From the Bookshelf of Retro Chapter Chicks …

Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)

Colson Whitehead

Start date: February 1, 2022

Finish date: February 28, 2022

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September-October 2025: The River Knows Your Name
By Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴… , Founding Retro Chick · 1 post · 8 views

last updated Aug 23, 2025 07:26PM

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Mar 05, 2023 Brina rated it really liked it

Shelves: african-american, crime, fiction, thriller, new-york-city, historical-fiction

African American history month comes to a close a few days late and I can finally move on to women’s history month. That being said I have no issues with completing a Colson Whitehead novel in March. He is one of the most gifted authors we have in this generation, although his books have been hit or miss for me. I did owe it to him or at least to his reputation to attempt Harlem Shuffle and I am glad that I did. Books about New York in the summer time where the city is popping are usually right African American history month comes to a close a few days late and I can finally move on to women’s history month. That being said I have no issues with completing a Colson Whitehead novel in March. He is one of the most gifted authors we have in this generation, although his books have been hit or miss for me. I did owe it to him or at least to his reputation to attempt Harlem Shuffle and I am glad that I did. Books about New York in the summer time where the city is popping are usually right up my alley. In this case where a family saga is masked as a murder mystery, two of my favorite genres, I found a winner in the story of Ray Carney and his family.

I know never to judge a book by its cover but the vibrant colors depicting retro Harlem drew me in. It’s the 1960s. The Harlem Renaissance is all but over, the civil rights movement in full force. Both de facto and de jure segregation still permeate New York, so Harlem is the place to be for African Americans who both want to get ahead and to live without risk of constant discrimination. Ray Carney is a furniture entrepreneur trying to provide for his wife Elizabeth and their two children May and John. Elizabeth comes from Harlem’s elite but happened to fall for Ray at one of Harlem’s infamous rent parties. Her parents never approved of Ray and she is constantly forced to play the go between her husband and parents, not an easy job. This dislike of Ray is because his father was Big Mike Carney, one of Harlem’s notorious crooks. With money hard to come by even respectable Harlem citizens turned to crime, crookery, and fencing. Big Mike along with his partner Pepper were among the best. It is not something Ray is proud of yet, extra money never hurt, especially if it means moving his family to a choice Harlem location. And so the saga begins.

Whitehead in the first of a planned trilogy touches on many hot button issues of the 1960s- CORE, the struggle between Dr King and Malcolm X for leadership of the civil rights movement, the Harlem race riots of the 1960s. The white establishment still looked down upon even reputable businessmen like Ray Carney, so he was sure to hang a black owned and operated sign in his store’s window. His wife Elizabeth runs Black Star Travel, which advertised safe routes for African Americans in order to take a vacation without risk of discrimination, a country within a country, the green travel book much talked about. Elizabeth is an early member of working women who worked even after having children. Ray mentions that his secretary Maria probably would not come back to work because her husband would not allow it. The women’s rights movement has not happened yet, women are meant to be mothers first and foremost; however, Whitehead points to balance with Elizabeth as a working woman who still cooks a mean pot roast. And in order to obtain the apartment on Riverside drive, she has to work.

Carney’s furniture is not enough to land the family on the Strivers Row of Elizabeth’s youth. Somehow Ray finds himself embroiled in his cousin Freddie’s nefarious dealings with crooks, druggies, and the mob. Ray acts as fence for stolen goods big and small and gets pulled into Freddie’s world of crookery. Yet the fencing allows him to save for that elusive apartment, while the extra money leads him to membership in the Dumas Club for Harlem’s elite. Ray even enlists his father’s old partner Pepper to help on heists and other tricky jobs while he struggles to keep the legal and illegal halves of his life separate. Freddie is a brother to Ray yet even with Pepper’s help it may not be enough to keep the family safe.

Whitehead created a character in Ray Carney who held my interest enough that I will want to return for the rest of the trilogy. He is a family man who will do anything it takes to do good by his family, even if the means to justify the ends are questionable. I can see here why Whitehead is considered a top author, even though I enjoyed this novel more than his award winning ones, as I said he is hit or miss for me. And thus concludes my African American history month reading for this year. I noticed that most of my reading took place in Harlem, real or fictional and touched on the same themes of police violence toward African Americans that are still a hit button issue in society. Perhaps the authors I read this month can write a how to pamphlet for America’s police forces in terms of engaging suspected criminals. All the writing I read this month was top notch and perhaps their words can lead this nation closer toward being color blind. We can only hope.

4 stars ...more

39 likes · Like · see review

Mar 09, 2023 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: family, historical-fiction, series, book-club, audio, library, concierge, social-commentary, new-york

Book on CD performed by Dion Graham.

Ray Carney has worked hard for success. He has a furniture store where he sells reasonably priced sofas and dinettes. He’s carved out a decent life for himself, wife Elizabeth, and their children. But cash is tight and Carney does the occasional “favor” for old acquaintances, helping them sell a television or radio or even a ring or necklace. And then his cousin Freddie falls in with a gang who plan to rob a hotel, and suddenly Ray is having to use all his sal ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2022 Celia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-pub, kindle-library, 2022-read, ten-year-challenge, fav-authors, 2022-kindle-counted, book-tv, 2021-ny-times-best, historical-fiction-read

Most of you are probably familiar with Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winning books: The Underground Railroad and The Underground Railroad. This is different in scope from those, but it too has a message. Set in Harlem during the late-1950s and early-1960s, the novel portrays African American life in New York City during a time of social upheaval. It is a crime novel, but has historical fiction elements as well.

Our protaganist is Ray Carney. He is the son of a now-dead Harlem criminal. Ray wants res ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2022 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it liked it

Shelves: mysteries-of-all-kinds

“His cousin Freddy brought him in on the heist one hot night in early June. It was such a pretty block and on certain nights when it was cool and quiet it was as if you didn’t live in the city at all.”

The main plot centers around a heist (I admit, not my favorite genre) filled with hijinks and snafus'. This is the life that the main character, Ray Carney, has been trying to deviate from with his own business and social climbing but yet, finds himself pulled back into.

What I enjoyed:
I loved getti ...more

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Sep 19, 2024 ˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sheri •°*”˜.•°*”˜ rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, group-read-mystery

The writing is good, but this book spirals off in many directions with numerous diversions into the backstories of characters that are either dead or are quickly killed. Some are just gone, written out of the plot. The ending is more together and easier to follow. Be smarter than me and go in knowing that the main character of this book isn't a person. It's Harlem. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review