Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle ***

I heard an interview with Whitehead on NPR during which he characterized Harlem Shuffle as a crime story from the point of view of a peripheral character, namely a part-time fence who owns a furniture story. I liked that idea. The interviewer also commented on its sense of place (Harlem in the early 1960s).

Whitehead splits the difference between a pulp thriller and a literary social novel, doing a passable job at each. The prose feels clunky every once in while, as if Whitehead is shoehorning in some color about, for example, the World's Fair.

The most effective aspects of the book happen in the margins. In the early going, we gradually learn about the mismatch between our hero's self-image as a solid citizen and his low-key support of local criminals. Ray Carney grew up in Harlem as the son of a crook, but on a couple of occasions he travels through town with another character and sees a different city hidden in plain sight.