“Harlem Shuffle” sees Whitehead simultaneously expand and narrow his scope. The horrors of slavery and the brutal inhumanity of Southern Reform schools are topics that bring with them macabre expectations. In “Nickel Boys” and “The Underground Railroad,” Whitehead paints a stunning, if horrific, picture of a racist and brutal American South.

However, there is nothing dated about the circumstances being depicted, or the world we’re shown in “Harlem Shuffle.” The cast of characters are men and women of their time the dialogue, dress, and attitudes are what you’d expect of 1960s Harlem. Whitehead raises many questions beyond whether or not this heist will go as planned: how a man from little means is to match up to society’s positive and negative expectations of him, how the world asks the most of those with the least, and how far a good man will bend himself to protect his own. Hounding him at every turn are the expectations of his in-laws and the legacy of his father, a notorious criminal. Early on the stakes are established Rey Carney is a mostly straight-up businessman with a wife and a daughter and another child on the way. But the gravity of the situation is never in question. The spirits of film noir and traditional heist novels are present throughout the book, from the voice Whitehead lends to the prose - here imitating Raymond Chandler, there crafting a picture right out of “The Maltese Falcon”- to the plot itself which follows three separate heists. “Harlem Shuffle” was initially slated for the 2019 release “Nickel Boys” received, but Whitehead’s reaction to the Border Crisis of 2017 spurred him into releasing another serious novel in the vein of “The Underground Railroad.” “Harlem Shuffle” is a more lighthearted affair than his previous two works, but it is not at all without seriousness in both theme and content. “Harlem Shuffle” releases into a world changed by a global pandemic, but Whitehead isn’t unfamiliar with bending his works to the spirit of the times. Whitehead releases “Harlem Shuffle” hot off the heels of consecutive Pulitzer Prizes in Fiction for “The Underground Railroad” in 2016 and “Nickel Boys” in 2019. Ostensibly a heist novel, “Harlem Shuffle” sees Whitehead return to the familiar digs of New York City, where the majority of his published works are set. “Harlem Shuffle” is the latest novel from two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead. “Harlem Shuffle”: Colson Whitehead’s Return to New York After Detour to the Segregated South Home › Arts & Entertainment › “Harlem Shuffle”: Colson Whitehead’s Return to New York After Detour to the Segregated South

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