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A review by hernamewaslily
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
3.0
Harlem Shuffle is a crime fiction novel that takes place in Harlem between 1959-1964 and follows Ray Carney, a black furniture salesman, and his attempts to resist criminality on account of the fact that his father was a notorious criminal. Despite this, Carney occasionally dips his toe into the murky waters of crime for some extra cash to support his family, operating as a fence for stolen goods. But when his cousin, Freddie, tells him about a high-stakes heist of a luxury hotel, The Hotel Theresa, Carney becomes embroiled in Harlem’s criminal underbelly and spends the rest of the novel suffering the consequences.
The book deals with some heavy themes (crime, colourism, drug addiction, class, racism, police corruption), yet Whitehead manages to keep the tone of book lighthearted with his comical prose.
Yet it’s is also because of this lightheartedness that the novel failed to capture my attention as nothing feels at stake throughout the narrative. This is not helped by the fact that the text is written in the past tense, so we already know that Carney will be okay in the end.
Whitehead does, however, do a great job at evoking Harlem through descriptions of it’s people and it’s landmarks, as well as it’s atmosphere, which reaches its apex at the end of the novel which takes place during the 1964 riots.
I love a bit of mid-century crime fiction and/or crime fiction set in this period, but this novel just didn’t do it for me. It’s not that I didn’t like this book, I did, but it didn’t capture my attention; I didn’t feel excited to read it. Put more simply, Harlem Shuffle is a fine enough book, but it had a lot more potential to be great. (I think it would make for a great television adaption, however).
The book deals with some heavy themes (crime, colourism, drug addiction, class, racism, police corruption), yet Whitehead manages to keep the tone of book lighthearted with his comical prose.
Yet it’s is also because of this lightheartedness that the novel failed to capture my attention as nothing feels at stake throughout the narrative. This is not helped by the fact that the text is written in the past tense, so we already know that Carney will be okay in the end.
Whitehead does, however, do a great job at evoking Harlem through descriptions of it’s people and it’s landmarks, as well as it’s atmosphere, which reaches its apex at the end of the novel which takes place during the 1964 riots.
I love a bit of mid-century crime fiction and/or crime fiction set in this period, but this novel just didn’t do it for me. It’s not that I didn’t like this book, I did, but it didn’t capture my attention; I didn’t feel excited to read it. Put more simply, Harlem Shuffle is a fine enough book, but it had a lot more potential to be great. (I think it would make for a great television adaption, however).