Summary of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

By C.B. Publishers

Original Book Plot:

"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture to his customers and neighbors on 125th street, making a decent living for himself and his family. His wife Elizabeth and he are expecting their second child, and even if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home.

Few people realize he comes from a long line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his veneer of normalcy has more than a few flaws. Cracks that continue to grow in size.

Ray doesn't ask where his cousin Freddie gets his rings and necklaces because money is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who also does not ask questions.

Then Freddie joins a gang planning to rob the Hotel Theresa, the "Waldorf of Harlem" and offers Ray's services as a fence. The heist does not go as planned; they almost never do. Ray now has a new clientele, which includes shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other Harlem lowlifes.

Thus the internal struggle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook begins. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who really controls Harlem. Can Ray avoid being killed, save his cousin, and take his cut of the big score while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.B. Publishers
• Release date: Jul 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005405823

C.B. Publishers

"With certain books, one wonders: who will read them? And with certain people you wonder: what will they read? And finally, books and people meet ”.

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OVERVIEW

Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle is a 2021 crime fiction novel. The novel, set in Harlem in the late 1950s and early 1960s, depicts African American life in New York City during a period of social upheaval.

The novel is Whitehead's follow-up to The Nickel Boys, which won him a second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2019. This guide makes use of the Doubleday 2021 eBook edition.

PLOT

In June 1959, Raymond Ray Carney, an African American furniture salesman, drives his truck around New York City. Ray is the son of Big Mike, a Harlem criminal whose influence looms large over his son. Ray wants to demonstrate to the world that he can run a respectable furniture store, but he also secretly deals in stolen goods.

At home, Ray's wife Elizabeth is expecting their second child, and he is concerned about paying the rent. Ray and his family's reputation are despised by Elizabeth's parents, who are successful professionals.

Ray goes to see his cousin Freddie after a family meal. Ray and Freddie are close, but Freddie does not have Ray's respectable reputation. Freddie tells Ray in a bar that he is planning a big heist at the Hotel Theresa with a gangster named Miami Joe.

He asks Ray if they can fence the stolen goods in exchange for a cut of the profits. Ray promises to consider the offer but intends to decline. Freddie and Miami Joe rob the hotel anyway. They steal an expensive necklace from a safe deposit box belonging to a local gangster named Chink Montague, who dispatches his henchmen to search Harlem for the necklace.

Freddie approaches Ray and shows him the necklace, asking him to assist him in selling it. Ray's furniture store is where Miami Joe and the rest of the gang meet. A hardened criminal named Pepper and an elderly safecracker named Arthur is among the members of the gang. They agree to stay quiet for the time being, but Ray must sell the stolen necklace as soon as possible.

Pepper pays Ray a visit after Arthur is murdered and demands to be driven around Harlem. They search for Miami Joe but are unable to locate him. Ray later notices Joe on the street and ducks out of the way when Joe shoots at him. He returns to the store, where Joe has already greeted him. Pepper arrives and shoots Joe before he can kill Ray. He orders Ray to dispose of the body. Ray does so before returning home.

Ray is selling more stolen goods than ever before two years later, and his furniture store has grown. He is invited to join the Dumas Club, of which Ray's father-in-law is a member, but he believes Ray is too dark-skinned and comes from the wrong background to join. Wilfred Duke, a powerful local businessman, suggests that he can secure Ray's membership for $500. Ray gives Duke the money, believing that membership will help him grow his business, despite Elizabeth's warning that Duke is a crook. Ray's application is denied by the Dumas Club, and Duke refuses to return the money after an argument.

Ray begins planning his vengeance against Duke. Ray, on the other hand, sees Freddie for the first time in weeks. Freddie is currently living with his new friend Linus, a young wealthy white man who spends the majority of his time high. Ray's suggestion that Freddie is becoming a drug addict is rejected by Freddie.

Ray discovers that Duke pays visits to a prostitute named Laura twice a week. He enlists Laura in his scheme and hires Pepper to spy on Duke. Ray puts his plan into action: he uses his police connections to have Laura's pimp arrested; she drugs Duke and poses him in a series of scandalous sexual photographs, which Ray then leaks to the newspaper.

During the scandal, Duke flees Harlem, taking millions of dollars in stolen money with him. The failure of his business causes financial ruin for many people, including Ray's in-laws. Ray is pleased with the outcome although his vengeance was