Análisis de diario de la biblioteca
Two-time Pulitzer winner Whitehead (The Underground Railroad; The Nickel Boys) has fun and shows off his literary dexterity with this rollicking crime novel set in 1960s Harlem. Ray Carney, a self-made Black man, sells new and used furniture at affordable prices (with generous payment plans) in a store that bears his name on historic 125th Street. He's caught between his haughty in-laws who are unhappy that their daughter lives in a dingy apartment near the train, and his wayward cousin Freddie, the devil on Ray's shoulder since they were kids. The "slightly bent" storekeeper sometimes fences stolen jewelry too. Ray gets talked into a lucrative heist with seedy coconspirators, which leads to more dangerous capers, until he is forced to balance his loyalty to his business and his family with his loyalty to Freddie. As a writer, Whitehead is in full command, seamlessly populating his story with lovingly recounted period details. The stakes here aren't as high, or the subject matter as heavy, as in his two recent masterworks, but Whitehead's mystery explores the intersections of Black class mobility, civil unrest, and New York City in an entertaining way. VERDICT Another can't-miss from the versatile Whitehead, for readers who loved James McBride's Deacon King Kong.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ |
Análisis semanal de editoriales
Two-time Pulitzer winner Whitehead (The Nickel Boys) returns with a sizzling heist novel set in civil rights--era Harlem. It's 1959 and Ray Carney has built an "unlikely kingdom" selling used furniture. A husband, a father, and the son of a man who once worked as muscle for a local crime boss, Carney is "only slightly bent when it to being crooked." But when his cousin Freddie--whose stolen goods Carney occasionally fences through his furniture store--decides to rob the historic Hotel Theresa, a lethal cast of underworld figures enter Carney's life, among them the mobster Chink Montague, "known for his facility with a straight razor"; WWII veteran Pepper; and the murderous, purple-suited Miami Joe, Whitehead's answer to No Country for Old Men's Anton Chigurh. These and other characters force Carney to decide just how bent he wants to be. It's a superlative story, but the most impressive achievement is Whitehead's loving depiction of a Harlem 60 years gone--"that rustling, keening thing of people and concrete"--which lands as detailed and vivid as Joyce's Dublin. Don't be surprised if this one wins Whitehead another major award. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Aragi, Inc. (Sept.) |