Listen to Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead. You can read it, obviously. But I loved the audiobook for how it conveys the grit and grim of New York in the 1980s. This is Batman’s Gotham City, and Whitehead has written a stellar novel about mobsters, fences, heavies, crooked cops, under-the-table art deals, hustlers, and men who have spent decades convincing themselves the next job is the last job. You want the voices, the accents, the audio drama of this book.
Cool Machine is the third and final book in Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy. The book is in 3 parts, the first opens with furniture salesman (and fence) Ray Carney. It’s 1981, Ray’s survived the financial crisis and is watching crooked real estate development, Wall Street money, and old-fashion corruption eating away at the city he loves. New York is dirty and dangerous, but there is money to be made, and Carney keeps his hand in the game, looking for one last heist.
The heist he gets pulled into is a scheme that might be something he can’t talk his way out of, but that’s part of the thrill.
The second section jumps to 1983 and focuses on Pepper, Carney’s longtime friend and “business” associate. Pepper deals with the bodies. He’s a heavy, but age is pulling him down. His body hurts, he likely has stomach cancer, he’s not had a job go right for awhile, but he comes back into the game as a favour to Elizabeth, Ray’s wife. Elizabeth is unaware of her husband and Pepper’s criminal work. She runs a successful travel agency and has a client who needs a bodyguard for an art deal. Turns out the deal is not above board and Pepper finds himself in an East Village club scene with a deal gone bad, a beat up client, and a lost/stolen briefcase of money. Pepper has to tap into all his reserves and against the odds manages to save his own skin, and the client’s.
The final section is set in 1986 and Carney and Pepper are forced out of retirement to protect Carney’s late cousin Freddie’s son Robert. Robert has been working as a driver for a man doing deals with the mob bosses. When Robert witnesses his murder, the murderer is keen to finish the job with no loose threads. Robert is a loose thread. Carney has to decide just how much he’s willing to risk to help Robert.
The three stories feel like they could stand alone but the through-thread is the city. Whitehead’s New York is filthy, corrupt, and in constant flux. But this is also story about Harlem, and ambition, class and race and money, and how those climbing the ladder gain or demand respect.
If you enjoyed Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys, then this is similar yet different. The Harlem trilogy is funny, pulpy, and entertaining, a true thrill ride, while each also stands as a great American novel full of historical and racial observations that provide grit and depth.
A gem.
