Book Review: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

By Larissa Page

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Harlem Shuffle is the newest release from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead. Having previously earned this honour for his novels The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, Whitehead released Harlem Shuffle to a lot of buzz and excitement from book lovers.

Beginning in 1959, the book introduces Ray Carney, who was born and raised in Harlem and has made something of himself by going to college then opening a furniture store catering to the Black community in the neighbourhood. When he is involuntarily pulled into a high-profile theft, coerced to be the “fence” (the person who moves the stolen goods), it sets him on a path that carries us through the next five years of his life. Carney has two sides: he’s the straightlaced furniture salesman with the beautiful growing family, and he’s the slightly dishonest man who can move your stolen jewels and get your money for them. By Carney’s side we see gangsters, heists, riots, revenge, the high society and the low; we see thieves and we see family and we see Harlem circa 1959-1964.

I found this book less satisfying than my previous experiences with Whitehead’s novels. I was not as gripped or pulled in and I struggled to stick with it. I can almost pinpoint why. This novel read like three novellas packaged together but they didn’t quite mesh as well as they could have. Or, perhaps it was because the cycle of a story (setting the foundation, the build-up, the climax, the follow-up) happened each of those three times rather than working through one cycle as is usual in a novel. If I had known this structure ahead of time, I wonder if I would have approached reading it differently, and enjoyed it more. If you are choosing to pick up this book, you may want to consider reading each of the three parts as novellas, separating them out in your to-be-read stack rather than sitting and reading them all at once.

Because each of the three parts of Harlem Shuffle takes place a few years after the previous, there is also a really diverse cast of characters. They are a little hard to keep track of at times, but not so hard as to take away from the story. They are almost all male characters, with few consistent females and not much growth within the female characters. In fact, I found there to be very little character growth at all except perhaps in Carney himself, but I hesitate to say he grew in a positive direction. I do think he did improve but I also think this isn’t an instance of us deciding what is morally right and wrong. This novel is not for us to judge Carney, his associates, or Harlem itself, and we would be wrong to do that. I think as readers we often look for that, deciding and judging characters on the page against our own moral compass, and I do feel this novel did a good job at challenging me not to make those leaps.

Speaking of characters, Harlem itself was almost a character within the story. This was probably my favourite part of the whole novel. Harlem is so well described that I felt like I could see it. With each new part and each new year we are given a window into seeing the community grow and change, along with Carney’s furniture store (equally as detailed in its description). I did find the furniture descriptions a little heavy at times, and it pulled me away from the plot as I read, but I have to admit the descriptions were beautiful and I feel confident I could pull up a mental picture of any number of early ’60s-style couches at a moment’s notice.

This novel is beautifully written, there is no doubt there, as it came from such a renowned author. I feel it is more geared toward a detail-oriented reader who values the visual and can keep track of schemes and plots and subplots that happen within the story—the reader who appreciates the backstory and the set up. It packs a punch right in that last page, the build-up of the final part leading you right to an ending that makes you go “huh.” If each part had been more cohesive, or if I had gone into it knowing to read them as novellas, I think I would have felt more satisfied with my reading experience.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!