Harlem Shuffle: A Novel (The Harlem Trilogy)

thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?

This story takes place in Harlem in the early 1960’s. Ray Carney owns a furniture store in Harlem and is struggling to support his wife and daughter. He has worked hard to get through college and move away from the life he was raised in- a life of crooks and thugs. However, his cousin Freddie keeps bringing him back in and he needs the money.

What did it make me think about?

” ‘Entrepreneur?’ Pepper said the last part like manure. ‘That’s just a hustler who pays taxes.’ ”

Should I read it?

Who can argue against reading a book written by Colson Whitehead? However, this was not my favorite of his novels. I just did not care enough about the characters or what was happening in the story to want to pick it up. The pages with the character of Pepper were my favorite. I am hoping sometime in the future he will write more about Pepper.

Quote-

“No one really cares about other people when you get down to it- their own struggles are too close-up.”

Having loved Colton’s The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, I was disappointed not to like this book. The most interesting parts to me were about the riots in Harlem during the 60’s. Otherwise the plot dragged and I disliked the characters.

Couldn't get into the writing style, put it down and picked it back up, still couldnt get into it. DNF

I wanted to like this book so badly. I enjoyed Nickel Boys and Underground Railroad has been on my TBR for a while. I heard a piece on NPR about how groundbreaking this book would be and it just didn’t meet expectations for me. I dredged through it, confused by the time changes and rotating cast of characters. The main character was written well, but the story was hard to follow. I listened to the audio, so that could have something to do with it. I thought it was just alright. There was never a clear climax in my opinion and I just felt like I had to finish it but had no actual desire or motivation. As strange as it sounds, I’d still give it another shot one day maybe on paper this time. Not a winner for me at the moment

It's a slow moving book but I liked it. The structure of three stories in one was cool and I enjoyed following all Carney's adventures/mishaps. I was expecting more of a heist tale than I was given but still liked the direction it went.