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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
tense
I plan to read every book by Colson Whitehead. His writing is magnificent and I am always blown away it. This is great storytelling weaved into important cultural and historical references.
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
After finding Harlem Shuffle to be just okay, I really enjoyed Crook Manifesto - ironically because reading Harlem Shuffle gave me some familiarity with how this book would be laid out, and the attention to detail needed. As expected from a Colson Whitehead book, the writing is exquisite. Who knew violence could be so smooth and poetic.
The story of Ray Carney continues, a few years after the end of the previous book. Ray has been on the straight and narrow (mostly), but when his daughter asks for tickets to a Jackson 5 concert, he has to go out on a limb to fulfill that request, and falls back in with some folks who don't really care that he wants to dip casually into the criminal pool, and nothing more. The first section of the book is all about what happens in that situation. The next section takes place a few years later, when a filmmaker (an acquaintance of Ray's, I think) uses his furniture store as a set for his latest blaxploitation film, and Ray isn't even really directly involved with this story, aside from that -- it introduces his friend Pepper, who worked with Ray's father in various criminal enterprises when Ray was young. Pepper works security for the film set and ends up having to track down the film's wayward star, which puts him in the path of some pretty bad dudes. The final section of this book has to do with Ray pulling in Pepper in his effort to get retribution for an arson fire that nearly killed one of his tenants. There is a lot of fire in this book. It's sort of a theme I guess. It seems like in this period of New York City's history, a lot of buildings were falling derelict, and the owners of the buildings, rather than fixing them, just burned them down for the insurance money. And so there is this whole subset of the criminal underworld devoted to arson and insurance fraud. Once again, this book is a fascinating story of a man who is trying to straddle two worlds as he navigates a particular period of social history. There's definitely some implied commentary here, which brings more to the story. I don't know what Colson is planning for Ray, whether the story will continue, but his actions in this book could have some big consequences, for his family and his community, and I'd be curious to see how Ray Carney navigates the crazy 80s.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
I think if I had understood this was a sequel, and read the first book, I would have enjoyed it more. Which is really a shame, because I wanted to like it more! He is such a talented writer, imbuing even the grittiest scenes with real humor and even side characters with a distinct sense of self. But (and again, maybe this was due to the missing context) I found I could not stay interested in the short but interconnected stories. May try the first one eventually!
I've read every Colson Whitehead book for years now, and this is by far my least favorite. There are some beautiful lines and thoughful dialogue, but overall the stories just land flat and uninteresting.