Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“Strivers grasped for something better – maybe it existed, maybe it didn’t – and crooks schemed…”

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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In one word: Meandering This book was the January/February selection for my work Book Club, of which I am now the unofficial president. Having been at my company for only three months I am stoked about this turn of events and was eager to discuss it with coworkers. This was a GREAT book club book, lots to discuss. I was familiar with Colson Whitehead, having read one of his Pulitzer winners, The Nickel Boys (which tore my heart out) so I was excited to dive […]

Standing on One Two Fifth

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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Colson Whitehead writing a crime novel is exactly what it sounds so depending on how you feel about him as a writer will impact how you feel about this book. I realize that’s a pedantic thing to say because that’s true of almost every writer. But I emphasize it here because I’ve usually never been able to be in sync with Whitehead’s style. I couldn’t finish Underground Railroad and while I liked parts of Zone One and the concept as a whole, he kept losing me with tangents. Still, […]

Do we judge a man by the weight of the envelope-or whom he gives it to?

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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Harlem Shuffle was billed as a heist book, a caper. And it certainly has heists, and even a caper or two, but reducing the whole book to that label ignores that Harlem Shuffle is something a bit more complex. Ray Carney is a furniture salesman in Harlem in the late 1950s. He is moderately successful, still worried about making rent. He dreams of a bigger apartment for his growing family. He is also, we soon learn, not entirely on the up-and-up. In a description reminiscent […]

Late arrival on the Colson Whitehead Train, but I’m here to stay

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

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I’m using this as my #machinery square in Bingo!  I originally bought this book for an undergraduate class, like 15 years ago. And we never got around to reading it. Ever since, it’s been on my “to read” list.  I can’t believe I waited so long!  Colson Whitehead has risen to prominence for his other works – especially The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle – but this is his first novel. And it’s fantastic.  The Intuitionist takes place in an alternate […]

Whitehead goes for a totally different vibe here–and it works very well

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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Free: got this new book from my library, which purchased it on my recommendation (and, as always, gets a chunk of change from me at year end as a blanket thank you! libraries are great!) This book started off somewhat slowly for me, which I found surprising since clarity of vision and scene has always stood out to me as one of Whitehead’s strengths. In both The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, the setting is almost as important (more important?) than the characters who move about it. […]

It’s a literal railroad

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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“Look outside as you speed through, and you’ll find the true face of America.” I was hesitant to start this book since I had so much trouble with finishing (really, starting) Zone One (from the same author) but I was pleasantly surprised that this immediately got my attention and I found myself compulsively reading it.  The story us about Cora, a slave in a plantation in Georgia.  Her mother had escaped when she was young and she is an outcast even from her fellow slaves.  […]



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