Cool Machine concludes Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy
Colson Whitehead’s novel Cool Machine concludes the Harlem trilogy, whose protagonist is furniture dealer and fence Ray Carney. Cyprus Mail reviewer Simon Demetriou believes that the book does not disappoint, although it does not make such a strong impression that it is especially hard for the reader to part with it.
New York in the 1980s
The novel moves Carney from 1960s and 1970s New York to the 1980s. In the first part, set in 1981, the protagonist becomes directly involved in a crime for the first time. Together with his uncle Riche, he plans to break into the Waldorf Astoria to take Jesse Owens’s gold medal.
The second part is devoted to the black market in African masks. Pepper reappears in it, hired to protect an entrepreneur connected to the acquisition of a Gabonese mask. This brings the character into contact with an antagonist nicknamed the Melancholy Killer.
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Ray Carney’s choice
In the third part, Carney tries to save the son of his cousin Freddy from mafia revenge. The boy witnessed a murder and took money with him. At the same time, Carney faces the question of what kind of ending he wants for his own story.
According to Demetriou, the desire to give the book a sense of finality somewhat weakens the novel: he called the ending of the first part overly straightforward, while Pepper’s happy resolution was both sweet and not entirely convincing. At the same time, the reviewer noted that the strength of Whitehead’s storytelling lies in his ability to continue creating stories about Carney, Pepper, and New York.
