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ashley729 's review for:
Crook Manifesto
by Colson Whitehead
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.