By 1971 New York was a city under siege.  During the liberal Republican administration of John Lindsay New York residents experienced a transit strike, a garbage strike, rampant crime, and the daily political corruption that seemed to dominate the city.  Colson Whitehead, who first addressed the plight of New York of the 1950s and 60s in his entertaining and substantive novel, HARLEM SHUFFLE returns with a sequel, CROOK MANIFESTO where Ray Carney once again has to navigate the city’s minefield.  As in the first novel, Whitehead breaks down his story into three components.  First, 1971 when Carney who had given up his ancillary career as a crook; 1973 focuses on Carney’s partner in crime, Pepper, and Zippo Flood, an old “colleague” of Carney who has inherited a substantial sum and is making a Blaxploitation film in Harlem; and third, how Harlem deals with the 1976 Bicentennial.  Whitehead uses his novel as a vehicle to investigate a neighborhood which finds itself at a tipping point in time accurately depicting the satire of this world and immersing himself into the hearts of his characters.

As the novel opens New York is in the midst of a shooting war between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army which wants to overthrow the existing system.  Carney finds himself trying to stay legitimate as he has done for four years eschewing his “fencing” and “laundering” activities and keeping his furniture business afloat.  As the novel unfolds it becomes increasingly difficult for Carney to avoid “bent” activities.

Similar to HARLEM SHUFFLE in his new endeavor, Whitehead intersperses his social commentary throughout.  His first foray deals with the concept of revolution as seen by the Black Liberation Army which wants to overthrow the government and replace it with some type of socialist entity, and the Black Panthers who work partly within the system introducing social programs like free lunches and legal aid to minority communities.  Police corruption still dominates the novel as Detective Munson reappears and the policy of framing blacks for crimes continues unimpeded.  This led to the Knapp Commission under Lindsay to investigate police corruption and introduce Frank Serpico (the subject of a great film) to city residents.  The idea that the war in Vietnam and life in America’s ghettos have similarities takes hold under Whitehead’s rendering and provides interesting food for thought.  By the novel’s conclusion the depth of governmental corruption is fully laid bare.

Carney’s return to the world of crime is a function of his desire to be a loving father.  His daughter May is obsessed with the Jackson Five who are appearing at Madison Square Garden, and she begs him to get tickets for the sold out performance.  Desperate, Carney turns to Detective Munson who he is still paying “protection money” to try and obtain tickets.  This will lead Carney back into the “life” as he gets subsumed into Munson’s corrupt world of bribery, burglary, and murder.  It seems Munson and his partner Buck Webb have stolen jewels belonging to an organized crime headed by Notch Walker who also happens to be funding the Black Liberation Army.  It seems Webb and Munson have been called before the Knapp Commission and realize it’s time to tap out.  Munson’s plan is to screw his partner, rob an important card game created by another interesting character named Corky Bell and use Carney as his associate in return for the Jackson Five tickets.  For Carney, Whitehead’s description is spot on, “He had been straight for four years, but slipped once and everybody is glad to help you slip hard. Crooked states crooked and bent stays straight,  The rest is survival.”

Whitehead brings in two characters from HARLEM SHUFFLE and gives them a prominent role in the novel.  Pepper, an older “thug” has developed into an older brother figure in Carney’s life serving as a sounding board, a partner in crime, and in general comes across, despite his underworld activities somewhat sympathetic.  Another is Zippo Flood, a photographer that Carney had used in a revenge plot who emerges as a film maker having received a windfall from a Russian immigrant who escaped pogroms named “Heshie” who had taken a liking to him.  Zippo always wanted to be a film director and he uses the money to make the film; “Secret Agent: Neferititi” which Whitehouse uses to explain how black films are made and to integrate Chink Montague, a gangster that Carney is familiar with as an investor and the subject of a possible kidnapper of the film’s star, Lucinda Cole.  Once Pepper is hired by Zippo to find her the story becomes more interesting as he takes us through a “centric romp through the film industry, the Black comedy revolution, and the paradox of underground stardom.”*

Throughout the novel Carney is caught between recidivism and redemption, but as the bicentennial approaches events will catch up to him.  By 1976 Harlem was burning as “firebugs” were responsible for over a third of the 12,000 blazes that occurred.  Carney became distraught when he learned a young boy, Albert Ruiz, was injured in one of the fires and the furniture king decided he would find the person responsible.  He employed Pepper in the task, and it would lead to an interesting conclusion involving Alexander Oakes who was running for Manhattan Borough President.  It was the same Oakes that represented the best in Strivers Row and the man Elizabeth’s parents wanted her to marry, not the scum that her mother and father felt Carney represented.  This aspect of the novel is highlighted by Whitehead’s explanation as to how the city operated – City Hall corruption, burned out buildings, urban renewal, federal anti-poverty funds, insurance payouts, and pyromaniacs all linked in a push to clean up the city.  As I think back to growing up in the city at that time and driving a taxi in college, Whitehead’s theory makes a great deal of sense.

Jason Heller is correct when he points out that “What truly makes this series, or any series, work is the way it compels the reader to revisit its characters, to invest in them, to compel you to care enough to see their narratives through. Whitehead knows it, and CROOK MANIFESTO proves it. Ray, May, Elizabeth and Pepper in particular are by turns exasperating and aspirational. Life gets thrown at them, and they throw themselves back in return. These are people you crave to catch up with, and in Whitehead’s hands, the vast and intangible forces of society, injustice, morality, survival and love are distilled in them. ‘I want you back,’ sang the Jackson 5 so famously. It’s how Whitehead makes you feel the instant you close CROOK MANIFESTO does that mean it’s utterly necessary to go back and read (or re-read) HARLEM SHUFFLE before diving into its sequel? No. But it would be a crime not to.”*

* Jason Heller, “Crook Manifesto takes Colson Whitehead’s heist hero in search of Jackson 5 tickets,” NPR, July 18, 2023.

When someone begins a novel writing, “Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked” you know the author knows how to engage his readers.  In this case, the author is Colson Whitehead who has already been awarded two Pulitzer Prizes  and a National Book Award  for the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD and THE NICKLE BOYS.  Colson is also the author of eight other works of fiction and non-fiction.    The prequel to his latest work, CROOK MANIFESTO recently released is HARLEM SHUFFLE which immediately introduces a fascinating and somewhat complex character in Raymond Carney, a furniture salesman who also fences jewelry and other items for his cousin Freddie.  When Freddie draws him into a larger heist the internal dilemma that always seems to rattle around in Carney’s brain takes hold between Ray the striver, and Ray the crook.

The novel is centered in Harlem in the late 1950s and early 1960s where Whitehead presents an accurate picture of the socio-economic condition of its residents.  Carney owns a furniture store on 125^th street with a side door for other monetary opportunities.  Whitehead begins with an accurate description of the West Side Highway (a traffic abomination that I personally drove with my father at that time!).  Whitehead is clear about the dichotomy of downtown and uptown Manhattan into the Bronx and the types of “crooks” that exist in pinstripe suits with loafers and those who dress in a more casual style.

(125th Street, Harlem, circa 1960s)

This contrast is evident throughout the book as “negroes” living uptown strive for acceptance in white society and try and develop their own upper crust in Harlem.  The ambiance of small business during the period is emblematic of Carney’s store and other businesses and patrons he interacts with.  Whitehead expertly weaves the history of Harlem during the period throughout the novel.  The Apollo Theater, Adam Clayton Powell, Cab Callaway’s band, the Hotel Theresa, the “headquarters the Negro world” all make appearances.  Organized crime is a dominant force as the Italian Mafia makes inroads uptown and ally with local gangsters.

Whitehead delves into a series of themes that are highlighted through dialogue and actual historical events.  The racism of the period is on full display as Carney is ignored by white business types when he tries to conduct business.  Commentary dealing with light v. dark negro skin color is a harsh reflection of the self-concept of negroes as they try and fit in.  The Civil Rights movement makes an appearance through Carney’s wife, Elizabeth who works at Black Star Travel a business that tries to secure accommodation for negroes all over the country, particularly in the south.  As the book shifts to 1964 the author explores the Harlem riots and the motivations of protestors and police alike.  The violence and frustration of Harlem residents is obvious.  The split within the negro community is ever present with “uppity” negroes who control the Alexander Dumas Club which hosts the leading political and economic figures in Harlem.  It is interesting how Whitehead uses Carney’s father-in-law, Leland Jones, one of Harlem’s top accountants as the epitome of reverse negro racism as does Alma his wife who also abhors Carney and what he represents.

(Harlem, 1960s)

Corruption also dominates the novel as we see how the local mail service works.  It is made up of bribes and payoffs for protection as money is sequestered in envelopes to be delivered or picked up on a weekly basis.  This involves many policemen highlighted by Detective Munson who works with Carney.  Cops, drugs, pimps all interact as part of the “accepted system.” Political corruption is a daily occurrence under the regime of Mayor Robert Wagner and Tammany Hall as nothing seems to get done in the city without a payoff.

Other themes that come to the fore include racism in America’s segregated army during World War II reflected in Pepper’s experience in Burma.  Jewish-Black tension dealing with rents, jewelry and such though Mr. Moskowitz, a downtown jeweler seems somewhat honest as he fences gems for Carney, but also provides an education in dealing with jewels and their purveyors.

The plot goes round, and round as social commentary leaps off each page.  For Carney who has been swindled by Wilfred Duke, a banker and senior member of the Alexander Dumas Club, it is all about revenge.  However, that revenge leads him further into the nether land of Harlem’s underclass.  Further, there is poor cousin Freddie who seems to have crossed the Van Wyck family, one of New York’s finest, despite the undercurrent of bribery, and Chink Montague, a Mafia boss.  The problem is that his association with Freddie leaves Carney open to all kinds of extortion, fear, and in the end questioning if his lifestyle of half crooked and half not is worth despite its benefits.  With a successful business, a wonderful wife and two children, Carney has a lot to think about.

Overall, the novel is an extraordinary story about an ordinary man who lives a double life.  Whitehead writes with insight and humor and the story is an easy read.  Despite some mean characters, Whitehead has the ability to bring out their inner humanity, but overall, it is a story about how the straight world operated during the day and at night the bent got to work.  To sum up, Karan Mahajan in his 2021 New York Times  review states it perfectly, Whitehead rights the ship by the third section of the novel, “which focuses on another crime to which Carney is an unwilling accomplice, with potentially deadly repercussions for the people he loves. And the crime story, which had become inert, suddenly revs to life, reminding us that Whitehead, beneath all the shambling and high jinks, remains an American master.”

(Colson Whitehead)

How does an author of historical fiction do justice to a subject who must be considered one of the greatest writers of the 20^th century?  In his latest work, Colm Toibin, the author of THE MASTER, BROOKLYN, NORA WEBSTER and nine others takes on the challenge and has produced a work of biographical fiction centered on the life of Thomas Mann, THE MAGICIAN.  The book is a deep dive into the German Noble Prize winner’s life, highlighting his work, sexual proclivities, and the dysfunctional nature of the family with his fascinating wife Katia and his independent and unruly children.  The book reads like an actual biography, but without the narrow biographical strictures of more traditional works like Ronald Hayman’s THOMAS MANN: A BIOGRAPHY, Donald Prater’s, THOMAS MANN: A LIFE and Nigel Hamilton’s THE BROTHERS MANN.

Toibin’s effort is engrossing as he is able to apply a literary brush to a life that is not fiction and appears as a true biography.  Toibin’s imagination is combined with empirical research that allows him to capture the essence of Thomas Mann, his family, and the characters he dealt with during his lifetime.  Mann himself was a complex individual who hid his artistic and literary ambitions from his father and his homosexual feelings from everyone, though he would still marry and raise six children.

Mann, a 1901 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature had his family serve as a model in for his first novel, BUDDENBROOKS, Katia’s stay in a sanitorium is recounted in fiction for THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, and DEATH IN VENICE brought out his hidden homosexual fantasies among his works.  By 1933 he realized remaining in his beloved Munich was untenable; he and his family began a journey that would take them across Europe to France, Sweden, England, the United States, and finally to Switzerland.  THE MAGICIAN is an insightful novel that focuses on Mann and his family as they made there way through the World Wars, the rise of Nazi Germany, and the Cold War.

Toibin offers an intimate portrait of European society that is about to be destroyed by Hitlerite aggression. The norms and accepted principles that dominated northern Germany in the late 19^th and early 20^th century are on full display.  The Mann family life is recreated, and Toibin’s treatment of Thomas’ relationship with his older brother provides an important window into the dynamics of the family.  Throughout Toibin juxtaposes how the brothers react to each other citing their similarities, but more so their differences from their views of who should take over the family trading business, their attitude toward the rise of Adolph Hitler, and how they should navigate World War II and its aftermath.  A tender relationship is evident despite the harsh treatment they afford each other at times.

The Mann family dynamic forms a core of the novel.  The six children that Katia and Thomas produced are made up of strong personalities with disparate beliefs.  Klaus and Erika, who some thought had an incestuous relationship were anti-war radicals who opposed the rise of Hitler and pursued ideals that at times were an embarrassment to their staid father.  Elisabeth, the youngest who was the favored child took care of their parents until she shocked them by marrying the anti-fascist writer of literature, Giuseppe Antonio Borgese who was a little younger than her father, Galo, strong willed remained in Europe until the last minute, Monika whose boat was torpedoed by the Germans in 1940 as she tried to reach her family in the United States suffering the loss of her husband as she survived, and Michael the sensitive musician. 

The driving wedge within the family emerges with the rise of Nazism in the 1920s.  Klaus and Erika were adamantly public about their opposition to Hitler, but their father, typical of many Jews of his generation, was in denial.  Thomas Mann believed that the Hitler phenomena was temporary and German culture would override his popularity.  As time went on he began to realize the danger that Hitler represented but feared speaking out as it would endanger his German reading public, the safety of his brother Heinrich, Katia’s parents, his publisher, even after he himself became a refugee from Nazi Germany.  Toibin conveys Thomas Mann’s tortured emotions as he knew at least in his subconscious that Germany was lost to him, though for years he could not admit it.  He could not accept that once his books were banned in Germany the only access his readers would have was through translations – something he could not accept.

• THE (UNBELIEVABLE TALENT OF THE MANN FAMILYThe Manns: Dad was in chargeIn his new biography on the Mann family, Tilmann Lahme writes that Thomas Mann’s children never managed to free themselves from their father’s influence. The book begins in the 1920s, when all six of them have already been born. Pictured with him in 1924, from left to right: His wife Katia, with Monika, Michael, Elisabeth, Klaus and Erika Mann. Golo is missing in the photo.)

Mann’s same-gender attraction is treated honestly and with care.  There are many scenes that reflect Thomas’ desire, particularly when confronted with attractive young men.  The presentation is conveyed with taste even as Thomas fantasizes because of these encounters, though most were not carried to fruition.  Katia’s approach to their marriage and the needs of her husband are interesting and without her openness and sensitivity the marriage would never have lasted.  Mann wished to play the role of the bourgeois head of family in the context of his homoerotic fantasies which his wife accepted as long as her husband did not put their domestic life in jeopardy. 

Thomas Mann’s fears of the Nazis learning about his same-gender attraction is highlighted by his obsession with his diaries.  Though, his son Galo was able to send most of his books and papers to Sweden his diaries which included his fantasies and other thoughts about boys and young man were almost lost to the Nazis who would have liked nothing better to publish them and ruin him, particularly when he finally denounced the regime.  As Jay Parini writes in his September 19, 2021, New York Times book review the diaries reflected his dreams about mostly handsome young men. “His homoeroticism had many mansions, and he roamed their corridors in his dreams with impunity.”   Further, “Toibin delves into the layers of the great German novelist’s unconscious, inviting us to understand his fraught, monumental, complicated and productive life. It’s a work of huge imaginative sympathy.”

Toibin is at his best when describing some of the interesting characters that Mann dealt with during his lifetime.  The author resorts to an entertaining mocking style as he discusses Heinrich Mann’s wife Nelly who many labeled as a “floozy,” and Alma Mahler, the obstreperous wife of the late composer Gustav Mahler.  These are examples among many including other family members and associates of Thomas who become victims of Toibin’s sardonic pen.

Toibin expertly conveys the desperation of emigres trying to leave Europe for America to escape the rising tide of Nazism.  The gravity of the danger is fully explored, along with the bureaucratic roadblocks that people were forced to overcome.  Toibin focuses on his own family members which is a microcosm of the problem for hundreds of thousands feeing Hitler’s genocide.  Toibin’s analysis fits in with the current airing of Ken Burn’s latest documentary, an excellent piece of work entitled, US AND THE HOLOCAUST.

Toibin deftly navigates the origins of some of Mann’s most important novels.  BUDDENBROOKS  is a commentary of Jewish assimilation in Germany in the latter part of the 19^th century which draws on the family trading business and Thomas and Heinrich’s desire to have no part of it once their father dies.  DEATH IN VENICE is formulated based on a visit to Venice in 1911 where Mann encountered a beautiful Polish boy who becomes Tadzio in the novel. THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN is centers on a Swiss sanitorium where he takes the inconsequential actions of an x-Ray technician transfigured into art.

The novel conveys how politicians tried to manipulate and control Mann for their own devices as they implored him not to speak out against Nazi Germany before the United States could enter the war because of isolationist sentiment.  Later, he refused to go along with American diplomats who wanted him to refuse an invitation to speak at the 200^th anniversary of Goethe’s birth in East Germany.  When he refused to cooperate, he ruined his reputation in the United States, and this would foster his move from Los Angeles to Switzerland for his final years.

Overall, Lucy Hughes-Hallett is correct in her The Guardian review of September 17, 2021, as she states “The Magician is first and foremost a portrait of the artist as a family man; there is comparatively little in it about Mann’s development as a writer or about his status in the literary world. Rather, it places him at the centre of a panoramic vision of the early 20th-century German cultural scene….This is an enormously ambitious book, one in which the intimate and the momentous are exquisitely balanced. It is the story of a man who spent almost all of his adult life behind a desk or going for sedate little post-prandial walks with his wife. From this sedentary existence Tóibín has fashioned an epic.” 

Set in Portland, Oregon in 1975, Kent Anderson follows his first novel, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, with another exceptional work entitled NIGHT DOGS.  In his first book, a searing examination of the war in Vietnam, its effect on those who fought it, and the insanity of war Anderson focused on SGT Hanson an army enlistee after three years of college who volunteered for Special Forces, completed a tour of duty in Vietnam, and then reenlisted for another tour when he could not readapt to civilian life.  Hanson is a fascinating character as he became a hardened combat veteran while continuing to carry a book of Yeats’ poetry with him as he engaged the enemy.  In NIGHT DOGS we are reintroduced to Hanson who has traded his Bronze Star for a policeman’s badge.  Hanson still suffers from the demons of Vietnam as he patrols Portland’s meanest streets and is also confronted with enemies within the department who are bent on destroying him by digging into his war record and resurrecting the agonies associated with the events in southeast Asia. 

Robert J. Lifton, the author of HOME FROM THE WAR a study of the psychological impact on American soldiers in Vietnam written in 1973 was the motivating force behind the Veteran’s Administration’s decision to recognize PTSD as a clinical condition.  Lifton describes PTSD as a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event or events, particularly combat.  Anderson’s protagonist, SGT. Hanson is a textbook case and throughout the novel as he pursued the daily grind of policing in the poverty stricken violent ghetto of north Portland he provides evidence of the characteristics of PTSD especially flashbacks, interjecting his wartime experiences in daily conversations, nightmares, and recurrent conversations about the war with his elderly blind rescue dog, Truman who in a sense serves as Hanson’s “therapy” dog.

Anderson provides a glimpse into the nuances of a policeman’s day.  We ride along with Hanson and his partner Dana as they respond to calls over their radio in their assigned area dealing with car accidents, domestic violence, noise complaints, drug raids, shootings, robberies, welfare problems and a number of situations where they are the catalysts for their definition of crimes.  At the time the book was written in 1996 the issue of police brutality highlighted by the beating of Rodney King on April 29, 1992, was fresh in the mind of the author and if we fast forward to today; the Black Lives Matter movement,  George Floyd, and other police shootings of black men the book remains extremely relevant.

The Vietnam War is revisited through Hanson’s thoughts and commentary throughout the book.  As in his first novel, Anderson presents the hypocrisy of a senseless and dysfunctional war that was/is responsible for ruining the lives of countless soldiers through suicide, life long physical and mental injuries, and government policies that evolved decades later that some refer to as Vietnam Syndrome. 

Anderson explores police culture in fine detail as officers have to deal with urban decay and its attendant issues each day in Portland’s ever growing under world.  As in all police precincts officers are not always simpatico as is the case with narcotics Detective Fox and his partner, Detective Peety.  In Fox’s case it has become personal as he is obsessed in seeking revenge against Hanson for perceived lack of cooperation with narcotics cases and a general dislike.  Fox spends a great deal of time on and off duty going through Pentagon computers trying to dig up information concerning Hanson’s tours in Vietnam in order to destroy his career. The north Portland precinct that Hanson belong to has a reputation for being a landing spot for police officers and administrators who have “royally” screwed up and many of the characters Anderson introduces fit that pattern.

(Kent Anderson)

The only people that Hanson truly respects are his patrol car partners, Dana and Zurbo, but the only person he trusts is Doc Dawson, a black former member of his Special Forces team in Vietnam.  Doc’s helicopter is shot down and he winds up in a New Jersey VA hospital where certain racist nurses have it in for him and make his recovery miserable.  The end result, upon recovery he will return home and become a drug dealer and killer, and because of his VA treatment he walks with a limp and has a chip on his shoulder.  Hanson owes Doc his life because of an incident in the war and their friendship is rather unusual to say the least.

Anderson’s treatment of Hanson’s Special Forces training produces a number of scenes that are extremely disturbing, particularly how soldiers shot dogs, saved them while practicing medical training to be used in combat, and when the dogs recovered they are killed.  In many ways Hanson’s experiences as a policeman mirror what he endured in Vietnam.  In a sense the US military was seen as serving as an army of occupation in Vietnam.  On the domestic front, many people see the police serving the same function in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

During the summer of 1975, Hanson begins to unravel.  He is assigned a number of harrowing cases and colleagues die.  He will be targeted by O. Payette Simpson, a demented man who goes by the name Dakota who has targeted him.  Detective Fox’s research vendetta begins to haunt him.  His masochistic girlfriend, Sara, eggs him on to be more violent.  Finally, his loyalty to Doc threatens his professional loyalties as his drinking and cocaine use increase.

Hanson is a complex character and is accurately described by Michael Harris in the Los Angeles Times review “The Forces Battling for a Policeman’s Soul” from January 1997;” If Hanson were really a “monster” and a racist, he could rest content in his war-won certainties. But he can’t. The real reason he hates liberals is that he’s a little bit of a liberal himself. Though he doesn’t believe in love, he knows he needs it. Though civilization is wimpy and hypocritical, he dimly senses that it’s all we have. Though he treats some black offenders with gleeful brutality, he admits it’s not their fault that society has chosen to leave them in poverty, isolate them and suppress them by force rather than deal with their problems.”

Many novels have been written about the lives of policemen and soldiers, but few if any have delved into the propensity of the American people for violence as well as NIGHT DOGS.  Anderson’s work is well done, but it also presents a very important lesson which we should all digest.