Crook Manifesto (2022) by Colson Whitehead

 Book Review

Crook Manifesto (2023)

by Colson Whitehead

   I listened to the Audiobook, narrated by the excellent Dion Graham- one of the most, maybe the most enjoyable Audiobook of the year.  Crook Manifesto is Book 2 of Whitehead's "Harlem Trilogy."  Book one was 2021's The Harlem Shuffle.  Presumably Whitehead is at the point in his career where he doesn't have to do anything in particular- I mean he's probably not set for life, but I'm guessing his publisher doesn't tell him what to do, especially since what he wants to do is a crowd-pleasing trilogy of historical fictions set in mid 20th century Harlem. 

   Back for book two is the same cast of main characters: Raymond Carney, second generation crook and furniture store owner, Pepper, his sometime partner in crime and Elizabeth, his loving wife.  Also back are some of the secondary players: Chink Montague, Bumpy Johnson, Lucinda Cole and crooked police detective William Munson.   Time has moved forward into the 1970's and Crook Manifesto is filled with fond memories of "bad ole New York," with several elements of that era:  the Black Power movement, the Blaxploitation film era and uptown redevelopment all playing a part in the story.

 

  Despite subject matter that would seem to necessitate an "R" rating, Whitehead keeps everything PG-13 the characters don't even swear.  It's a talent Whitehead has for writing adult fiction that doesn't necessarily eliminate the potential of a children reading and enjoying adult fiction.  That's certainly part of the reason he's won the Pulitzer Prize more than once- he is beloved by all. 

   Now that the cat is out of the back about the Harlem Trilogy, Crook Manifesto doesn't exactly thrill as much as it does please.  There is a deep aesthetic pleasure to almost every aspect of Whitehead's prose, whether it be Carney's musings over the home furniture market of the 1970's or Pepper's soliloquy that gives the book its name.  On the other hand, every reader knows from page one that Carney is going to make it to book three- or rather, one suspects that Whitehead isn't going to let go of such a compelling protagonist after two of three books.  The structure of the book is episodic, with tidy resolutions to difficult situations arriving every seventy pages.   Kind of a Quentin Tarantino vibe, you might say.