A caper gone wrong, as capers are wont, a journey through New York City in the days just before the '60s exploded and a main character who starts to realize how much he doesn't know all shine in Colson Whitehead's latest novel, Harlem Shuffle.
Ray Carney owns a discount furniture store in Harlem. He's proud of what he has accomplished. He occasionally skirts the line by helping unload merchandise from sketchy sources, but he also is proud that at least he is not like his crook of a late father. Then his cousin brings him into the heist of the most renowned hotel in the neighborhood, whether Ray wants in or not. And where Cousin Freddie enters the picture, trouble always follows.
Freddie, who never saw a potential crime he didn't want a part of, is recruited by Miami Joe, an out-of-towner, to be part of the big heist. The crew includes Arthur, purported to be a whiz at opening safes, who resembles a teacher. Just one who has spent a great deal of his life in prison. Pepper is the brawn of the outfit; his backstory would make for a complete short story.
Before Ray even hears about how the job went, muscle from Chink Montague show up to see if he knows about jewelry belonging to Chink's lady friend that was stolen from the hotel. Ray, of course, promises he'll let them know if he hears anything.
After the heist, Miami Joe disappears and Pepper takes Ray on a journey through parts of the neighborhood that Ray doesn't see even if he goes by them, as well as a few places from his past. Then Arthur's murder is reported.
And then things get wild.
Ray not only has to keep his nose as clean as possible to survive, he has a wife from a cut above, whose parents still don't quite approve of him, a toddler he adores and another on the way. Ray is trying to make the American dream come true, while realizing that it's a long shot. He recounts stories of abject poverty, such as he and his father sharing one mealy sweet potato for a Christmas day feast in an unheated apartment. Ray realizes he is providing vaudeville entertainment for his in-laws. He had thought these stories were a way to show that he had overcome hardship. But this is just one of the ways that Ray figures things out.
Part of the delight in reading about Ray was realizing his last name -- Carney -- is another way to spell "carnie", and that thinking on one’s feet and not afraid to be not quite-above-board is one way to not just survive, but to possibly thrive.
Whitehead is a master at using perspective to tell the story behind the story. Is Freddie more of a criminal than Ray's father-in-law, a Strivers Row accountant who keeps the books clean for elite Black businesses? Ray wants to stay on the straight and narrow, but does he need to know how to use what he can from his father's world to make it in his father-in-law's world? The choices Ray makes and those that are made for him create a fascinating character study and a great story.
This is the novel that Whitehead began after The Underground Railroad, then set aside to write The Nickel Boys. All three together provide a remarkable narrative of the experience of being Black in America.
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