Crook Manifesto- A Novel by Colson Whitehead
Product details
Web ID: 17302198Difficult Read
Hard to read sentences that never start, and some run on forever. Three word titles amid paragraphs. Proofread? Giving it one more try, but may not make a chapter.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Left me ambivalent
Crook Manifesto By Colson Whitehead I am not sure how I feel about Mr. Whitehead's books. Some I have liked – like "The Nickel Boys". Others not so much. This book falls in the second category. The story here deals with Harlem "businessmen" in the 1970s. It seems that everyone doing business in Harlem at the time was only moderately successful at best in legitimate pursuits, or anywhere from hugely successful to failures as gangsters. Most seem to have dipped into both the legal and illegal sides of things. Everyone was a crook – including the cops. This book seems to glorify the strong (ie gangsters and cops) preying on the poor people living and working in the area – and often on each other! What the book conveyed to me was that the author really didn't see much wrong with the way things went down. He almost seemed to admire the way his characters took advantage of each other. Oh well, it's just business as usual. Everything from graft to drugs to prostitution to murder to arson seem to be just the cost of doing business. I'm not sure this is the message Mr. Whitehead was aiming to send, but it was how this book came across to me.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Just OK
i found it a trudge to parse the jargon and slang, so after several tries, i gave up after the first section. harlem shuffle was good, but this one seems just so so. loved his other books.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A Sequel That Soars
The latest book by Colson Whitehead, "Crook Manifesto", is a sequel to, " Harlem Shuffel". While many sequels seem to fall flat, this one actually soars! Mr. Whiteheads prose is a wonder to behold. He is just magic with his ability to turn what could be a banal phrase into something much more. Many of the same characters are back and a few new ones are introduced. But, there are crooks and there are Crooks! Carney happens to be one of the former. Growing up with a father who was a mean Crook who cared little for outcomes or morality, Carney is a fence. He may be a crook (merely a sideline), but he is a man with a moral compass and a whole lot of heart. You can't help but root for him. The situations faced in this novel are filled with suspense. They also give us a look into the history of NYC in the 60's and 70's, and the reasons why the politicians couldn't and didn't fix all the urban blight back then. I loved this book and highly recommend it.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com