Colson Whitehead on His Harlem Trilogy
6/2/202624 min
Colson Whitehead is one the few novelists, and the only still alive, to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction—for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys.” Whitehead’s protagonist in the Harlem trilogy is Ray Carney, a small-time crook who fences stolen goods while working as a furniture salesman. Ray first appeared in “Harlem Shuffle,” and the final book of the trilogy, “Cool Machine,” will be published in July. David Remnick and Whitehead discuss the trilogy’s second book, “Crook Manifesto,” and how David Bowie inspired Whitehead’s genre-hopping approach to fiction.
This segment originally aired on July 21, 2023.
Further reading and listening:
- “The Theresa Job,” by Colson Whitehead
- “Colson Whitehead on Historical Heists,” by Deborah Treisman
- “The Match,” by Colson Whitehead
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First 90 secondsDavid Remnick· Host0:00
[instrumental music] Hi, it's David Remnick. Please join us for a live taping of the New Yorker Radio Hour at the 25th anniversary of the Tribeca Festival. I'll be there with the former Obama speechwriter and co-host of Pod Save America, Jon Lovett. We'll talk about the state of the nation and the state of podcasting and much more. The show is Wednesday, June 10th, and tickets are available at tribecafilm.com/audio. Tribecafilm.com/audio. See you there.
Speaker 20:28
[instrumental music] The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker.
David Remnick· Host0:37
[instrumental music] This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Colson Whitehead's character, Ray Carney, is one of the great crooks in recent fiction. Ray isn't big time. He's not even a kingpin, and he's not even a particularly bad guy. He's a furniture salesman in Harlem. He sells BarcaLoungers in the store, and out the back door he fences stolen goods. He's looking to pay his bills and get by, but life tends to get complicated, especially in a novel by Colson Whitehead. Ray first appeared in Harlem Shuffle and returned in the sequel, Crook Manifesto. The third book of Colson Whitehead's Harlem trilogy comes out this summer, and it's called Cool Machine. Whitehead is one of only four novelists ever to win the Pulitzer Prize twice. We spoke in