鈥淐rook Manifesto鈥� by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
In his bestselling 2021 crime novel introduced the complicated character of Ray Carney, a Black furniture store owner and small-time fence clawing his way into the middle class while resisting the urge to follow in the footsteps of his thuggish father. That novel played out in Harlem during the civil rights struggles of the early 1960s, and the city itself was a major character.
Now he鈥檚 written a sequel. When 鈥淐rook Manifesto鈥� opens, it is 1971, Carney has been on the straight and narrow for four years, and civic harmony is in short supply, 鈥渓ike honest mayors and playgrounds free of nodding junkies and broken bottles.鈥�
Carney鈥檚 desire to score impossible-to-get Jackson 5 tickets for his increasingly aloof teenage daughter prompts him to seek out the corrupt cop and fixer he used to do business with 鈥� and all hell breaks loose. With Carney back in the game, Whitehead proceeds to show us 鈥渢he invisible barrier that separated his city from the white city鈥� in a decade when the Bronx was burning and the Daily News blared 鈥淔ord to City: Drop Dead.鈥�
The novel is broken into three parts loosely connected through the storylines of Carney, his family, and a handful of other characters, including Pepper, a hardcore criminal who is surprisingly endearing. The second section, set in 1973, revolves around the shooting of a blaxploitation movie on location in Harlem, including at Carney鈥檚 furniture store. The third part takes place in 1976, when the son of one of Carney鈥檚 tenants is severely injured in an arson fire and Carney can鈥檛 work up much enthusiasm for the nation鈥檚 bicentennial celebrations. As a store owner, he is expected to jump on the patriotic advertising bandwagon 鈥� 鈥渁 dome of red, white, and blue smog鈥� 鈥� but the only slogan about America that sounds right to him is 鈥�200 years of getting away with it.鈥�
As he did in 鈥淗arlem Shuffle,鈥� Whitehead mixes noir crime tropes and social history to present a slant, cynical view of New York as a thoroughly rotten Big Apple, only occasionally redeemed by individual acts of love, loyalty and kindness. Whenever Carney鈥檚 wife wants something that鈥檚 going to cost serious money, and Carney realizes he doesn鈥檛 have it, he says to himself, 鈥淲hat else was an ongoing criminal enterprise complicated by periodic violence for, but to make your wife happy?鈥�
Whitehead鈥檚 sly sense of humor and encyclopedic knowledge of the city make 鈥淐rook Manifesto鈥� an entertaining read, but as incident after incident piles up, you just want it to be over.
Ann Levin, The Associated Press
