"A man has a hierarchy of crime, of what is morally acceptable and what is not, a crook manifesto, and those who subscribe to lesser codes are cockroaches." (Page 179)
In this sequel to Harlem Shuffle, Ray Carney is at first content just to keep his head down and get on with running his thriving Harlem furniture store. In fact, Carney is doing so well selling furniture these days that he no longer has to help move stolen goods around the city as they pass from the hands of thieves into those of unscrupulous purchasers. Then, because his daughter is so eager to get her hands on Jackson 5 tickets, Carney makes the mistake of asking a favor of a crooked NYPD cop he's worked with in the past, a man who would never consider adhering to a "crook manifesto" anything like Carney's. So now Carney is back in the game whether he wants to be or not - and his crook manifesto goes up in a puff of smoke.
Crook Manifesto is divided into three distinct sections that are set in 1971, 1973, and 1976, respectively. The seventies are not kind to the Harlem section of New York City. This is a decade of record high crime levels, decaying infrastructure, crooked politicians at every level of city government, and neighborhood cops as corrupt as the criminals they claim to be chasing. It's a world in which only those with the right underworld connections are going to survive, much less thrive - and Ray Carney is hanging on only by the skin of his teeth.
Carney's Achilles heel is his contempt for those who don't share his code, and when he starts asking questions around the neighborhood about a suspicious fire that almost kills a little boy in his sleep, Carney places himself - and everyone closest to him - in serious danger. Ray Carney is not really a good man, just a better man than the most of the ones he deals with every day. He can't explain even to himself his aching desire to make the "cockroaches" pay for their recklessness - even as his own recklessness causes Harlem to burn down all around him.
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| Colson Whitehead jacket photo |
I’m not familiar with this side of American life. I enjoyed your review
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mystica. Unfortunately, this kind of lifestyle is not uncommon in America's larger cities. This novel is a reminder of what the residents of Harlem were experiencing in the 1970s, a time when no one, including their elected representatives, were looking out for their interests.
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten this takes place in the 70s... definitely not a good time for Harlem, or any other part of NYC!
ReplyDeleteI remember very well reading all the news stories about what was happening to NYC during the seventies. It seemed like things were falling apart there, that the city was filled with radicals getting away with their crimes, and nobody much cared except the city's residents. Sort of like today, unfortunately.
DeleteHi Sam, I do remember NYC in the 70's. Son of Sam was in the news. and there was alot of crime. Colson Whitehead I have yet to read. He is such an acclaimed writer I must put him on my list. The Crook Manifesto that Ray Carney comes up with cracks me up.
ReplyDeleteRay Carney is an intriguing character, and I enjoyed him over these last two Whitehead books. His manifesto, I suppose, shows that even criminals draw the line somewhere. Sort of like in the "old days" when mob bosses were still refusing to get into selling drugs on the streets. That must have been a Golden Age for the Mafia. :-)
DeleteI think he's written something like 10 novels in all, but I didn't "discover" him for myself until his seventh, Underground Railroad. I've now read his last four. This one is very good but of the four I've read, I most enjoyed Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. Those were both very different from his crime fiction.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting. It sounds like I should read Harlem Shuffle first, then try this one.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely read Harlem Shuffle first because getting that insight into the characters and their recent past will make this one a lot more meaningful. Whitehead does a pretty good job recapping some of the key past events, so it can be read as a standalone, too. But I think readers of the first one will appreciate Crook Manifesto more than those who haven't read that one.
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