The ramifications of this theft and Carney's reluctant involvement trigger a series of events, near-misses, murders, tragedies, and thrills that drive the novel's action.Įvery paragraph is full of authentic voices and perfectly deployed profanity, which adds to the you-are-there feeling. Through no fault of his own (but some faults of Freddie), Carney gets involved in a heist at the Hotel Theresa, also known as the Waldorf of Harlem. But Freddie is also that guy who seems to find trouble in his sleep. Ray has a lot of family and history in Harlem he and his cousin Freddie grew up together, and they're close in that way two brotherless relatives can become super tight when they share their formative years. It's a decent business - but not lucrative enough to allow him to move his family to his Upper West Side dream home on scenic Riverside Drive. Ray Carney is a young husband and father, and the owner of Carney's Furniture on Harlem's famed 125th Street. And the man at the center of that tale is a devastatingly enjoyable character who has a true gift for words - if not always the smartest actions.
But the novel is also a powerful tale of a man's love for his family and the neighborhood where he lives. “Thousands and thousands toiling and plotting in their apartments and SROs and twenty-four-hour greasy spoons, waiting for the day when they will bring their plans into the daylight.A heist with a cast of zany characters, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, questionable criminal skills, and of course, a bumbling, incompetent thief or two are undoubtedly part of the charm of Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle. “All over the city there were people like them, a whole mean army of schemers and nocturnal masterminds working their rackets,” Whitehead writes. The scheme that Carney engineers to wreak his revenge is entertaining, but it’s also a tragic example of how much energy is misdirected on internecine battles that are only furthering the work of a larger racist society. Even as the neighborhood struggles against systemic abuses, the center of “Harlem Shuffle” focuses on a vendetta between Carney and a crooked Black banker.
Carney’s own in-laws look down on him as a mere “rug-peddler,” and there’s a clear hierarchy of color among the Black residents. But “Harlem Shuffle” is laced with intimations that classism and racism are conspiring to corrupt the city. In a sense, we’re kept within the fertile biosphere of Carney’s cheery optimism, at least for a while.
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