Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead, explored themes of racism, classism and crime in 1960s New York City. It was told through the point of view of Ray Carney, furniture salesman, family man, and occasional fence for stolen goods. Carney’s dad was a crook, but Carney never wanted to follow in his footsteps. However, as the story progresses, he continued to get drawn into the “crooked” world.
I’ve never read a book quite like this. It’s a crime novel written like literary fiction. At times the cool play-by-play reminded me of something like the Reacher books by Lee Child, while at other times the metaphors and imagery were like something that you’d read in a classic like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. In the end, I shelved it in my literary fiction area rather than my mystery area because the crime sections aren’t laid out like a mystery. The reader knows who is doing it and how they’re doing it from the get-go. What’s more murky is who the “bad guy” is in each scenario. Carney might be acting as a fence and might be a little bit “crooked”, but the people he’s up against are much more crooked than he is. It’s a world of bribery (run by “envelopes” with money to look the other way or grease the wheels going in a thousand different directions). Carney is also a Black man in 1960s America. The book does a good job of describing both the “little indignities” and outright racism of the time. It also does a good job of describing the circumstances that would drive a mostly straight man like Carney into the crooked world again and again.