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nerdese 's review for:
Crook Manifesto
by Colson Whitehead
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!