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A review by blueberryhotel
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
whitehead is no doubt a technically skilled writer and world-builder. i enjoyed the immersion into a place and time i never experienced. growing up just south of harlem (albeit decades later than the events of the book) a lot of aspects of the setting were familiar to me or at least demonstrative of the vast, rapid changes and development new york has been through in the last 50 years. really fascinating, made me feel like maybe historical fiction is a niche i should tap into and read a little more of (especially when it’s new york based).
i know it’s par for the course with the scene whitehead was setting and the nature of the seedy criminal underbelly, but the sheer amount of characters and minor details present throughout the book made it a bit of a slog at times for me, just in having to turn back to previous parts to refresh my memory on a briefly-mentioned incident that occurred with a side character years prior. i would have preferred a narrower focus on a central cast, but i recognize it would be difficult to do so while convincingly portraying the so-called crooked world. that being said i do think there was an impressive amount of character development and rounding-out of the core cast of characters even with the cluttered ensemble cast. i might read crook manifesto just to see if there’s an elaboration on pepper’s story.
i know it’s par for the course with the scene whitehead was setting and the nature of the seedy criminal underbelly, but the sheer amount of characters and minor details present throughout the book made it a bit of a slog at times for me, just in having to turn back to previous parts to refresh my memory on a briefly-mentioned incident that occurred with a side character years prior. i would have preferred a narrower focus on a central cast, but i recognize it would be difficult to do so while convincingly portraying the so-called crooked world. that being said i do think there was an impressive amount of character development and rounding-out of the core cast of characters even with the cluttered ensemble cast. i might read crook manifesto just to see if there’s an elaboration on pepper’s story.