Harlem Shuffle by Colten Whitehead

 

I keep hearing about how wonderful a writer Colten Whitehead is, and I jumped at the opportunity to review his latest novel, Harlem Shuffle.  I loved his writing style and I’m ready to read more of his books.

 Harlem Shuffle takes us back to the 1960s in Harlem.  There are three separate, but related, sections of the book.  Ray Carney owns a furniture store in Brooklyn and is happily married to Elizabeth.  Elizabeth grew up in a wealthier family and her father does not approve of Ray. Ray grew up the son of Big Mike, a criminal in Harlem.  Ray is only slightly crooked.  He may fence stolen items for his cousin Freddy, but he is mostly on the up and up.  When Freddy gets Ray inadvertently involved in a jewel heist, Ray’s life changes forever.  It becomes harder and harder to keep the two sides of his life separate.  Is Ray the striver or Ray the crook his true nature?

 This book was excellent.  I loved the noir aspect of it and vivid descriptions of Harlem in the 1960s.  I felt like I was immersed in this world. I loved the characters and Ray’s internal struggle.  I loved his loyalty to his cousin Freddy.  I had a hard time with the format after the first one third of the book until I realized they were basically three separate stories.  In the first and last story, Ray gets involved in bad business to help out Freddy, and in the middle Ray gets vengeance against someone who crossed him.  I thought it was interesting that there wasn’t much difference between crooks and “high class” people.

 Favorite Quotes:

“’I may be broke sometimes, but I ain’t crooked, ‘ he said to himself.  Although, he had to admit, perhaps he was.”

 “A few blocks was the difference between the strivers and the crooks, between opportunity and the hard scrabble.”

 “How long do you keep trying to save something that was lost?”

 “You could never know what was going on with other people, but their private selves were never far away.”

 Overall, Harlem Shuffle was a great novel set in the world of Harlem in the 1960s.  It was a family drama, crime caper, and the American dream all rolled up into one.

A Review Copy from NetGalley and Doubleday.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.