Colson Whitehead's 2021 Harlem Shuffle seemed trite at first, certainly compared to his previous literary novels, but quickly shone as "an ambitious, highly literate tour de force." Its sequel, "Crook Manifesto," is even more vaulting and prodigious, even as it, also, hides its force under a superficially slick veneer. Once more we follow Ray Carney, a striving owener of a Harlem furniture store, as he tries to shrug off his gangster heritage and claw his way to respectability in a white man's world. Three distinct tales take place in shape-shifting Harlem in 1970, 1973, and 1976, with the middle story recounted by Pepper, the implacable brute force crook with a pungent wit, whose life dovetails with Ray's. The three mini stories tackle crooked cops, Blaxploitation-era movies, and official corruption. Throughout, Harlem, "the City," is vividly portrayed as a magical character. The author somehow achieves a flawless energetic tone that intelligently entertains as it smoothly portrays. Reading Crook Manifesto is a magical experience, highly recommended.

I was not sure what to expect from this book but I have to admit I was disappointed.

Set in 1970's Harlem centring around Ray Carney's furniture store this book is in three parts. In part one we meet Ray a former fence turned legit businessman. However, in the quest to secure Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter, Ray finds himself being drawn back into the underworld. He soon finds himself mixed up with a crooked policeman and gangland crime that he feels out of his depth with soon leaving a trail of murder, blood and mayhem behind them.

Part 2 focuses on Pepper, hired muscle working as security for a blaxploitation film being filmed in Carney's furniture store. Before long the leading actress has disappeared and Pepper is being employed to find her at all costs. Heading through her contacts Pepper sets out on his mission to find her, preferring to punch first and ask questions later.

Part 3 focuses on Pepper and Ray together, this time trying to find the fire starter who burnt down a building that had a young child inside who ends up in hospital. As they try to work out who is responsible, Pepper leads with his fists and ends up bringing trouble to their doorstep.

I struggled to get into the book and I struggled with the slow pace of the stories. I found that I didn't care that much for the characters either and that made the book something that I struggled to finish reading.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

A walk through the criminal underworld of 1970’s Harlem as told by three intertwining stories centred around Ray Carney’s Furniture Store. Despite efforts to go legit, Ray’s past just won’t seem to let go. Getting on the wrong side of bent cops, council figures, fences and arsonists,could be bad for your health. And yet underneath the violence, there is a nostalgic feel for a time when you knew your place ; where society and community meant there seemed an inevitability to your fate. When the route out to an honest and better life was not yet clear.

In Crook Manifesto, multi award winning author Colson Whitehead returns to the Harlem of Ray Carney for some continuing adventures in crime in his follow up to 2021’s Harlem Shuffle. Similar in structure to the first book, Crook Manifesto opens four years after the end of the previous book and comprises three long short stories, each some time on from the last. Through these stories Whitehead once again lovingly illuminates the world and underworld of Harlem, this time in the 1970s.
When the first story, Ringolevio opens it is 1971 and Ray Carney, son of a gangster and former fence, has been on the straight and narrow for four years. But a desire to secure Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter sees Ray looking up an old nemesis, corrupt cop Munson, being asked to do one quick job and, as a result, quickly being disastrously dragged back into the criminal underworld. The second story Nefertiti T.N.T., set in 1973, is still fairly violent but stands as the light relief. Carney is more of a walk on role in the story of his father’s old enforced Pepper trying to locate the missing lead actress in a Blacksploitation film. The final story, The Finishers takes place in America’s bicentennial year 1976 and takes Carney and Pepper to darker places, including the world of institutionalised corruption, as they try to find out who is responsible for a series of fires in Harlem. The three stories stand on their own but also speak to each other and previous stories in this series. Events from Harlem Shuffle continue to resonate and everything that happens has consequences down the line.
As with Harlem Shuffle, these are not just stories about Ray Carney or Pepper. They are packed to the brim with history, side stories and an array of colourful characters. Such as Pepper whose personality is described as:
"…December when the days for shorter and shorter: cold an relentless. Inevitable… Pepper was an emissary from the ugly side of things, to remind you how close it was."
And scenes that run the gamut from violence and despair to joy. No more epitomised than the opening of the third story:
"It was a glorious June morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the ambulances were screaming, and the daylight falling on last night’s crime scenes made the blood twinkle like dew in a green heaven."
Crook Manifesto is another great novel from one of the great observers of American life, and in particular of conveying the experience of Black America. With a great economy and plenty of verve Whitehead brings the streets of 1970s Harlem, its denizens, its enforcers, its dreamers and its grandees once again to vivid life

Although I was aware of Colson Whitehead, I've never read any of his books; I think possibly because he's a Pulitzer prize winner, I was expecting them to be difficult to read and a bit inaccessible to the ordinary reader.
How wrong I was! Beautifully written and unexpectedly funny, I hadn't realised "crook manifesto" was a sequel, but it works as a stand alone book with its cast of colourful characters and hustlers. Set against a backdrop of Harlem in the early 1970s and widespread corruption raking in money for bent politicians, police and gang leaders, the author is quite measured in his writing but it still burns with an anger for those people who had nowhere else to live and their appalling treatment.
Spending time with Carney and Pepper was oddly enjoyable, if depressing, and I'm really looking forward to the next book. While waiting for that one I'll search out the author's back catalogue!
Thank you to netgalley and Little, Brown books for an advance copy of this book

The sequel to Harlem Shuffle is as seamless as its predecessor, Carney and Pepper remain the two main protagonists along with Harlem, which this time takes the place that New York had in the first book. A life all about not ending up like his delinquent father, and then tickets to a Jackson 5 concert are enough to bring our protagonist back to his roots. So much information and history I learned from this book, especially the fact that Serpico was a real character and not just a movie. So it looks like we will now have to wait for a third book as well, and that's fine, after all the first two went off smoothly.

Il seguito di Harlem Shuffle é fluido come il suo predecessore, Carney e Pepper restano i due protagonisti principali assieme ad Harlem, che questa volta prende, come dire, il posto che aveva New York nel primo libro. Una vita tutta tesa a non fare la fine del padre delinquente e poi bastano i biglietti per un concerto dei Jackson 5 per riportare il nostro protagonista alle origini. Tante le informazioni e la storia che ho imparato da questo libro, soprattutto il fatto che Serpico fosse un personaggio reale e non solo un film. Sembra quindi che ora bisognerà aspettare anche un terzo libro, e va bene, infondo i primi due sono andati via lisci come l'olio.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

NO SPOILERS
I love Colson Whitehead’s writing (and I especially love The Nickel Boys) so even though Crook Manifesto, like its prequel is not my preferred  genre, I was happy to receive this ARC.

And the writing did not disappoint. It's Whitehead’s expected snappy, observant, witty realism. Back stories dropped in effortlessly all over the place…sometimes a couple of lines, sometimes a few pages. Great stuff!

I can see this is an excellent book. The writing, the plot weaving, connections, coming together are masterful but the story held little interest for me.  It is simply not my thing. But four stars because it could not be written better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fleet/Penguin Random House for the Advanced Review Copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

I'm in two minds about this book. Mainly because there are two - well, three - separate parts, or linked episodes. The first part is gripping. Slick, and clever and funny and full of characters, many of whom operate beyond the law in some way but are nevertheless entertaining. I liked Carney and even felt sorry for Munsen. This part, I couldn't put down - a definite five stars.

When I got to the second part, though, things didn't seem to be skipping along so smoothly. There were just as many characters, just as much criminal behaviour but I didn't find it so gripping and the pay-off was low key. I did grow to like Pepper - a tough guy (and a really violent one) with a heart in there somewhere. But the toing and froing of the moviemaking didn't grab me like the first part did. Hmmm... maybe three stars.

The last part was fascinating as far as the revelations into City Hall behaviour, graft, corruption, and pocket-lining go but it still didn't grab the attention like the first part did. Sometimes I felt like I was reading it because it was important rather than because I couldn't put it down. So, again maybe three stars.

What Crook Manifesto did do for me was make me want to read more of Colson Whitehead's books. Harlem Shuffle is now on my list as well as The Underground Railroad.

Rare is a chance that you get to read a book by one of your favourite authors so early so this lept to the top of my tbr pile pretty much instantly. I really like Colson Whitehead's narration, the continued journey of Ray Carney is fast paced, electric and full of character and personality. It's a typical crime novel but with enough soul in its book to feel alive: using the atmosphere of the 1970s New York to give it a seedy edge to it that caters towards a different tone from your normal ongoing crime series: the backdrop of trash-piled high streets of 971 gives <i>Crook Manifesto</i> a unique history.

We get to see Carney making it straight between the three years of 1971, 1973 and 1976 and wrestling with the change of Harlem itself over time in these years: the social commentary running through here is biting and the exploration of the fine line between crooked and staight in terms of how much you're on the payroll and how easy it is to become, well - bent, is one of the book's major themes: as is its love of music for the era, bands like Jackson Five give <i>Crook Manifesto</i> a ready-made soundtrack.

A city on edge, bursting full of energy, drawing from the great New York movies of the 70s - I wouldn't have <i>Crook Manifesto</i> any other way.

The sequel to Harlem Shuffle, I was looking forward to reading this. Set in Harlem over several years in the 1970s, this is divided into 3 parts. I found the first part very readable, but the second and third dragged somewhat. I don't think either this or Harlem Shuffle are as good as The Underground Railroad, but it was worth the read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

This is the second in Colson Whitehead's trilogy which explores a history of 20th century Harlem from the perspective of Ray Carney, son of a crook, successful furniture salesman, part time fence and proud husband and father. The story this time round is set in the 1970s. Corruption, violence and racism are escalating in New York. Carney generally observes slightly from the sidelines but every so often gets involved way more deeply than he intended, Whitehead continues the character development from Harlem Shuffle with much more focus in this novel on Pepper, one time fellow crook of Carney's father Big Mike. I was happy to see Carney's wife Elizabeth getting some more say and space in this novel and Carney's children May and John starting to feature in their own right. As in its predecessor Crook Manifesto uses contemporary cultural reference to give a sense of time and place to the novel, this time predominantly via pop music. I do think readers would benefit from reading Harlem Shuffle prior to Crook Manifesto in order to get the full picture of Carney's story. There is a lot of violence in this book, so much that I was surprised all the Carneys and Pepper survived to tell another tale in the third part of the trilogy. Some of the book reads a bit too much like a sociological tract on what causes poverty, corruption, housing issues etc. and I thought Whitehead could have used the narrative to explore this more rather than preaching. I enjoyed the book and will read the third part but I did not think it was as tightly written as Harlem Shuffle and it had rather too many characters who became a bit of a mish mash of nasties. Thanks to the publisher, Little Brown, for a complimentary ARC of this title via Net Galley in return for an honest review.

I love Colson Whitehead's previous work, but this one wasn't for me. I couldn't get into it due to the nature of every single character being introduced in a long winded way. The author's amazing story telling is still present, but I couldn't connect with the plot because of the amount of distractions.

Sadly this just didn’t work for me. I very much enjoyed Harlem Shuffle, the first volume of a proposed trilogy, in which we get to know Ray Carney, crook and furniture dealer, and a character I related to, but here the focus is diffused among a whole raft of disparate characters, none of whom spoke to me. The novel was over-written, some of the characters seemed little more than stereotypes, and some of the scenes and scenarios were exaggerated. A disappointing read, which I abandoned half way through – something I never dreamed I would do with a Colson Whitehead novel.

Or: Etics of the lawless in Harlem.
This book is set over 3 decades from the 1950s to the 70s in the Harlem district of New York.. The story is told through the eyes of the two main characters, Carney and Pepper. The changes over the period.areshown, but the crime, violence, murders and wholesale corruption are a constant.
There is an underlying linear story, but this is enhanced or confused by the principles by their reminiscing over sometimes only loosely connected events. These do add colour, but each reader will have to decide if the are a pro or a con.
The occasional introduction of known events of the time are a sense of reality. The worsening state of the city finances is made clear, but the book ends before it was actually bankrupt in the 70s.
Overall it's a good book, but for me there's a bit too much of the reminiscing.

Compelling follow up to Harlem Shuffle. Whitehead’s writing remains as vivid as you’d expect, painting a brilliant picture of the simmering tensions, latent violence and political corruption in Harlem (and New York more broadly).

The structure was a little surprising - effectively taking the form of three “quests” taking place in different years through the 70s, allowing relationships to develop - both within the family and in the political world. Pepper being the focus of one story wasn’t as successful for me initially, and I felt myself bristling at the changed focus. I soon got over myself and appreciated the final section all the more for having developed the depth of his character.

Overall - a fascinating revisit back to Carney’s Harlem worl.

This is a multilayered, ambitious follow up to Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle, the second in a trilogy, that paints a harrowing yet warm and humorous picture of New York and Harlem in the 1970s, specifically vignettes from 1971, 1973, and 1976, featuring the return of Ray Carney, and other characters, new and old. He is the furniture dealer and family man, who has managed to prosper and leave his criminality behind, only to be dragged back into its deadly orbit, courtesy of his daughter's innocuous desire for hard to get Jackson 5 tickets. Carney reaches out to a police contact, Munson, but the corrupt Munson has his own agenda, he is feeling the heat and himself needs a favour.

So begins the collation of the different pieces and layers of NYC crooks, from the small time, to the big time in a city where the odds are stacked against its black community. This is a beautifully written, complex and astutely observed historical cultural, social and political commentary of turbulent and changing times. We have the violent Pepper doing a security gig on a Blaxploitation film shoot where a star goes missing. There are crooks galore, police taking bribes, the consequences of Frank Serpico's revelations, drug dealers, comedians, the mob, collection of protection money, the radical Black Liberation Army (BLA) needing funds, heists, and hustlers. Shady deals are everywhere, along with powerful and ruthless corrupt politicians, murder, insurance fraud and seedy New York is going up in fire through arson.

It is not pretty, tough to endure should you have a modicum of a conscience, and when a fire results in critical injuries, enough is enough as an angry Carney looks for revenge. The highlights for me are the depictions of vibrant ordinary lives amidst the background horrors and struggles to survive, the joys, fun and humour, and everyday community and family life. Not all crooks and cons are the same or operate at the same scale, there are those that are beyond any realms of acceptability in their inhumanity and devastation. This is not a perfect read, there are occasional problems of flow and pacing in the narrative, but it evokes an unforgettable atmospheric 1970s New York, informative and entertaining, and has me highly anticipating the next book. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Loved ‘Harlem Shuffle’ and loved this one too. Colson Whitehead has a way of writing that draws you into the life of his characters and their thoughts. The descriptions of Harlem are so evocative you could just wandering the streets.

Great read, set across several years of 1970’s Harlem, New York around the time of the Black Panthers. The book is centred around Ray Carney, owner of a furniture store and sometime fence of stolen goods. Some great characters, all involved in crime, but some likeable too, especially the violent Pepper. Describes the decline of the city through neglect, racism and political corruption. Gritty and dark social history but some funny bits too. I haven’t read the previous book in the series but that didn’t affect my enjoyment at all, and am so pleased to have been introduced to this author.

Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the e-arc.

Excellent, sharply written, well paced story of a furniture salesman and former crook who dips back into his life of crime to try to secure Jackson 5 concert tickets for his teenage daughter and ends up back into the world of crime, deeper than he'd imagined. I have read other Colson Whitehead books and thoroughly enjoyed them but was not actually aware this book was a sequel until after reading it, I didn't find that diminished my enjoyment at all. I loved the way different sections of the book gave the reader more in depth perspective into different characters and how it all pulled together in the end, with the peril increasing along the way. Very enjoyable and I will be looking out for other work from this author to come!

A sequel to HarlemShuffle, which I enjoyed. I was therefore looking forward to this book

Told in three parts we follow Ray Carney a furniture store owner, now on the straight and narrow, having left his fencing sideline behind.

The first part addresses Carney’s return to fencing to find some Jackson 5 tickets. The second part follows Pepper who is hired as a security guard on a film set. The final part is in 1976 and insurance fires are easing NY to the ground. The child of a tenant is injured in a blaze and Carney, with Pepper’s help, seeks revenge.

The structure of three separate parts was off putting for me and I eventually found the constant references to furniture tedious. Had this been the first Whitehead book I had read, I would have said no more but I really enjoyed Harlem Shuffle. I suspect it might be my problem as opposed to the author’s

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC