In the interview Colson Whitehead talks about his creative writing process, his reluctance to be a spokesman for black America and why he's stashed an unpublished novel in his bottom drawer for his children's inheritance. It follows the travails of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman with one foot in respectability and one in the city's underworld, as Whitehead writes "Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked". Recurring themes emerge racial injustice, corruption of power but this time his protagonist is an active agent. Through it all we learn all about the furniture styles and brands of the early 1960’s, a travelogue if you will. Part heist novel, part richly woven tapestry of New York social history, the novel begins in 1959 and runs to the Harlem riots of 1964. Colson Whitehead paints a portrait of Harlem from 1959-1964 through the eyes of furniture store owner and family man Ray Carney. Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novels The Underground Railway and The Nickel Boys, the writer has changed direction with his latest, Harlem Shuffle. Elizabeth Day talks to Colson Whitehead in a special feature length interview.
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