Paperback, 504 pages
Published July 17, 2023 by Random House Large Print.
Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.
It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It's strictly the straight-and-narrow for him -- until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated - and deadly.
The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways …
Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.
It's 1971. Trash piles up on the streets, crime is at an all-time high, the city is careening towards bankruptcy, and a shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Amidst this collective nervous breakdown furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney tries to keep his head down and his business thriving. His days moving stolen goods around the city are over. It's strictly the straight-and-narrow for him -- until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May and he decides to hit up his old police contact Munson, fixer extraordinaire. But Munson has his own favors to ask of Carney and staying out of the game gets a lot more complicated - and deadly.
The counter-culture has created a new generation, the old ways are being overthrown, but there is one constant, Pepper, Carney's endearingly violent partner in crime. It's getting harder to put together a reliable crew for hijackings, heists, and assorted felonies, so Pepper takes on a side gig doing security on a Blaxploitation shoot in Harlem. He finds himself in a freaky world of Hollywood stars, up-and-coming comedians, and celebrity drug dealers, in addition to the usual cast of hustlers, mobsters, and hit men. These adversaries underestimate the seasoned crook - to their regret.
Harlem is burning, block by block, while the whole country is gearing up for Bicentennial celebrations. Carney is trying to come up with a July 4th ad he can live with. ("Two Hundred Years of Getting Away with It!"), while his wife Elizabeth is campaigning for her childhood friend, the former assistant D.A and rising politician Alexander Oakes. When a fire severely injures one of Carney's tenants, he enlists Pepper to look into who may be behind it. Our crooked duo have to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady, the violent, and the utterly corrupted.
Pleased to learn this is the 2nd volume of a planned trilogy. The 70s in Harlem from the eyes of Ray Carney, including a Jackson 5 concert as experienced by an accompanying dad.
This installment focuses on the 70s (Harlem Shuffle focused on the 60s), and the writing is great. There's a lot of New York specific detail about neighborhoods and streets that is lost on me, but it's necessary for a series that is so intent on using NYC much the way The Wire used Baltimore. My favorite moment is probably when the Magnavox Odyssey (the "brown box") makes a cameo. The research behind this book is pretty awesome.
Whitehead continues the story of Ray Carney from Harlem Shuffle, while also showing us more about engaging characters like Pepper and a certain arsonist-turned-filmmaker. Very enjoyable and sets up well for what will be the final volume in the trilogy.
The first Whitehead novel I read was The Underground Railroad, and I have eagerly awaited his new novels ever since. Crook Manifesto does not disappoint. It is a follow-up to Harlem Shuffle, which you don't need to have read in order to understand this book (although you should read it anyway because it is fantastic). Whitehead has an incredible gift for language, and the snappy prose in Crook Manifesto makes the book impossible to put down. At the same time, Whitehead has a sharp eye for detail, and his language also exposes the brutal reality of race relations in the 1970s. A fabulous book from a remarkably talented writer.
Follow on from Harlem Shuffle. Evolution of survival over several years. The skill employed by the developing characters and that fine line between legit and illegality ; against the backdrop of community/environmental erosion and gentrification. We feel it.
