My Amazon Review of Colson Whitehead's "Harlem Shuffle"

 

Harlem Days, Harlem Nights in the Early 1960’s

 

Colson Whitehead paints a portrait of Harlem from 1959-1964 through the eyes of furniture store owner and family man Ray Carney. Through it all we learn all about the furniture styles and brands of the early 1960’s, a travelogue if you will. Aside from his day job running his furniture store Carney supplements his income as a part-time fence for stolen goods. His cousin Freddie continuously gets him into and at the outset Freddie is part of a safety deposit box heist at the famed Hotel Theresa. Simply put, to steal from the Hotel Theresa is a crime against the community, but no matter it happens, and Carney is there to fence some of the stolen goods.

 

Along the way we meet the Harlem equivalent of Damon Runyan gangsters with names like “Miami Joe.” We also witness what I would call scenes from the class struggle in Harlem where Carney tries to join an exclusive club of local business leaders.

 

The book ends against the backdrop of the July 1964 riots where Carney and his employees had to stand guard to protect their store along with Freddie getting Carney in real big trouble with the family of a major and very entitled real estate developer.

 

This book is far lighter than Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” (See:Shulmaven: My Amazon Review of Colson Whitehead's "The Nickel Boys" ) and in my opinion, it is not a good, but well worth the read. You get a real sense of Harlem in the early 1960’s and it makes you wonder about how much or how little change there has been.

For the full amazon URL see: Harlem Days, Harlem Nights in the Early 1960's (amazon.com)