Crook Manifesto – Colson Whitehead

I was so excited to read this next installment following the fabulous Harlem Shuffle (published in 2021) and even more excited to learn there will be a total of 3 covering the decades from the 60’s to the 80s – a Harlem Trilogy!  Ray Carney is a crook in the least offensive way (not violent, just trying to get by and stay on the straight and narrow, mostly). Whitehead brings Carney’s friend (and sort-of partner in crime), Pepper, to the forefront in this novel. There are wonderful cultural and historic references (Carney has to score tickets to the Jackson 5 concert for his daughter; Pepper takes a side job doing security for a Blaxploitation film crew). An amazing and uniquely entertaining portrait of Harlem in the turbulent 1970s.