fascinating because in some ways, the characters are most of the story, and in other ways, the characters are merely puppets whose strings are being pulled in the inevitable way of destiny, and in still more ways the city is the real main character, ever there, ever watching, and everyone else is just passing their ephemeral lives in her chambers.

Anyway, I immediately checked out three more books by him, he's really incredible.