I had been meaning to read this one since it came out last year. When my dad and I took a road trip together a few months ago, he put me in charge of picking out an audiobook for us to listen to. Trying to figure out what would be long enough to last us up to northern Wisconsin and back, and something we would both enjoy, I chose this one. It is really good, but unfortunately for my dad, it was longer than our road trip. Since I got it from the library, I had to go ahead and finish it without him.
Fortunately for my dad, the book is divided up into three different stories, all of which focus on the main character, Robert Carney, and his descent into a life of crime. We were able to stop at the end of Part II so my dad wasn’t left hanging.
The book is really good. The narrator did a fabulous job, and while it should come as no surprise that Colson Whitehead has a way with words, something about the narrative of this novel hit me in a way the other two novels of his I’ve read didn’t manage. Every once in a while I would stop and think, “Damn that was a beautiful phrase!”
As I said, the book is about Robert Carney, who tells the story (or stories) in first person.
Carney is a (mostly) upstanding used furniture salesman who keeps getting dragged into shady dealings by his cousin, Freddy.
First, Freddy gets involved in a heist of a local high-end hotel catering to all the wealthiest Black people in the city. The heist involves several people, and when they start turning on each other, Freddy comes to Carney’s store to lay low until things calm down.
But one of his associates-turned-would-be-assassin follows him there and almost ends up killing Carney. Instead, Carney’s employee takes him out and they roll him up in one of their carpets to dump the body.
Each story involves Freddy dragging Carney into some seedy business, and with each story, Carney gives away a little more of his soul. He also increases his financial situation with every story.
The last section involves Carney getting revenge on someone who had cheated him in Part II, proving revenge is a dish best served cold. At the same time, he manages to hurt his parents-in-laws’ financial situation, which wasn’t the goal, just icing on the cake because they had always looked down on Carney. They have to move into a smaller house, while Carney gets to move out of his small apartment into a house on a nice street.
I’m not sure how I felt about the book being divided up into three parts, with each part taking place years after the previous part. On the one hand, it let us see the progression of Carney’s life. On the other, it felt less like a novel and more like a series of vignettes, which made it hard for me to feel invested in Carney and his life.
Part of me is curious to read the sequel and find out what happens to Carney next, but at the moment, I can’t say I’m all that motivated to read it. Crime novels in general tend not to be my thing except for the occasional murder mystery, and the whole descent-into-a-life-of-crime storyline doesn’t normally do much for me either.