nickdablin 's review for:

Crook Manifesto: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The continuing adventures of Ray Carney Getting Away with It.  In many ways this is just more Harlem Shuffle, but that's ok because Harlem Shuffle was great. This is another three episodes of Harlem dodgy dealings and crook shenanigans, this time spread through the 1970s - dark but never harrowing, funny but not jokey, and always showcasing wonderfully written characters. A couple of the review quotes on the cover reference Quentin Tarantino, which is an apt comparison - the character-driven episodic slice of criminal life is certainly reminiscent of something like Pulp Fiction, and it is purely entertaining in much the same way - the prose is skillful and confident enough to keep you hooked through the various capers and petty criminal conversations and disputes. 
What elevates it is the black perspective - viewing the world through Carney's eyes gives a searing insight into what it must be like to be black in a world run by white men - but whenever the book might start to sink under the weight of such heavy and potentially depressing themes, it is buoyed up by a life-affirming exuberance, and undercut by razor-sharp gallows humour. A joy from start to finish, and I certainly hope this isn't the last we see of Ray Carney's Harlem.