Point of View

Crook Manifesto is written from a shifting third-person point of view which primarily occupies the perspectives of its two central protagonists, Ray Carney and his sidekick, Pepper. This shifting perspective allows Whitehead to further the aims of his plot, particularly during sections of the novel that are divided between the two men or that see them engaging in separate activities. But the decision to occupy only their perspectives (along with occasional forays into the mindset of Zippo, a blaxploitation filmmaker returning to Harlem to shoot on location) also serves the novel's broader thematic interest in masculinity and patriarchy as contributors to the problems of capitalism.

Carney and Pepper are lent equal weight throughout the narrative, a decision that gives Whitehead the opportunity to explore shifting attitudes between different generations of Harlemites, as Pepper is significantly older than Carney. While Carney appears interested in getting in...