This is the third and final book in the Harlem trilogy, featuring Ray Carey as a successful furniture businessman who is inexorably drawn to crime. The real focus of this remarkable book is NY in the 1980s: crime and corruption in seedy locations, racism, and vivid characters with names like the Melancholy Hitman. Finally, there is Carney’s memorable quote (page 8): “It is harder to find a good coffee table than it is to fall in love”. Whitehead is a literary genius (with two Pulitzers).
Cool Machine – Colson Whitehead
