Colson Whitehead: “The USA. Risen because of the genocide of the natives and the enslavement of Africans.”

Colson Whitehead (New York, 1969) can boast of having twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, a milestone within the reach of only two great writers: William Faulkner and John Updike. Whitehead won that double crown with two highly acclaimed novels, subway (turned into a TV series) i nickel boysin which he explored the indignities of American history with black people.

The writer, who likes to change genres, now tries his hand at a detective novel full of comedy that echoes the jazz and rock of Harlem in the 1960s, a vivid fresco of the neighborhood that was a nest of gangsters. and marginalized and which now, like many others, suffers the ravages of gentrification. IN Harlem beat (Random House) stories of southern immigrants who arrived in New York fleeing the Ku Klux Klan are interwoven with stories of new groups of African Americans who fought for civil rights. Faced with the brutality of former white racists, new generations face more subtle but equally abnormal discriminatory mechanisms.

“The US was raised on the genocide of the indigenous population and the enslavement of Africans,” says Whitehead bluntly, who points out that racial violence has infiltrated all sectors of society, not just among the security forces. What makes the country’s history more ominous is the fact that it elected a racist as president. white supremacy, Donald Trump.

Harlem beat tells the story of Ray Carney, the son of an African-American mobster who opens a furniture store with the idea of ​​escaping the crimes of his childhood. But he will soon realize that living honestly is not enough to eat, so he devotes himself to selling stolen goods and carrying out other heists, such as the famous Hotel Theresa, the Waldorf in Harlem, a coup that will go wrong.

“He grew up in poverty with a father who was a criminal. That was his model of masculinity. But he strives for something better for his family. And so these two different impulses are always at war. To be honest and hardworking, but at the same time a kind of criminal.”

arrested for being black

Whitehead, who is detained, handcuffed and interrogated because he is black, believes that his eyes will not see the end of police crimes against his skin. “America loves racism and loves cops, there’s a lot of police brutality and every time you want to do something against the police it doesn’t last long or it doesn’t work, I’ve seen it my whole life. There has never been a serious attempt to reform the police, and I don’t think there will be any,” claims the novelist.

In a twenty-year writing career, Whitehead hit everything. He dived into the technique of the speculative novel, the zombie story, the nostalgic evocation of adolescence and the narrative of the historical background.

the perfect robbery

On this occasion, the writer decided to write a novel about robberies, for which he was inspired by Toni Morrison’s literature and Stanley Kubrick’s film. the perfect robbery. “For me, the crime genre is not a novel genre. In reality, it’s quite cinematic,” claims the American writer, who delved into his own autobiography to add some humor to the story.

The book, which will be part of a trilogy in which the main character will rush through the 60s, 70s and 80s, is not only about dirty and turbulent Harlem, but also about its music, hip hop, the Ramones or Blondie, whose rhythms appear in the second meal.

If he had not been a child, Whitehead might have seen the performance of Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix up close, he might have lost himself in that New York of dark clubs where John Coltrane and Miles Davis could be found playing at two in the morning.

Despite the fact that he is a man at ease at home, Colson Whitehead follows the pulse of his hometown, its decline and rebirth, a task he thoroughly documented. “New York fell into a financial mess in the mid-’70s and came out of it in the ’80s. In a way, Ray’s fate was written in the city.”

“The only thing I like is writing, having an idea and not screwing it up; That’s my ‘don’t screw it up, Colson’ mantra. The writer never liked random and elitist classifications between popular and cult. “I don’t see the point of dividing books into high and low culture, there are only good and bad books, and I try to write good ones,” says the novelist, who is not affected by criticism. “Life is too short to let the opinions of others influence what I want to write.” After a serious book, Whitehead usually gives birth to another not so dry one. This time it’s time to smile and enjoy the image of New York, whose smells permeate the novel.