From the beginning

I'm currently immersed in Colson Whitehead's excellent Harlem trilogy. Not only a trilogy but each of the three books are also broken down into three parts and tells the story chronologically of New York hustler, Ray Carney - a very likable furniture store owner & parttime crook. Harlem Shuffle (which I've nearly finished) takes Carney from 1959 to 1964 and rolls the pitch perfectly. In a city still struggling to find its post war prosperity, we're treated to  a very hardboiled (and vey noir) New York - a metropolis awash with jazz bars, gin joints, violence and segregation. The follow-up (which I can't wait to start), Crook Manifesto, picks up Carney's story again in 1971, closing out in '76. And the concluding novel, Cool Machine, is set against the backdrop of the 1980s. Whitehead's narrative technique is superlative throughout. It may not be a life he's lived, but his research, you can tell, is meticulous; you can see these streets in your mind's eye. These are mean streets occupied by hoodlums and chancers. Rich men and poor men. Whores and pimps. Saints and sinners. And I love it. Highly recommended.