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![]() ![]() I originally was going to follow up "The Underground Railroad" with "Harlem Shuffle," but then after the last election - presidential election, I had to sort out my feelings about being in America. WHITEHEAD: Yeah, well, I usually do mix it up - you know, write a serious book or most - more sober book and then something lighter with more jokes. That's Colson Whitehead reading from his new novel, "Harlem Shuffle." So after writing novels with really big social themes, "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys," why did you want to write a crime novel set in Harlem in 1959 to '64? ![]() How could he not growing up with a father like that? You had to know your limits as a man and master them. The thing inside him that gave a yell or tug or shout now and again was not the same thing his father had, that sickness drawing every moment into its service, the sickness Freddie administered to more and more. What mattered were your major streets and boulevards, the stuff that showed up on other people's maps of you. (Reading) Everyone had secret corners and alleys that no one else saw. If he got a thrill out of transforming these ill-gotten goods into legit merchandise, a zap-charge in his blood like he'd plugged into a socket, he was in control of it and not the other way around, dizzying and powerful as it was. Nothing major, nothing that attracted undue attention to his store, the front he put out to the world. The odd piece of jewelry, the electronic appliances Freddie and then a few other local characters brought by the store he could justify. (Reading) Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked, in practice and ambition. Neither would his man Buxbaum down on Canal - have a coronary if Carney walked in with that kind of weight. Three hundred rooms, who knows how many guests locking up valuables and cash in safe deposit boxes behind reception - he wouldn't know what to do with it. (Reading) Even if he were crooked enough for his cousin's proposition, he didn't have the contacts to handle a haul from the Hotel Theresa. So I'd like you to do a reading about Ray Carney's reaction to his cousin's proposal about fencing the stolen jewels from this heist after the heist is done. And he thinks this is a - this job is just, like, too big for him. And Ray thinks, wow, robbing that is kind of like pissing on the Statue of Liberty. And you describe this as the Waldorf of Harlem, and it was a real hotel. We're doing a heist of a safe at the Hotel Theresa. But his cousin, who's more of a full-time crook - and this is a cousin who Ray has bailed out all of the cousin's life - the cousin Freddie comes to him and says, look. And just to set this up a little bit - so, you know, Ray Carney is a fence, and he basically deals with pretty small-time stuff. GROSS: I want to start by asking you to do a reading. Thanks for writing it, and thanks for coming back to our show.ĬOLSON WHITEHEAD: Yeah, thanks for having me back. TERRY GROSS, BYLINE: Colson Whitehead, welcome back to FRESH AIR. Terry spoke with Colson Whitehead last year. The novel is about Ray's dual life, class divisions within Harlem and the crimes of the elite compared to crimes on Ray's level. The main character, Ray Carney, owns a furniture store on 125th Street in Harlem, but he has a side line trafficking in stolen goods as a fence or, as he prefers to think of it, a middleman, nothing like his father, who was more of a full-time crook with crooked friends. His latest book is a crime novel called "Harlem Shuffle," set in Harlem between 19. He also wrote a novel about a plague where everyone who's infected becomes a zombie and a memoir about playing poker. There are many sides to Colson Whitehead's writing. "The Nickel Boys" is based on the story of the Dozier School for Boys in northern Florida, a reform school infamous for its mistreatment and brutal punishment of boys who were sent there and for buried bodies discovered on its grounds. It was adapted into a Peabody Award-winning TV series. Our guest, Colson Whitehead, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his novels "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys." "The Underground Railroad" is about a 15-year-old enslaved girl who escapes a brutal Georgia plantation. ![]()
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