Crook Manifesto

by Colson Whitehead

2023

A tryptich of tales of crime and corruption in Harlem, from 1971 to 1976. Ray Carney, a former fence now a successful furniture salesman, is dragged reluctantly back into the life when a bent cop from his crook days comes asking for favors, and gets quite forceful about it. Two years later, a firebug acquaintance of Carney's hires Pepper, a taciturn muscle for hire, to watch over the Blaxpoitation movie he's making, and when the movie's star goes missing, Pepper goes looking for her, hitting the streets in his own unrelenting way until he gets the attention of an aging crime boss. Then, in 1976, amid the bicentennial fanfare that rings so hollow in Harlem, Carney hires Pepper to look into an arson which hurt one of his tenants, and they end up uncovering a wide and nasty network of corruption that puts them both in danger.

Whitehead's range as a writer is extraordinary. During the reading of this novel I occasionally imagined I was reading S.A. Cosby and not the erudite, literary prose master of The Intuitionist and John Henry Days. He's a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, so it's no surprise that he can inhabit a crime writer's world with ease. I did not know when I began this book that it is a sequel seven years after Harlem Shuffle, also about Ray Carney, which I have not read, but this novel is easily enjoyed on its own. The capers are crackling with raw noir energy, the Harlem is populated with a vast assortment of crooked characters with nicknames and idiosyncratic predilections, even those who show up in name only, and the drama and suspense come in unnerving bursts. There's plenty of sly humor among the seedy criminality, as well: "the flamboyant quotient in Harlem was at a record high these days, thanks to manufacturing innovation in the synthetic-material sector, new liberal opinions vis-à-vis the hues question, and the courageousness of the younger generation." But it's more than just a crime novel leavened with black humor, of course; a writer as talented as Whitehead wouldn't be satisfied with that. It's also an examination of power and race in America; in the background of the skull-cracking and gunplay there are rumblings of disquiet at the injustice and power differentials that Harlem, and America, are built on.

The Ministry of Time

by Kaliane Bradley

2024

In a near-future London, the protagonist (who is never named) takes on a government job about which she is told nothing. It turns out that the UK has discovered the secret of time travel (from the past to the future only), and our protagonist is hired to be a "bridge" to the present for her charge, a man from the Navy presumed dead in 1847. This is real-life Commander Graham Gore, who perished in the infamous Franklin expedition. Along with the other bridges and time-displaced persons she teaches her expat about such soul-shaking Spotify, the looser morals of the age, and the end of the British Empire. Gore takes it all calmly, considering, and soon he and the bridge (called "little cat" as a pet name by Gore) find themselves falling in love. But there are a lot of secrets that Little Cat is yet to discover about the Ministry; clearly, the government has an ulterior motive in using time travel, and soon she and Gore are in grave danger.

I enjoyed how the novel explores the consequences of defying history, and I loved the characters from diverse eras, especially the spunky 17th century farm girl and the quiet, guilt-ridden homosexual from 1916. Key themes include colonialism (the author is of Cambodian descent, and her characters have diverse backgrounds and perspectives), climate change, generational trauma, and complex identities, all handled with a mix of historical realism and humor. All good so far. However, I personally am not into romance novels at all, and this is easily a romance novel as much as a science fiction or speculative novel. I found this subplot frankly boring. Then, too, I am never patient with characters who don't see the obvious; when, for example, Little Cat hears about an obviously futuristic weapon in the Ministry, she dismisses it utterly as a mistake, despite the fact that, well, she just learned that time travel is possible, right? I felt as though the book never really got itself fully together; I liked how Gore adapted to the present, but the secrets and subplots that followed felt rushed and unsatisfying to me. The book was overlong, tedious in its pacing in some parts, and rushed in others. Alternating chapters which tell what happened to Gore in the past are not particularly interesting and have no bearing on how he acts or thinks in the present. And, as a minor gripe, the author relies way too much on metaphors, some rather silly. A good editor probably could have made this book more readable, but as it is, I was disappointed and often put it down out of boredom.