HARLEM SHUFFLE by Colson Whitehead

 This is a completely different type of novel from the amazing, but violent, gruesome and confronting The Underground Railroad - I still can't bring myself to watch the movie. There is a fair bit of violence in this latest too, but it is different type of violence - more on the lines of Tony Soprano being involved in waste management. We are immersed into Harlem, New York, in the 1960s. Ray Carney is the son of a small town crook/hustler with a certain reputation, long dead, but his legacy lives on in his son. Ray is sort of from the wrong side of the tracks, married to the lovely Elizabeth - from the right side of the tracks. He is desperately trying to walk on the right side of being an honest furniture salesman, but as time passes he finds himself drawn reluctantly and necessarily into the darker side of Harlem. The story traverses the decade of the 1960s, centred on the predominantly black Harlem community, the occasional intrusion of uptown white men or mid-town Jewish merchants, moving between the two communities. Ray has a cousin, Freddie, who is more like brother. Ray has spent numerous hours and $$$ getting Freddie out of various hotspots, which unfortunately drags poor Ray further into the dark side of Harlem. But Ray is cleverer than all of them put together and somehow, in a very entertaining and delightful way, with the odd bit of 'waste management' thrown in  - manages to outwit them all. I loved this. Brilliantly written, a  totally immersive experience into 1960s New York/Harlem, and into the mechanics of social mobility, the same whatever community you are a part of - black, white, Jewish, Asian. We are the same wherever we come from, whatever our backgrounds. Fabulous read. The author is a master of the language and I am sure there is more brilliance to come.