gwencl's review
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
fivemorefeet's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lucygoss's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
alibi313's review
challenging
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Beautiful writing in service of three interlocking crime stories I wasn’t really invested in.
artist_lace's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
jbmorgan86's review
3.0
Colson Whitehead is one of those authors you feel like you’re obligated to read. In 2016 he won the National Book Award and Pulitzer for The Underground Railroad. Then, in 2020, he won the Pulitzer for Nickel Boys. Then came Harlem Shuffle.
I didn’t love Harlem Shuffle. It was essentially three novellas in one binding about a furniture store owner and criminal in 1960s Harlem. Harlem itself really is the focus of the book as it seems to be a character itself. The premise sounded great . . . but something was off with it to me. It didn’t quite have the power of the previous two novels.
I was excited when I saw “Colson Whitehead” in the New Arrivals section of the library. I was less excited when I realized that the book, Crook Manifesto, was a sequel to Harlem Shuffle (apparently the plan is for the series to be a trilogy).
This book follows the same pattern as the first but is set in 1970s Harlem. Each vignette includes Ray Carney, but he isn’t always the protagonist. Rather, Whitehead fills a whole town of characters and focuses on various ones throughout the book.
The stories were interesting enough (a crooked cop dragging Carney along for a wild ride, the hunt for a missing actress, and the hunt for an arsonist) but the prose just didn’t flow for me. There were some extraneous details, side stories, and minor characters that it made for a challenging read.
So, in sum: it was fine. Will I read the third book in the trilogy when it comes out? Meh.
I didn’t love Harlem Shuffle. It was essentially three novellas in one binding about a furniture store owner and criminal in 1960s Harlem. Harlem itself really is the focus of the book as it seems to be a character itself. The premise sounded great . . . but something was off with it to me. It didn’t quite have the power of the previous two novels.
I was excited when I saw “Colson Whitehead” in the New Arrivals section of the library. I was less excited when I realized that the book, Crook Manifesto, was a sequel to Harlem Shuffle (apparently the plan is for the series to be a trilogy).
This book follows the same pattern as the first but is set in 1970s Harlem. Each vignette includes Ray Carney, but he isn’t always the protagonist. Rather, Whitehead fills a whole town of characters and focuses on various ones throughout the book.
The stories were interesting enough (a crooked cop dragging Carney along for a wild ride, the hunt for a missing actress, and the hunt for an arsonist) but the prose just didn’t flow for me. There were some extraneous details, side stories, and minor characters that it made for a challenging read.
So, in sum: it was fine. Will I read the third book in the trilogy when it comes out? Meh.
brettpet's review against another edition
4.0
One of the best novels you will read in 2023! It's incredible how much this improved on Harlem Shuffle. I really liked how the time skips impacted the setting, showing the changing cultural landscape and creeping decay of NYC. The three sections are treated like contained short stories with the same cast of characters, and they all felt strong in their own ways. The first, which follows Carney trying to score Jackson 5 tickets by doing favors for a corrupt detective, has a real After Hours feel throughout. The second, in which Pepper searches for a missing movie star, provides incredible commentary on the Hollywood blaxploitation bubble and cements Pepper as my favorite character in either book. The final story has a raucous ending and sets up perfectly for the next book. I was initially skeptical of this concept as a trilogy, but Crook Manifesto solidified it for me. Definitely my second favorite Whitehead book after Nickel Boys.
mmsnz's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
theoceanrose's review
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Murder, Gun violence, Death, and Violence
seeceeread's review
3.75
The line between the stylish and the pimpified was unstable, ill-defined but everyone was having too much fun to complain.
Ray Carney is in it again.
Spoiler
This time, "it" is accidentally helping a rogue white detective rip off NYC's heavyhitters because he really wants to give his daughter Jackson 5 tickets. A quick tip to the Black Liberation Army saves his behind. "It" is lending his furniture store as the site of a Blaxploitation film headed by a pyromaniac, whose main star goes missing. (No problem; Carney's solid contact, Pepper, is the movie's security-cum-finder who trips into the role of hit man for one of the city's biggest crime bosses.) "It" is trying to tamp down his seething while his wife campaigns for the man her father wanted her to marry ... as Carney also realizes the man is running a massive fires-insurance-development scam, raking in hush envelopes from all parties.Whitehead said just as he finished 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗹𝗲, he started this work that takes the series into the next decade. This feels a bit rushed compared to what I'm used to from him: more plot focus than other books; more straightforward social commentary; more accessible diction. I don't think it suffers from any of this – and in fact, probably makes Shuffle / Manifesto more appealing to wider audiences – but I was surprised.
Whispers of former books pop up, beyond the obvious prequel: summers in Sag Harbor, advertising, poker. Whitehead is boldly his own protagonist, again. And the book's jaded undercurrents perhaps reflect his own hardening stance, the immovable schist he's built around. The author often gives me the sense of playfulness at the level of sentence. This feels like a harder jab at society, at how "crooked stays crooked" ... and no matter which angle we case from, the longer we look, the more we find that it's all askew. I like the edginess and Whitehead's perpetual insouciance, even as he carefully decides which pop culture references should stud the text.