What is harlem shuffle

In his eighth novel, Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead offers a literary crime saga that is as delicious as it is nutritious, a much lighter meal than his previous two novels, which emerge from the real-life atrocities of slavery and a brutal reform school in the American south.

Whether in high literary form or entertaining, page-turner mode, the man is simply incapable of writing a bad book. Set in the early s, Harlem Shuffle is an extraordinary story about an ordinary man. Crime novels risk becoming formulaic, like action movies. The novel is structured in three instalments, covering a period from to , each climactically peaking with criminal activity. Act 1 shows how easily a man can step downward into crime. We could call this the illusion of advancement; we all get suckered into it.

The three parts present our options: descent, personal advancement, social progress. Or Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. The novel gains force through accumulation and acceleration — brake and gas, gas and brake, until we are far from where we started.

Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

But as you might expect with this two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur genius, Whitehead also delivers a devastating, historically grounded indictment of the separate and unequal lives of Blacks and whites in midth century New York. These and other characters force Carney to decide just how bent he wants to be. Ray Carney owns a furniture store in Harlem.

A triumph on every level. Start earning points for buying books! Uplift Native American Stories. Add to Bookshelf. Sep 14, ISBN Add to Cart. Buy from Other Retailers:. Oct 12, ISBN Audiobook Download. Hardcover —. Listen to a sample from Harlem Shuffle. Also by Colson Whitehead. See all books by Colson Whitehead. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History.

Walter Tevis. The Witch Hunter. Great Circle. Maggie Shipstead. Northern Spy. Flynn Berry. American Spy. Lauren Wilkinson. You Love Me. Caroline Kepnes. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

View all 23 comments. Heidi Wonderful review!! Paromjit Heidi wrote: "Wonderful review!! Sep 23, Beata rated it really liked it. Having read two of Mr Whitehead's novels, this one was on top of my list. What a total surprise it was! A definite and unexpected shift into Harlem in the s, with its bitter humour and portrayal of people and places so well-written that visualising them was not a problem for me.

The beginning was rather slow and it took me a little time to get involved mainly due to my lack of knowledge what Harlem was like six decades ago. After some time though I felt more secure in the company of Ray and Having read two of Mr Whitehead's novels, this one was on top of my list.

After some time though I felt more secure in the company of Ray and the company. This novel was the closest I could get to Harlem, I suppose.

A reading journey that I will not forget for a long time. View all 57 comments. The author calls this book "a love letter to Harlem. This book is more about the changes in culture than about crime. It is narrated by Ray Carney, son of Mike Carney, a small time crook.

Ray wants to go straight and opens a furniture store. But he accepts merchandise from questionable people to sell. His contacts with the underworld bring him into dangerous situations. How he resolves them amid the changes in 4 stars for a book about Harlem, New York city, from the late 50s to the late 60s. How he resolves them amid the changes in society, including riots and civil rights protests, makes for an enlightening window into Harlem during this period.

I recommend it to historical fiction fans and crime fans. I read this book in two days. One quote: "Put it like, that, an outside observer might get the idea that Carney trafficked quite frequently in stolen goods, but that's not how he saw it.

There was a natural flow of goods in and out and through people's lives, from here to there, a churn of property, and Ray Carney facilitated that churn. As a middleman. HarlemShuffle NetGalley View all 8 comments. Jun 27, Marchpane rated it liked it Shelves: read-in , arc-from-netgalley , releases. A few blocks was the difference between strivers and crooks, between opportunity and the hard scrabble. Harlem Shuffle takes a trip to its titular neighbourhood during the massive social change of the s and s, through the eyes of Ray Carney.

Whitehead layers beats of Black history—from Seneca Village to Freedom Riders—throughout the story like a pulse, vivifying that sense of place. Despite an appealing backdrop and milieu, this novel misses the mark when it comes to storycraft. The best characters hello Pepper, a gravel-eyed glare in dungarees… are not given nearly enough to do. If you have a special interest in midth century Harlem, definitely check it out. View all 21 comments.

Nov 07, Elyse Walters rated it really liked it. Even before it was released in September of this year — I listened to Colson Whitehead speak about how much fun he had writing it — the first book of a series.

But, yes…. I waited awhile to read this book. Ray Carney was trying to maintain a legitimate furniture business, while occasionally dragged into devious-sketchy elbow-grease….

The relationship between Ray and Freddie was often a kick…. Reading excerpts like this out loud become extra sparkly. It has raunchy thrills, squeamish moments, hilarity, pathos, plenty of action —but also…. Like most Harlemites, Carney grew up with broken glass in the playground,…. Cheap beer soaked into floorboards, revolting stains on an old couch…. Balancing straight-lace intentions with tragedies of crime turned out to be rather fun for this normally-non-lethal mobster-underworld reader.

I was reminded of words from Ghandi ….. View all 29 comments. Nancy Wonderful review, Elyse! Harlem was definitely one of the characters, but my favorite character was actually Pepper. Oct 30, Lisa of Troy rated it it was ok.

Beautiful prose but light on plot and action. Ray Carney, situated in Harlem, owns and operates a furniture store in Harlem. Carney is straddling two worlds though: the up and up furniture store and the goods that must have fallen off a truck somewhere.

Will these two worlds collide? How will Carney navigate these two worlds? Harlem Shuffle is my first Whitehead novel who is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The prose of the book was at its finest. Whitehead has a very strong command of ver Beautiful prose but light on plot and action. Whitehead has a very strong command of verbs and adjectives, such a wide variety. His prose truly is a work of art in and of itself. However, this book was light on plot and light on action.

I fell asleep twice while reading it. Overall, Harlem Shuffle was beautiful to read but it was not a page turner. View all 28 comments. Elyse Walters Sorry Lisa.

Hope you slept GOOD!! Christine Agree. I just couldn't get through more than the first third. Will probably be made into a cute movie but the book was a disappointment. Aug 19, Liz rated it really liked it Shelves: netgalley.

He totally evokes the feel of the time and place. Each one of his words served to bring up the sights, smells and sounds of the place. His descriptions had me in their thrall. It was impossible not to see every scene, so lush were the descriptions. Ray Carney might be the son of a petty thief, but he seems himself as an upstanding citizen. But his main bread and butter was his furniture store. His cousin, Freddie, on the other hand, is looking for the big score and draws Ray into the mix.

Things with Freddie never go as planned and always end up causing trouble for Ray. Ray starts fencing more, trying to carefully walk the line between the two worlds. Whitehead creates characters that just feel real. This book has a lot to say about revenge and suppressed anger, family relations, the urge to get ahead. But for all that, I was less than completely enchanted. The story was uneven.

All too often in the beginning, it was too much talk, not enough action. The humor is very subtle here. This is a book that demands you pay attention to every sentence, every word. Things start to pick up around the middle and I enjoyed the second half of the book as the action picked up. So, a solid 4 stars, but it could have easily been a five. My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for an advance copy of this book.

Jun 02, Elle marked it as paused Shelves: on-deck , coming-soon , If Colson Whitehead writes it, then I will read it. This novel has been described as a crime story. I not interested in crime stories and I only read it because Colson Whitehead wrote it. But as I expected, it was much more than about heists and fences and gangsters. I received a copy of this book from Doubleday through NetGalley. View all 33 comments. Oct 27, Barbara rated it liked it Shelves: adult-fiction , literature , historical-fiction.

Well, this is Colson, so I persevered. Did it take over pages to get into the rhythm? Not sure. For me, Whitehead took his 2. For me, Whitehead took his literary style and went off on tangents that were not always related to the main plotline.

The main character, Ray Carney, is married with two sweet children. His wife works at a black travel agency and is doing well. If Whitehead would have just stuck to the hustles, the entertaining criminals, and not gone off on odd tangents, this could have been a 5 star for me.

There was most likely more tid-bits that I missed while reading some of his long and involved sentences. Because it was Whitehead, I did reread many pages, trying to keep up with the story. First pages of the story stars. Last pages stars. Jul 07, Jessica Woodbury rated it really liked it Shelves: crime-mystery , arc-provided-by-publisher , authors-of-color , historical-fiction.

That latter group is going to be very confused by this book, but if you dive into Whitehead's backlist you know that he switches genres constantly and the only rule is to expect to be surprised by whatever he does next. This is a crime novel in the style of the midth-century, there are all kinds of crooked types, mobsters and fences and guys who do "odd jobs. Even if it's one of Whitehead's most readable books, it's still got a lot to say about how people find themselves involved in crime and how they justify it to themselves.

Ray Carney's father was a crook, and he is determined to make something of himself. He's done pretty well when we meet him, he owns a furniture store, he has a wife from a good family, he has a daughter and a baby on the way.

But Ray has his eyes on more, imagines moving his family to Riverside Drive. Ray and his store embody a kind of striving, a desire for the trappings of the comfortable middle-class.

Unfortunately, Ray's vision of himself is not quite accurate. He is willing to look the other way every now and then when his cousin shows up in a pinch and unload the occasional tv or radio of unknown origin without asking questions.

The novel unfolds in three sections, set a few years apart. And while they are entirely separate stories, they all tie together. Not just because we track Ray over the years, but that you see how the end of one story has led us to this new one. Ray is level-headed but he's also a sucker who is never really willing to stand up and say, "I'm out. There is an exception to this rule, as the book knows. It's just fine to be up to your neck in illegal stuff if you're rich enough.

Each story brings Ray a little bit closer to the kind of power that cannot be stopped by any one man. The step from to in particular is a very smart one, there are a lot of similarities between the circumstances in the two stories, and we see how Carney is fully unprepared for what he's gotten himself into. This is not a book where you think, "Oh it'll turn out okay for our guy. This is a spectacular New York novel.

Whitehead maps out the city in great detail, always setting us on a particular block or corner, giving you the lay of the land.

The last section is set just after the riots of , which feels like it could have happened yesterday. I've been reading Whitehead for a very long time and this is right up there as one of his most fun books, even if it's also laced with nonstop dread. It's also readable as hell, with a clipped prose that fits the pulpy subject matter and setting perfectly. View all 12 comments. Oct 16, Lisa rated it liked it Shelves: audiobook. I suspected this novel wouldn't be for me and unfortunately I was right.

Because it is written by Whitehead, there is plenty of good stuff here - a great character in furniture salesman Ray Carney, atmospheric details of Harlem in the s and racist NYC and some laugh-out-loud humor.

But it didn't come together for me. All the colorful crooks and the wheeling and dealing bored me. I went back and forth between audio and print but interest waned with both. View all 34 comments. But that is twenty-five years in the future as this begins.

To those who know or have dealt with Ray, he is a decent guy, trying to make a decent living selling furniture at a fair price, only slightly bent when it comes to being crooked. A likeable guy to all who meet him, with a wife who is expecting a child - their second.

A family man. Sprinkled throughout are references to those places that most people will recognize - the Apollo Theatre, the descriptions of the posters of the time, the rhythm of the city and the people. A slightly mischievous take on the era rather than a dark and sinister tale that seems born of a sentimental fondness for these bygone days.

Harlem has changed since those days, it has become more gentrified in the years since, but Whitehead brilliantly brings the Harlem of that era to life with a nostalgic touch through this story. While this does include tragic moments, there are lighter moments, as well, and so much love for this place and these people.

View all 42 comments. Sep 28, Faith rated it really liked it Shelves: overdrive , audio , reviewed , netgalley. An arena for thieving and scores, break-ins and hijacks, when the con man polishes the bait and the embezzler cooks the books.