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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5/5
I always have to hand it to Colson Whitehead — no matter what he's writing, the man's brilliance it totally undeniable, and he's never doing what everyone else is. The rich texture of the New York he writes here absolutely leaps off the page. It's been a few years since I read Harlem Shuffle, the precursor to this novel, so admittedly I was a bit shaky on recalling some of the characters and finer plot points that carry over to this book. You could feasibly read this without the context of the earlier book, but would miss out on a lot of the nuances and development that came before. This novel doesn't focus quite as much on Ray Carney and delves deeper into the other members of his network across different timelines, most notably Pepper. The book is engaging because of Whitehead's prose, but I did find it hard to follow most of the time with its big cast and many divided loyalties. I'm still glad to have read it because I just find Whitehead so interesting as a writer, even if I haven't yet found that one book of his that REALLY hits me like a shot. But I want to!
I always have to hand it to Colson Whitehead — no matter what he's writing, the man's brilliance it totally undeniable, and he's never doing what everyone else is. The rich texture of the New York he writes here absolutely leaps off the page. It's been a few years since I read Harlem Shuffle, the precursor to this novel, so admittedly I was a bit shaky on recalling some of the characters and finer plot points that carry over to this book. You could feasibly read this without the context of the earlier book, but would miss out on a lot of the nuances and development that came before. This novel doesn't focus quite as much on Ray Carney and delves deeper into the other members of his network across different timelines, most notably Pepper. The book is engaging because of Whitehead's prose, but I did find it hard to follow most of the time with its big cast and many divided loyalties. I'm still glad to have read it because I just find Whitehead so interesting as a writer, even if I haven't yet found that one book of his that REALLY hits me like a shot. But I want to!
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was not for me. I chose to listen to the audiobook when Jeff and I were on a road trip and wanted a book to listen to together. I specifically looked for something NOT part of a series so we would be able to finish it on the trip. Unfortunately, Crook Manifesto was not listed on my Libby app as being the second book in the Ray Carney series and I didn't realize that it was until after we started listening. I have read some of Whitehead's other books and enjoyed them. I thought the subject would interest Jeff but after listening for a couple hours, he decided he didn't like it. However, I like to finish what I start so I listened to the rest of it. All of the violence, shooting, killing, arson, beatings, crooks, gangsters, bad guys, etc. are not things I'm interested in. There were so many characters and so many crimes, I couldn't keep track of who was doing what to whom and why. It read like all those awful movies that Jeff likes. He should have stuck with it.
I liked [b:Harlem Shuffle|54626223|Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney, #1)|Colson Whitehead|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1612449660l/54626223._SY75_.jpg|85227984] but I wasn't sure about Whitehead's crime series. Crook Manifesto came up quickly on my Libby App, so I thought I'd go ahead. The crime scene in the 1970s was more appealing to me. What a dad will go through to get concert tickets for his daughter. Makes me wonder what people are doing to get those Taylor Swift tickets. Anyway, some new characters are introduced and I especially liked the comedian, Roscoe Pope. Whitehead got to show his sense of humor through this guy, and I loved it. I'm ready for crimes in the 1980s!
This almost fully recaptures the magic of Harlem Shuffle as it expands the cast of characters inhabit Whitehead's vision of '70s New York. It's very much the Empire Strikes Back of this trilogy, ending with Ray and his family alive but having watched their life's work burn.
A tale of crooks, fences, actors, mobsters, arsonists and detectives tells volumes about corruption and racism in New York in the 1970s.
Usually, I’m not a particular fan of the mystery or detective genre, but this series has such great characters and zanily interwoven stories that it’s been a fun read while still interesting as a particular portrait of time and place. It’s almost as if the genre is chosen as a plot point along with everything else. Recommend!
3.5
Spanning almost a decade we see how Harlem evolves over the 1970s as the city grapples with the Black Liberation Army and the crooked cops in the NYPD. Despite the book being broken into three stories there are ties that carry through them showing how everything is connected. Our main protagonist is Ray Carney, a fixer who is trying to leave the business but dips a toe back in to get his daughter tickets for Jackson Five, a decision that ends up opening quite a large can of worms. He ultimately ends up reaching out to a crooked cop from his more crooked days and we are taking through a series of events resulting from the creaky hidden, yet visible, network of crime in Harlem. In this world stolen goods, intentional fires for insurance payouts, fights and violence saturate the city and it was difficult at times for me to tell who I was rooting for. Whitehead has some lovely side stories that introduced characters who made brief appearances later on, my favorite was a story about a friend chicken recipe heist, despite the lack of perceived relevance the stories are enjoyable and help paint a full picture of the city.
Spanning almost a decade we see how Harlem evolves over the 1970s as the city grapples with the Black Liberation Army and the crooked cops in the NYPD. Despite the book being broken into three stories there are ties that carry through them showing how everything is connected. Our main protagonist is Ray Carney, a fixer who is trying to leave the business but dips a toe back in to get his daughter tickets for Jackson Five, a decision that ends up opening quite a large can of worms. He ultimately ends up reaching out to a crooked cop from his more crooked days and we are taking through a series of events resulting from the creaky hidden, yet visible, network of crime in Harlem. In this world stolen goods, intentional fires for insurance payouts, fights and violence saturate the city and it was difficult at times for me to tell who I was rooting for. Whitehead has some lovely side stories that introduced characters who made brief appearances later on, my favorite was a story about a friend chicken recipe heist, despite the lack of perceived relevance the stories are enjoyable and help paint a full picture of the city.
so fucking fun. nothing beats a Writer of Distinction cranking out blissful genre work, and it’s hard to do better than Whitehead this deep in his element.