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A review by jbmorgan86
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
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.