Log in on Wednesday, June 15 at 7:30pm as we wrap up the year with Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead. A reminder and the zoom link will be emailed a few days before the meeting to all book club members. Please check out our Facebook page, or email one of the co-chairs with any questions. Find copies of the book on hold for HNN members at Holliston Public Library.
Let’s use some time at this meeting to select titles for next year’s reading. Even if reading the June book doesn’t work for your schedule, please join the meeting to help us plan for next year. See you there!
"To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Ray Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and 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 know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger and bigger all the time. See, cash is tight, especially with all those installment plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace at the furniture store, Ray doesn't see the need to ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who also doesn't ask questions. 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. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do, after all. Now Ray has to cater to a new clientele, one made up of shady cops on the take, vicious minions of the local crime lord, and numerous other Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he starts to see the truth about who pulls the strings in Harlem. 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?
Harlem Shuffle is driven by an ingeniously intricate plot that plays out in a beautifully recreated Harlem of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead"-- Provided by publisher.
Cindy and Sue, Book Club Co-Chairs
Cindy Carr carr.cynthiad@gmail.com
Sue Hatton hncbookclub@outlook.com
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