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Book Review
Nov. 6th, 2011 01:15 pmThe Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
In this novel, Chabon gives us an homage to hard-boiled noir detective fiction, set in an alternate timeline in which the Jews fleeing Europe in the 1930s and 1940s were given a temporary homeland in Sitka, Alaska. In the novel, it is now the present day, Sitka is soon to revert to American control, and Detective Meyer Landsman must deal with the murder of one of his fellow residents in the cheap Hotel Zamenhof. Landsman also has a to deal with the wreck his life has become, his ex-wife , and the intricacies of both the legitimate and shadier sides of the Sitka District. If Tom Waits made a klezmer album, it would be the perfect soundtrack for this book.
While not as good as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is still a great read. The story is interesting and, while Chabon does rely on the conventions of the genre (why yes, Landsman does get thrown off the police force for a while), he also has a lot of surprises up his sleeve. The characters are wonderful, too. Meyer is a mess, but I never stopped believing in him. His ex-wife, Bina, was magnificent and possibly my favorite character: tough as nails, smart, perceptive about people (especially Meyer), and fiercely competent. Chabon's prose is as beautiful and vivid as ever.
In the midst of all that, Chabon embeds a bittersweet exploration of exile, the obsessions of faith, whether and how people can make moral choices when their backs are up against the wall, and the consequences of all these things.
by Michael Chabon
In this novel, Chabon gives us an homage to hard-boiled noir detective fiction, set in an alternate timeline in which the Jews fleeing Europe in the 1930s and 1940s were given a temporary homeland in Sitka, Alaska. In the novel, it is now the present day, Sitka is soon to revert to American control, and Detective Meyer Landsman must deal with the murder of one of his fellow residents in the cheap Hotel Zamenhof. Landsman also has a to deal with the wreck his life has become, his ex-wife , and the intricacies of both the legitimate and shadier sides of the Sitka District. If Tom Waits made a klezmer album, it would be the perfect soundtrack for this book.
While not as good as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is still a great read. The story is interesting and, while Chabon does rely on the conventions of the genre (why yes, Landsman does get thrown off the police force for a while), he also has a lot of surprises up his sleeve. The characters are wonderful, too. Meyer is a mess, but I never stopped believing in him. His ex-wife, Bina, was magnificent and possibly my favorite character: tough as nails, smart, perceptive about people (especially Meyer), and fiercely competent. Chabon's prose is as beautiful and vivid as ever.
In the midst of all that, Chabon embeds a bittersweet exploration of exile, the obsessions of faith, whether and how people can make moral choices when their backs are up against the wall, and the consequences of all these things.
