A review by nichughes
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

4.0

Different than any story I’ve read. I loved the tension between good and bad, plus how Whitehead highlighted the degrees of “bad” and developed Ray and the other supporting characters. It feels slow and overly descriptive at times, especially in the beginning, but I felt I was in Ray’s head by the end. I can still picture the furniture store and other spots that used throughout… it feels like I was watching a TV show! The descriptive parts about Harlem, gentrification, activism, socioeconomic differences, etc. all layered onto what would have been a good crime/suspense story on its own. I especially liked the way three points in time were used as jumping off points for Ray’s trajectory and how the previous part fed into his current dealings. I’ll be stewing on this book for a while. The narrator for this was top notch, def recommend the audio version.