# Harlem Shuffle (novel)

Harlem Shuffle is a 2021 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is the follow-up to Whitehead's 2019 novel The Nickel Boys, which earned him his second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is a work of crime fiction and a family saga that takes place in Harlem between 1959 and 1964. It was published by Doubleday on September 14, 2021.
A sequel entitled Crook Manifesto was published in July 2023.

## Synopsis

In 1959, Ray Carney lives in Harlem with his wife Elizabeth, with whom he is expecting a second child. Although descending from a criminal family, Ray makes his living working as an upstanding furniture salesman on 125th Street. However, he occasionally fences stolen goods through his furniture store, including those from his cousin Freddie. Whereas Ray has steered his way toward an honest living, Freddie is descending into Harlem's criminal underworld. Freddie orchestrates a robbery of the Hotel Theresa with his associates and volunteers Ray to fence what is stolen. The heist goes wrong and a cast of criminal figures enter Ray's life, forcing him into a personal struggle between aspects of his fractured self. The novel is divided in three parts and covers three separate capers, set in 1959, 1961, and 1964. It culminates with the Harlem riot of 1964.

## Background

Harlem Shuffle, Whitehead's eighth novel, was conceived and begun before he wrote The Nickel Boys (2019). Whitehead spent years writing the novel, and ultimately finished it in "bite-sized chunks" during the months he spent in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Harlem Shuffle was published by Doubleday on September 14, 2021.

## Reception

The novel debuted at number three on The New York Times fiction best-seller list for the week ending September 18, 2021.
According to Book Marks, the novel received a cumulative "rave" rating based on 44 reviews: 32 "rave" reviews, 10 "positive" reviews, one "mixed" review, and one "pan" review. In the November/December 2021 issue of Bookmarks, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a rating of 4.0 out of 5 based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "Crackling dialogue, immense knowledge of New York, and, not least, the joy with which Whitehead tells this story will not be forgotten".
In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews called it "as audacious, ingenious, and spellbinding as any of his previous period pieces" and praised the novel's "Dickensian array of colorful, idiosyncratic characters" and Whitehead's "densely layered, intricately woven rendering of New York City in the Kennedy era." Publishers Weekly, in its starred review, praised its "superlative story" and Whitehead's depiction of an early 1960s Harlem "which lands as detailed and vivid as Joyce's Dublin." Writing for The New York Times, Janet Maslin commented, "Though it's a slightly slow starter, Harlem Shuffle has dialogue that crackles, a final third that nearly explodes, hangouts that invite even if they're Chock Full o' Nuts and characters you won't forget even if they don't stick around for more than a few pages."
The novel was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Former United States President Barack Obama named Harlem Shuffle one of his favorite books of 2021.