![]() “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. 2021 by Colson Whitehead (Author) 10,595 ratings Editors' pick Hand selected reads See all formats and editions Kindle Edition 5.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover 28.95 13 Used from 6.98 3 New from 25.66 1 Collectible from 42. It’s lighter and funnier fare than Whitehead’s most recent novels, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, but it’s also a nimble exploration of class, identity and family. T wo-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead returns with a book that solidifies his mastery in a new genre: the crime novel. “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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