Paperback, 538 pages
Published Sept. 13, 2021 by Random House Large Print.
To his customers and neighbours on 125th Street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normality has more than a few cracks in it.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops of the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa - the 'Waldorf of Harlem' - and volunteers Ray's services as the fence.
Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Eerder een verzameling samenhangende verhalen dan een roman, maar dat mag de pret niet drukken. Uitstekend vertaald door Harm Damsma!
I mean it was fine. What's there to say. Quite well written, don't get me wrong. But I found the three acts all lacking action, intrigue, and a consistent through line. None of the characters were memorable or distinct in a way that impacted the story, including the main character. They all seemed to serve as a backdrop for a story that was was not interesting enough to stand up on its own. It wasn't a bad read at all, just wholly unmemorable.
I read this because my book club recommended it. Even though it's not my genre, I thought it might be a good opportunity to stretch myself, to get myself out of my usual reading habits. I thought it might be a bit like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - enjoyable because it's impressively well written.
But, this book felt formulaic. It felt like it was steady work for the author, rather than art. Like a paper that'd you'd write for school rather than an essay you're dying to publish.
There wasn't much interesting dialogue or plot. We know hardly anything about Carney's wife, apart from where she works. What would it be like to married to someone on the edge of crime? What kind of fears would you have? How would you know your husband was still alive, day after day? What if you couldn't reach him? Now …
I read this because my book club recommended it. Even though it's not my genre, I thought it might be a good opportunity to stretch myself, to get myself out of my usual reading habits. I thought it might be a bit like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - enjoyable because it's impressively well written.
But, this book felt formulaic. It felt like it was steady work for the author, rather than art. Like a paper that'd you'd write for school rather than an essay you're dying to publish.
There wasn't much interesting dialogue or plot. We know hardly anything about Carney's wife, apart from where she works. What would it be like to married to someone on the edge of crime? What kind of fears would you have? How would you know your husband was still alive, day after day? What if you couldn't reach him? Now that would be interesting.
I did really like the details of the neighborhood and the people who lived there. The author must have done a tremendous amount of research. But, the details couldn't really make up for the lack of plot and thin characters.
Edit: I wonder if telling this in the first person might have really improved things. The info dumps of research would have to go, because Carney doesn't seem like someone focused on history. Also, Carney as an unreliable narrator might have created more interest (is Freddie a bum or a victim? Is Carney being fair to him?). The kind of thing I'm looking for is detailed scenes from his perspective: "when I said I was going to be headed out for a bit, Elizabeth set down her glass very slowly, but didn't say anything." Something that indicates there's tension, without directly saying "if my wife finds out about this, she's going to leave me". The book actually does say this directly :(
I couldn't see it through…
This is a historical fiction novel which is part family saga, part gangster story, taking place in the early 1960s. The protagonist is Ray Carney, a man who is smart in every sense of the word. He's got common sense, street smarts, and a business degree. He's a man who is struggling to make a life for himself and for his family, and does not want to follow in his father's footsteps. Big Mike, as they called him, was part of Harlem's criminal underworld. And yet, this world has its hooks in Ray. He pays both a cop and a gangster protection money, and this is a dance that many step to, and keeps a part of the city's hierarchy intact.
Sure, Ray Carney is a bit crooked. He was raised on ill-gotten money and goods, and the seed money for his furniture business came from his father. And he …
This is a historical fiction novel which is part family saga, part gangster story, taking place in the early 1960s. The protagonist is Ray Carney, a man who is smart in every sense of the word. He's got common sense, street smarts, and a business degree. He's a man who is struggling to make a life for himself and for his family, and does not want to follow in his father's footsteps. Big Mike, as they called him, was part of Harlem's criminal underworld. And yet, this world has its hooks in Ray. He pays both a cop and a gangster protection money, and this is a dance that many step to, and keeps a part of the city's hierarchy intact.
Sure, Ray Carney is a bit crooked. He was raised on ill-gotten money and goods, and the seed money for his furniture business came from his father. And he does some fencing, as in not checking the provenance of certain items that he sells. But, he's keeping a low profile, just staying on the outskirts of all the craziness. Until, that is, his cousin Freddie gets in on a dangerous scheme, and drops Ray's name. Whether Ray likes it or not, he's involved in a certain heist.
As children, Freddie and Ray were very close, growing up like brothers, and Freddie always had a knack for getting them both in trouble. Unfortunately, he's at it again, but this time, it's serious, life-threatening trouble.
Part of the historical backdrop of this story was the Harlem race riots of 1964, when a black teenager was senselessly shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. The adults in Ray Carney's world are older, and have different viewpoints and attitudes about what is going on around them. The protesting is mostly younger people, believing in and fighting for change. During these years, a lot of change takes place in Ray's life and in the city's life, too.
The different sides of New York City in this novel were intriguing. One person's Harlem is not another person's, like one of those optical illusion pictures that can be viewed as different objects, depending on how one looks. Also, the characters that populate these different worlds are colorful and interesting. There was also the humor! Even when Ray is in a deadly situation, he might have home furnishings on his mind, for example, noticing that these crooks are standing on a certain brand of carpet that will prevent stains. Convenient.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest novel by Colson Whitehead, and many thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday books for this wonderful opportunity.
