RFBC #16: Crook Manifesto
In which we break down Colson Whitehead’s latest crime novel—plus a link to the podcast.
What can’t Colson Whitehead do? He’s only the fourth person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice: First in 2017 for The Underground Railroad, magical realism/fantasy/historical fiction in which the path from slavery to freedom is an actual subway; then in 2020 for The Nickel Boys, an historical novel of a sort that takes place in part at an abusive Florida reform school. The Underground Railroad also won the National Book Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction literature. Both of those books have been honored on lists of the best books of the decade, and of the century.
So what happens when Whitehead turns his considerable literary talents toward crime fiction—historical crime fiction, at that? You get 2021’s Harlem Shuffle and its sequel, 2023’s Crook Manifesto, which was the subject of our discussion at the October 2023 meeting of Radio Free Book Club.
Do you have to have read Harlem Shuffle to read Crook Manifesto? No—although it would make the Crook Manifesto reading experience richer. You might, however, read Crook Manifesto before you read the rest of this post or listen to the podcast—which we hope you’ll do. You can find it nearly anywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify.
Show notes:
The RFBC crew for our October 2023 show was Indianapolis writer Ken Honeywell; digital strategist and all-star reader Christine Hudson; accomplished short story writer Alex Mattingly; and architect/developer/self-proclaimed aesthete Craig Von Deylen. Our show was recorded at Listen Hear in Indianapolis and produced by the impeccable Oreo Jones for 99.1 WQRT-LP.
Some of us are Colson Whitehead fans. Both Ken and Christine said they were big fans of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, and both were somewhat disappointed by Harlem Shuffle—although Ken said he thought Crook Manifesto made him like Harlem Shuffle better. Christine also raved about The Intuitionist, and about Whitehead’s work in general. Alex had read The Intuitionist in the distant past. Craig wasn’t familiar with Whitehead’s work.
In Carney’s world, everyone’s a criminal. Maybe not everyone. But Ray Carney’s early ’70s New York City is rife with criminal activity, including arson, armed robbery, drug dealing, gambling, and plenty of murder. Everyone has their own crook manifesto: “Maybe you do this, you don’t do that.” Fencing stolen jewelry is something Carney does, but he doesn’t get mixed up in too much else—not willingly, anyway. Pepper, who’d been partners with Ray’s father Big Mike, has his own crook manifesto that’s someway broader. “Pepper was an emissary from the ugly side of things to remind you how close it was.”
The best of the three stories was not a matter of unanimous agreement. Ken and Alex liked the first, “Ringolevio,” best, and everyone agreed that Carney’s quest for Jackson 5 tickets that goes crazily of the rails was a great way to kick off the book. Alex said it was exactly what he wanted in a literary crime book. Ken noted that one effect of having read Harlem Shuffle was that you already knew and liked Ray Carney and were shocked by his predicament. Craig expressed some love for the middle section, “Nefertiti T.N.T,” where Pepper is the primary viewpoint character and Zippo, a minor character from Harlem Shuffle, makes his blaxploitation masterpiece. Christine’s favorite was the third part, “The Finishers,” in which the awful Alexander Oakes gets what’s coming to him.
Roscoe Pope is damn funny. Yes, he’s meant to evoke Richard Pryor. And he’s funny. We all would have gone to see his act.
Pepper is a good detective. He isn’t exactly happy using his criminal powers for good—or for was passes for good in ’70s-era NYC. But he gets the job done.
That deliberate pacing was effective in setting up the violence, making it all the more surprising when it happens. Alex was impressed with the difficulty of Whitehead’s ability to pull it off, and Craig found that it made the violence that much more real.
The dollar-store version of Crook Manifesto? That’s what Christine called Walter Mosley’s Every Man a King. We all laughed.
Who was the most evil character? Lots of options here. But we split our vote: two (Alex and Christine) for Alexander Oakes, Ken and Craig for Munson.
Would we recommend it? Alex loved the writing even when the story lagged for him, and would definitely recommend it. Craig and Christine would both recommend it—and both praised the audiobook version, in part for being laugh-out-loud funny. Ken would recommend it, and said he thought Crook Manifesto made Harlem Shuffle better. We’d all read the sequel and watch the miniseries.
Bonus recommendations: Craig, while expressing some confusion about the Apple+ take on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, recommended the original trilogy. Alex recommended A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes, especially for readers who enjoy pulpy crime fiction. Christine recommended Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, a crime thriller set on a Native American reservation. Ken’s recommendation was Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters, which appeared at nearly the same time as The Underground Railroad and offers a present-day alternate-world science fictional approach to the story of escaping slavery.
Next month: We discuss The Rabbit Hutch, the National Book Award-winning novel by fellow Hoosier Tess Gunty. Please give us a listen.
