Harlem Shuffle is a three-part book about a furniture store owner at 125th Street and Morningside in New York City in 1959, 1961, 1964. Harlem itself is a character in this novel, its hierarchy, its ordinary families, its upper crust and those trying to change their lives or to preserve the status quo. I sat in my car and listened to this book for an hour when I had nowhere to go. It is that incredibly well written and entertaining. It is funny, sad, outrageous and informative all at once. Ray Carny’s mother died when he was young and his criminal father raised him part of the time. He always lived near his cousin Freddy and Aunt Millie growing up. Aunt Millie raised Ray off and on. Freddie’s Dad is only home occasionally. Ray got a business degree from Queens College. Freddy is drawn more to the criminal element and substance abuse. Ray married “up” to such an extent, his in-laws are very unhappy with their daughter’s choice. Freddy never married. Harlem Shuffle does cover three periods in Ray’s life and how he evolves as a businessman in Harlem, but it is much more about the person he is and how the different parts of his past life influence him as an adult. He is so loyal to Freddy that, in pulling him out of his scrapes and bad choices, Ray ends up being tainted. Freddy will tell him each time, “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.” But Ray has agency and he knows just how to get in trouble for himself.
Whitehead writes characters like nobody’s business! Ray is complicated. He’s a good father and husband but he has compartmentalized the honest businessman and good father from the guy that sells things that “fell off a truck,” or that Freddy brings in with no possibly legitimate provenance. He knows only the fences who will work with a black man, which limits his prospects at first until he finds a more skilled fence who will work with a black man. He thinks of himself as less of a criminal than his father since he does have a completely legitimate business that is more than a front. He evolves from selling gently used furniture to being a representative of favored furniture companies, trying hard at one point to become a representative for one that has never certified a black person. The ways that the multiple compartments that are Ray interacts with his dead father’s old cronies, his cousin, the mob, businessmen (black and white) and the cops puts in him into situations that are totally engaging, sometimes dangerous, sometimes discouraging and often relevant to the late fifties and early sixties changes in civil rights and the evolution of the middle class in the USA at that time. While it skips years, I do NOT find it disconnected or loosely connected. It is at all times about a neighborhood and about a man and his values and choices in the face of an ever changing landscape at the same address in Harlem. The Audible version was terrific with a narrator who nailed every character, male, female, rich, poor, criminal or not. Although with regard to criminals, with a few notable exceptions (Ray’s wife, kids and his employees) that’s kind of everyone in this book. This book is just so worth the time I gave it, which is probably longer on an audio book where there is no skimming. Highly recommend!
CROOK MANIFESTO -2023
In the sequel to Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead again writes three stories about Carney, his family, friends, co-conspirators. This time, we’re talking 1971, in a story about the now right-side-of-the-law Carney and Munson, the cop he paid off for years when he was a fence. Carney did the impossible, promising his daughter Jackson 5 tickets. Munson has access to everything. Meanwhile, favor for favor, Munson is petrified that the famous Knapp commission, appointed to deal with corruption in the police force, is coming for his partner and him. His favor drags Carney into a mess that he might not get out of. If we didn’t know there are two more stories, things did not look favorable.
In 1973, Carney’s furniture store is the perfect setting for scenes for a Blaxploitation movie but the leading woman takes a powder. Possibly literally as she has some drug issues. The Director seeks help and Carney rustles up Pepper, his deceased criminal father’s partner in crime and a player in Harlem Shuffle. Pepper is a fabulous character, with a few principals that are concerning themselves and a serious problem pulling together good help. He is Uncle Pepper to Carney’s kids and there is some amusing stuff that makes clear Carney’s wife, Elizabeth, knows more than he realizes about his past business and Pepper’s unsavory side. But Pepper just rocks the rest of the novel with his efforts to help, his regrets about agreeing to help, his judgment and his methodology.
Off to 1976, with Harlem burning and suspicions about what people (besides owners getting the insurance) are behind the fires. Elizabeth, concerned the travel agency she has helped to build will never end up hers, gets caught up in a political campaign to elect her high school boyfriend-former prosecutor-now real estate mogul to City Counsel. The Dumas Club, part of a Harlem Shuffle story, plays a central role in his campaign and Carney, who is hostile to the candidate, dwells on the idea of his getting this power. Pepper is back, helping Carney look into a fire that inadvertently injured his tenant’s son. The kids were using a deserted building as a hangout and this child was sleeping when the fire went down. Carney and Pepper attract problematic resistance to this investigation. This section of the novella had a keystone cops feel to it at times.
Bottom line? I did NOT realize this is a planned trilogy, with Crook Manifesto the second entry. It reads like the middle and while I enjoyed it, and the writing and characters are great, the stories fell a little flatter with fewer surprises about what people are capable of who don’t walk the straight and narrow. But Harlem. Harlem as a character remains fresh and fascinating. I almost wish Whitehead would write PREQUELS to this trilogy. Bring back Carney as a kid! So, this was really, really good. The narrator for both books is great. And, it’s “just” four stars. Harlem Shuffle was five for me. Whitehead will never fall below four stars because he’s just that good. I will read the next entry with pleasure.
They Called me Bookworm 