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The Final Solution

by Michael Chabon, Jay Ryan (illustrator)

3.27 of 5 stars 3.27 · rating details · 8,687 ratings · 913 reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review

This Michael Chabon experiment with genre fiction -- a follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- is marked by a notable richness of character and playfulness of plot. Set in sleepy southern England in 1944, the story introduces a nine-year-old refugee, clearly intelligent but mute, and his constant c...more

Paperback, 160 pages

Published November 1st 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2004)

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Lists with This Book

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Community Reviews

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May 03, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is one of four newish books I recently read mostly so I could finally get them off my queue list, all of which were actually pretty good but are mere wisps of manuscripts, none of them over 150 pages or so in length. This one is the 2004 Sherlock Holmes tale The Final Solution by literary wunderkind Michael Chabon, like the others published originally as a magazine story (in The Paris Review; in fact, it won the in-house "Aga Khan Prize" in 2004 for being the best story to appear that year...more

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Jul 14, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I’m downgrading this to a two and am tempted to give it the damning single star but for the fact that Chabon is such a master of cleverness and has such a huge vocabulary I have to admit some sliver of awe and respect. That’s the failing, too, of this book for me. I looked hard and could find no soul. It read like an exercise, with a few interesting results (an admirable point-of-view-of-the-parrot passage, an attempt to embody the mid-century Britishers’ mannered language and vocabulary). This...more I’m downgrading this to a two and am tempted to give it the damning single star but for the fact that Chabon is such a master of cleverness and has such a huge vocabulary I have to admit some sliver of awe and respect. That’s the failing, too, of this book for me. I looked hard and could find no soul. It read like an exercise, with a few interesting results (an admirable point-of-view-of-the-parrot passage, an attempt to embody the mid-century Britishers’ mannered language and vocabulary). This edition has an interview with the author at the back in which he extols the virtues of the genre-pulp writers, as well as (or including) Conan Doyle, the model for this one. In theory I love that idea but in the end my problems with this book stem from 1). its excessive cleverness and ultra-self-conscious prose and 2). the limits of genre. As for the latter, I’ve found most of the other attempts to reclaim genre-writing equally unsatisfying—for instance Motherless Brooklyn. Both books seem the equivalent of listening to Winton Marsalis when you could be listening to Miles. What’s the point? Chabon perhaps brings an interesting postmodern sensibility in his prose style (zillion-dollar strings of colliding words), but the minuses that come hand in hand with the genre in the end take it down more than his obviously high IQ can lift it up (those minuses being cardboard characters, formula plot, lack of emotional depth, soullessness). How someone like Chandler (one of my heroes!) and other pulp/noir writers overcame those minuses was through a fresh and subversive writing style that was utterly unaware of its subversiveness (those over-the-top metaphors—I was so hungry you could see my spine through my stomach—!!), and through complicated and clever plots (usually, though The Big Sleep does happen to have a huge hole in the plot). The “mystery” of the Final Solution turns on a single revelation that is preceded by barely a clue and is clumsily handed to the reader at the exact two-thirds-of-the-way through point where enre writing prepares us to expect denouement. In the end neither my heart nor my brain were really engaged, though in the short moment, Chabon certainly glitters. While I’m ranting: When I finished this book with a feeling of having been cheated I did an estimation of word-count and came up with about 30,000. How does he get away with that?! No fair.

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Nov 24, 2008 Pete rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm a Michael Chabon fan, and that may be surprising considering I have no special interest in his favorite topics: superheroes, homosexuality, Jewishness, and genre fiction. His novella "The Final Solution" hits three out of four if you consider Sherlock Holmes a superhero (or gay), and I enjoyed this one as I enjoy all of Chabon’s work.

Set during WWII, the scene opens with an elderly detective we believe to be Sherlock Holmes (it is implied, but the detective is never named!) He is now retired...more

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Apr 14, 2007 barry rated it 2 of 5 stars

To echo the chorus, this book is quite disappointing. I surfed through the book staying aloft solely on its intriguing premise-- Sherlock Holmes (unnamed as such but recognizable just the same) survived Reichenbach Falls to live into the 20th century as a reclusive beekeeper and becomes embroiled in an intrigue involving a parrot spouting cryptic numbers perhaps related to Nazi atrocities. It never delivers on the premise, falling prey to an overly ostentatious writing style that suffocates the...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Bryce Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

A nice enough read, but still kind of a lark, or as much as anything concerning the holocaust can be.

The idea of a Dark Knight Returns style Holmes is a good one, as is the idea of using him as a metaphor for the more "civilized" Victorian World's incomprehension of the evils of the modern one, with even it's greatest mind unable to wrap his head around just what is going on. After all what's a murderous Pussy Cat have on the systematic extermination of an entire race? It's frankly kind of astou...more

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Jan 27, 2008 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

Michael Chabon can do no wrong. The man is utterly entertaining, a great stylist, and he does a great job of taking pulp genres and making high art out of them. In this one, he does so with the Sherlock Holmes-style detective yarn. To my taste, City of Glass does it better, and The Name of the Rose does it smarter. They all come from the literary example of Jorge Luis Borges, I am guessing. This small, entertaining book, set in England against the background of Nazi national psychosis, is worth...more

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Mar 29, 2009 Hollie Bush rated it 5 of 5 stars

Last summer I decided that I was going to read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I went to the library and found an extremely large and musty old book that contained every one of the short stories and novels. I spent the next week reading them one by one. As I got closer to the end of the book I found that I was pacing myself so that I wouldn't read them too quickly. I wanted to make the book last, and obviously Doyle wasn't going to be writing any new stories. Doyle is long since gone and Hol...more Last summer I decided that I was going to read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I went to the library and found an extremely large and musty old book that contained every one of the short stories and novels. I spent the next week reading them one by one. As I got closer to the end of the book I found that I was pacing myself so that I wouldn't read them too quickly. I wanted to make the book last, and obviously Doyle wasn't going to be writing any new stories. Doyle is long since gone and Holmes was retired to the country to tend bees.

Then I came upon this book by Michael Chabon. Clearly Chabon is a devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes. This story, taking place at the end of a famous life and after thirty years of retirement, takes great pains to recreate this character as an old man with both veracity and respect. The sleuth has lived anonymously in this town for decades and the author respects that need for privacy so much that he never actually uses the name Sherlock Holmes.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes will enjoy this book very much. Reading the story is like meeting an old friend. You're somewhat shocked at how he's aged, but it feels natural and authentic. There is also an interesting mystery. The mystery isn't as tightly woven, or the solution as surprising, as you would find in the best of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work, but it moves along nicely and there is a very poignant heart to the story.

For those who have not read Sherlock Holmes this book is still very much worth reading. Even if you're not familiar with the character, and therefore don't get all of the little "tip of the cap" references to the Doyle stories, you will still find him to be an interesting and compelling character. More to the point, you will find this story to be both interesting and compelling. It takes place in England during 1944 and centers around a little Jewish boy who was smuggled out of Germany to avoid the gas chamber. His father was a noted psychiatrist and his family escaped the death camps as long as they did because a Nazi official needed treatment for a sleep disorder. But, at some point the family feared that it would suffer the fate of their friends and family. The boy, along with several other Jewish children, were smuggled out of Germany with the help of Anglican priests and settled around the English countryside.

The boy brings with him a very unusual pet who speaks for him now that the trauma of his life has left him mute. One day the boy and his pet meet Holmes by chance, and the story begins. The mystery that this child and his pet hold within them is the essence of an innocent child trying to make horror into something that he can process. Adults with Machiavellian schemes move in and out of the child's life. He's being cared for by a well-meaning couple, but they are so absorbed in their own disappointed lives that they can't really offer him the assistance or protection that he needs.

Sherlock Holmes comes out of retirement to aid the boy and struggles with the realities of what time has taken from him. Physically and mentally he is no longer able to make the same leaps that he once made so easily without exerting great effort.

The story unfolds quickly (the book is only 131 pages long) in a way that is very much in keeping with the tradition of Doyle's short stories. The subject matter is compelling and emotional. The writing is very well done. I highly recommend this book!
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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

From his editorship of an issue of McSweeney's to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Chabon has mined genre fiction and pop culture in pursuit of literary gold. His newest novella finds him polishing up the detective story as an unnamed Sherlock Holmes comes out of beekeeping retirement to work the case. Reviewers applaud the fresh approach Chabon takes with Holmes' character, eschewing analytic genius for emotional complexity. Critics labeled the title's referen

...more

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May 31, 2013 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars

A cleverly written homage to Arthur Conan Doyle (The Final Problem) with an undercurrent of anger over Hitler's Final Solution. We are introduced to an elderly bee-keeper (never named) in 1944 "...she crossed over to get a better look at him. Years and years ago his name--itself redolent now of the fustian and rectitude of that vanished era--had adorned the newspapers and police gazettes of the empire, but it was his more recent, local celebrity, founded almost exclusively on legends of his shyn...more

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May 19, 2013 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anna

When I made a stack of books to bring along on vacation, I picked this one largely because it was on our bookshelf and written by Michael Chabon - that, and it was shorter than Telegraph Avenue or The Yiddish Policeman's Society, both of which are owned, but unread. This book was just what I was hoping for - an excellently written but quick read.

It tells the story of a German boy with a pet parrot living in post WWII England and his encounter with a famous retired detective. My copy of the book...more

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Dec 19, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Finally got to read this earlier this month, after wanting to for a good long while. I had very high hopes, having enjoyed Chabon's writing in the past, and being a Sherlock Holmes fan. And I was 99% satisfied, which isn't bad!

Really a novella rather than a full novel (though I definitely would have enjoyed another hundred pages), the story follows an elderly, retired detective (never explicitly identified as Sherlock Holmes, but heavily implied) searching for the stolen parrot of a mute German...more Finally got to read this earlier this month, after wanting to for a good long while. I had very high hopes, having enjoyed Chabon's writing in the past, and being a Sherlock Holmes fan. And I was 99% satisfied, which isn't bad!

Really a novella rather than a full novel (though I definitely would have enjoyed another hundred pages), the story follows an elderly, retired detective (never explicitly identified as Sherlock Holmes, but heavily implied) searching for the stolen parrot of a mute German boy in the English countryside during World War II.

Chabon is one of only a few writers I've read who can pack each sentence with heady, ornate description, and still make pages flow by like you're reading a potboiler (Gregory Maguire being another example). He's a master of language, weaving it in ways that are both powerfully evocative and easily accessible. It's the writing - particularly the voices Chabon gives to his characters - which keep the central mystery of the missing parrot engaging - taking the long view, it's actually pretty simple, and doesn't require much more detective work on Holmes' part than to read a sign backwards in the window of a car. With a lesser writer, it would be tedious: with Chabon, you roll with it because just hanging out in the world of the story is enjoyable enough.

There's a larger mystery in "The Final Solution," as well: the parrot recites a string of German numbers in no apparent order. Several characters and organizations think they've guessed its meaning - German naval codes, a cipher being used by German agents, etc. (Holmes, uncharacteristically, shows little interest). In the end, however, these claims are all projections, people looking at something mysterious and seeing what they want to see. In the end, even Holmes has to face up to the possibility that his own thoroughly-logical process of deduction may, in the end, be an act of invention. As Chabon writes:

"And yet he had always been haunted - had he not? - by the knowledge that there were men... who squandered their brilliance and sanity in decoding and interpreting the messages in cloud formations, in the letters of the Bible recombined, in the spots on butterflies' wings. One might, perhaps, conclude from the existence of such men that meaning dwelled solely in the mind of the analyst."

This, in all honesty, was my greatest hope for a Michael Chabon Sherlock Holmes story. Detective stories are, at their core, all about truth. Doyle's stories were about an objective, logical truth that could be observed, deduced, and categorized. It was a Victorian style of truth. Today, our view of things is much muddier - especially when faced with something as insoluble as the Holocaust. I was excited to see Holmes go up against the truly mysterious, the truly unanswerable, and... basically see what happened. And while that isn't addressed directly (the full nature of the Holocaust still being unknown at the time of the story), the story's conclusion - from which the quote above comes - gave me that moment. It was great. Everything that came before it was great.

So why am I only 99% satisfied?

Because the climax is whimsically told from the perspective of a sentient parrot.

This is a literal description of what happens. It feels like it's been copied and pasted from a completely different story, and it taints some of the enjoyment of that hauntingly ambiguous conclusion. Because, you know, if you're going to tell an existentialist detective story about the Holocaust, you probably shouldn't include a scene WHIMSICALLY TOLD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A SENTIENT PARROT.

Just my two cents. I've never written an existentialist detective story about the Holocaust, so maybe that sort of thing is harder to avoid than I think.

Anyway, everything else was great, and as I said above, I would have gladly read a full novel set in this world, with this Holmes. I wouldn't even want more light shed on the mystery of the numbers (never officially answered, in keeping with the theme - although a solution is hinted at subtextually), although I'd love to spend more times with the Great Detective as he deals with the frailty and sentimentality of old age.

As a bit of trivia, "The Final Solution" is a nod both to the Holocaust (which looms over the entire story) and "The Final Problem," which was supposed to be Arthur Conan Doyle's final Sherlock Holmes story, before popular demand and a desire to keep making mad money led to Holmes' resurrection. Feel free to use that at the next party you go to. No need to thank me.(less)

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Oct 02, 2012 Aaron Brame rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Warning #1: there are spoilers ahead.
Warning #2: I have a lot to get off my chest here.

I have not had a reading experience this disappointing in quite a while.

The Final Solution, as the title states, is a detective novel. There is a murder at the heart of the novel, as well as a detective, various false leads, and, ultimately, a solution. I expected Chabon to have a lot of post-modern fun with the detective genre, knowing what I know about his virtuosity and love for "genre" writers.

First, this...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Rachael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, historical-fic, favorites

There are so many problems with this book and yet so many reasons to love it. The writing style ended up being the main draw for me. It is overly smug, self-aware, and basically non-stop *wink wink nudge nudges* for much of it. But it was so over the top, I think purposefully so, that I couldn't help but find it hilarious and I absolutely loved it. I think I must have been in just the right mood for it when I started reading it as I could easily see this annoying me to no end were I in another m...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Katrina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lovely little detective story. I'm biased, I suppose, because I have a particular fondness for Sherlock Holmes. (But really, who doesn't?) The beauty of this story is that the mystery itself never tries too hard, and it's not necessarily the point. Although we do discover the murderer, it's almost a footnote, something swept aside as if of minor importance.

Old Sherlock (for you're meant to assume it's he, despite the fact that he remains nameless throughout) takes the case only to find the bir...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Gretchen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Attention Sherlock Holmes fans -- it turns out that "The Final Solution: A Story of Detection" is actually a Sherlock Holmes story. It takes place when Holmes is an old man, long past his prime and deep into retirement. He accidentally finds himself involved in one last mystery, involving a mute boy and a German speaking parrot. Holmes comes out of retirement to help the boy and uses his famous powers of detection to help solve the mystery/murder.

Like all of Chabon's writing, "The Final Solutio...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

“The Final Solution” by Michael Chabon was a witty, creative, and enjoyable read. What stood out the most to me in his writing style was his unusual and clever use of point of view. The narrator’s voice is that of an omniscient third person, removed from the story, but critical in conveying the thoughts and feelings of the main characters to the reader. Although it is written in third person, which each chapter you gain new insight from the perspective of a different character. This created a fa...more “The Final Solution” by Michael Chabon was a witty, creative, and enjoyable read. What stood out the most to me in his writing style was his unusual and clever use of point of view. The narrator’s voice is that of an omniscient third person, removed from the story, but critical in conveying the thoughts and feelings of the main characters to the reader. Although it is written in third person, which each chapter you gain new insight from the perspective of a different character. This created a fascinating experience for me, as the reader, in that I was able to get inside the head of a different character, from the point of view of an all knowing, unbiased narrator. New characters and new situations are introduced with each chapter. At first, I must admit, this was hard to adjust to and I frequently had to refer back to previous pages to remind myself of who was who and what their subplot was. Once I became familiar to the story’s distinctive rhythm, it was easier to keep up. Chabon was able to successfully link all of the characters and subplots he introduced into the overall ark of the story, making it feel like a puzzle, with every page becoming a new piece. This not only increased my intrigue in the story, but gave way to an impressive resolution, when all the pieces fit together. However, this did not happen in a campy “all’s well that ends well” way, there was still some unresolved conflict and a hint of mystery that was just enough of a cliffhanger.

I applaud Chabon for his use of well-rounded characters. While the story closely follows a main protagonist, there are other characters that are given focus and fleshed out just as much. Every character had layers and unique personality traits that have an effect on the reader and plot, even though they would only be considered minor characters. Written in the form of a true detective story, every character has a secret, a motive, and is affected by the conflict. By creating these rich characters, Chabon allows the reader to make specific connections to each character, instead of being overwhelmed by their presence. It can be a frustrating read when an author throws in a mess of one dimensional characters that the reader is neither able to react or relate to, for the sake of having characters. Chabon avoids this problem by giving each character their own mini subplot, that is explored in the story, but not to so much excess that it detracts from the main plot or distracts the reader from the overall conflict of the story. Chabon also makes use of abnormality; he gives his characters odd little quirks and obsessions that stand out and increase the mysterious tone of the story. For example; the protagonist is an amateur beekeeper and the story revolves around a mute child and his enigmatic parrot. That’s not a usual story theme found in most detective novels, so just in the plotline alone, Chabon offers his readers a unique read. I would highly recommend this novel, especially those interested in a fun and clever detective story, with colorful characters, and a unique suspect.
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Oct 03, 2011 Shayla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sleuthing and Storytelling

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2004.

What initially drew me to this book was the title, a bad habit I’ll admit to. Its play on the title of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem” had me searching for some similarity between the authors’ styles. Sure enough, Michael Chabon has created “A Story of Detection” just as the subtitle says. Within the 131 pages of this novella, Chabon captured the essence of a wonderful myst...more Sleuthing and Storytelling

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2004.

What initially drew me to this book was the title, a bad habit I’ll admit to. Its play on the title of a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Final Problem” had me searching for some similarity between the authors’ styles. Sure enough, Michael Chabon has created “A Story of Detection” just as the subtitle says. Within the 131 pages of this novella, Chabon captured the essence of a wonderful mystery with a concise and creative command of words. He gives the genre his own twist, colored with emotion and an insightful message that makes turning the last page worthwhile.

From the first sentence, which is a catalyst for this whole curious case, the story begins with a “boy with a parrot on his shoulder was walking along the railway tracks” who is discovered by an old man, presumably once a famous detective. The boy, Linus Steinman, is a mute who escaped Nazi Germany with his African parrot, Bruno – a parrot who often recites a cryptic series of German numbers. The odd pair of friends intrigued the retired detective, and it’s through a chance murder inquiry that they are brought together again. A traveler who had Sunday dinner with Linus’ adoptive family, Mr. Shane, was found murdered, and the parrot was missing, leaving the boy distraught. The old man’s determination to find the bird and not the murderer brings us through an elegant and visually compelling adventure to find a solution. But, without giving away spoilers, the end result doesn’t happen in the conventional meaning of the word; it’s gratifying nonetheless.

As suspected, the myriad of characters thrown at the reader in such a short amount of time can be confusing, but Chabon’s techniques of characterization are still effective and hard-hitting. The old man, retired detective and active beekeeper, wrought with setbacks and reminders of his deteriorating mind is easily recognizable even to those who aren’t Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts. Through dialogue and endless descriptions, each and every sentence is packed with vital detail and imagery. At times I found myself reading in Jeremy Brett’s voice and picturing the old Granada Television series. The secondary cast, such as the aptly named Mr. Panicker and the traveling Mr. Shane, are given the same amount of care and precision in their brief but memorable appearances.

Additionally, Chabon’s usage of an omniscient narrator who can see into the thoughts and feelings of each of the characters helps with their characterization. For example, he tries something unique by spending a whole chapter focusing on the emotions and inner monologue of the captured parrot, Bruno, as if he were a human being. He’s suddenly more than a plot device to help move the mysterious narrative along, but a character just as real as the others. Chabon’s choices of diction are strangely rhythmic, and he seems incapable of constructing a dull sentence. However, the flowery language can often produce long sentences that might lose the reader in his ornate storytelling techniques. But he makes sure to play with length and add in the occasional simple sentence like, “He had seen madmen.”

As an aspiring writer, I really admire his command of words and his ability to put so much meaning into his sentences. He knows how to set a scene and force his readers to use all their senses. My writing is often takes on a more casual, short and snappy tone, but Chabon inspires me to play with diction and let words overflow as they may. It’s my new goal to produce something as clever and tightly written as this novella.(less)

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Sep 18, 2011 Bev Hankins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, historical-mystery, holmes, mystery

Billed as a "suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story" and set with "subtle revelations [that] lead the reader to a wrenching resolution." The Final Solution is about an elderly man who is in retirement deep in the English countryside. Villagers vaguely recall that he was once a famous detective up in London. Now his door is pretty well closed to the outside world and all that interests him is his beekeeping. But then he meets up with...more Billed as a "suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story" and set with "subtle revelations [that] lead the reader to a wrenching resolution." The Final Solution is about an elderly man who is in retirement deep in the English countryside. Villagers vaguely recall that he was once a famous detective up in London. Now his door is pretty well closed to the outside world and all that interests him is his beekeeping. But then he meets up with Linus Steinman, a nine-year-old boy who has escaped from Nazi Germany--alone and apparently mute with only an African gray parrot as his companion. The bird is known for the strings of German numbers which it recites. What is their meaning? Is it a top secret Nazi code? Combinations to Swiss bank accounts? Or maybe something far more dangerous. Soon there is murder done and the bird disappears. Will the elderly sleuth get to the bottom of it?

This is actually a reread for me. But other than remembering that The Final Solution was about an unnamed elderly beekeeper (who we all assume is Holmes) and a boy with a parrot, I remembered nothing else about it. So, when my Follow That Blurb Challenge journey brought me to Michael Chabon I decided to refresh my memory--and also provide a real-live review of the book since it had been read in my pre-reviewing days.

I was mildly disappointed. Oh, Michael Chabon can write. He even manages to bring off the mannered writing that goes along with Holmesian fare. But if it's a tribute (or "brilliant homage" as the synopsis claims) to the master then it falls a bit flat. I don't want to spoil anything....so let me just say that the final mystery isn't much. One expects a build up to possible Nazi codes and intrigue to actually lead somewhere. I mean, after all, this is Holmes we're talking about. Sure, he may be 89 years old but give the man a puzzle worthy of him. The clue (yes, indeed, that is clue singular) is clumsily presented and the denouement isn't all that exciting--and certainly not wrenching. I do see the overtones. I do "get" what the title of the story is referring to. But, honestly, it's quite heavy-handed in all the wrong places. I liked the interactions between the boy and the Holmes character. That was extraordinarily well done. More of that and I would be handing out a much higher rating. Three stars--just.(less)

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Jul 06, 2011 Jeff rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I picked up The Final Solution a while ago at a used book store for a buck or two. I never really read the back cover or anything, just assumed that it would be decent based on the Chabon I'd read before. I slipped it in a bag when I had jury duty and read the whole thing (it's just a 100-page novella) in the hot, crowded jury selection room.

This worked out perfectly! I started reading it and had no idea what the plot would be at all. So therefore I was delighted to suddenly realize, a quarter o...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2011 Travis Gallagher rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Review of Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution
Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution is a rather odd book. It takes place in England during the World War II era but really does not use the conflict in its plot. Before I read this book I expected a tale about a parrot that holds some course changing information about the war. While an interesting parrot, Bruno, is featured in the story, the book’s focus is mainly on an old retired detective and his exploits while trying to solve two mysteries. At...more A Review of Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution
Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution is a rather odd book. It takes place in England during the World War II era but really does not use the conflict in its plot. Before I read this book I expected a tale about a parrot that holds some course changing information about the war. While an interesting parrot, Bruno, is featured in the story, the book’s focus is mainly on an old retired detective and his exploits while trying to solve two mysteries. At the end of the book a clear message is delivered to go along with an entertaining tale.
The Final Solution is a rather short read (just over 130 pages) that presents two mysteries. The first and most dominant mystery is a homicide that results in the disappearance of Bruno who belongs to a young, Jewish mute whose sole companion in life is his parrot. Bruno is extremely important to the boy because he is a refugee from Germany and Bruno is essentially all that he has left. An old local (who is only referred to as the Old Man) who is a retired detective is recruited by police officers to help find the bird. The only reason he offers his help is because he understands the important relationship that the boy and his bird share. The other mystery that the book offers is the numbers that the parrot is constantly reciting. This parrot is a particularly talented one that likes to sing and the numbers are what Bruno sings the most. These numbers stir up quite a bit of suspicion between some of the boy’s neighbors. Some begin to believe they are German Naval codes or Swiss Bank account numbers. This is what ultimately leads to the bird being kidnapped. Most of the narrative of the book focuses on the Old Man’s life, experiences, and activities. It serves a purpose by allowing readers to see what drives the Old Man to look for the boy’s parrot.
There are two themes that are present in The Final Solution. The first theme deals with the important role that pets can play in people’s lives. The refugee boy depends on the bird to keep him out of solitude and Bruno is truly the only thing that brings him happiness and smile. Bruno’s impact on the boy is quite profound considering the fact that the boy cannot understand any of the musings or songs that Bruno does yet it still makes him happy. The second theme that is evident in the book is Human Comradery. The only person that appears to be touched by Bruno’s and the Boy’s relationship is the Old Man. He is driven to emerge from relative obscurity in his retirement. He pursues the culprit feverishly and energetically. To a certain extent The Final Solution pays homage to the Sherlock Holmes novels and at times it appears as if Chabon wants readers to believe that the Old Man is in fact Sherlock Holmes.
Overall The Final Solution is a very short but entertaining read. The only knock against it is probably the shortness of the book which will probably leave readers wanting more. Still though there is a very entertaining plot and Chabon’s message appears to be clear which makes The Final Solution worth the short time that it will for you to read.

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Feb 14, 2011 Ian Reed rated it 2 of 5 stars

I Bought the Parrot, but Wasn’t Sold on the Story

The Final Solution
By Michael Chabon
Harper Collins Publication Inc.
New York, 2004

When it comes to Michael Chabon’s novel, The Final Solution, I found myself certainly overwhelmed with the solution to the makeshift mystery.

Starting with the image of a boy and his parrot by some railroad tracks, I wasn’t sure where the book was going. I grasped that I was seeing these two characters from the perspective of a third, of which Chabon later goes more...more I Bought the Parrot, but Wasn’t Sold on the Story

The Final Solution
By Michael Chabon
Harper Collins Publication Inc.
New York, 2004

When it comes to Michael Chabon’s novel, The Final Solution, I found myself certainly overwhelmed with the solution to the makeshift mystery.

Starting with the image of a boy and his parrot by some railroad tracks, I wasn’t sure where the book was going. I grasped that I was seeing these two characters from the perspective of a third, of which Chabon later goes more in depth to build his image, age, character and the atmosphere of his small room in a British house near the railroad. Throughout the novel, Chabon’s amazing ability to make his characters and their surroundings seem so vivid drew me in and impressed me. The best example of this power of imagery and point of view comes from when he places his audience in the perspective of the parrot in the story. He carefully and quite successfully executes the odd perspective so that I felt like I was the bird. Everything was described in a way that let me keep my human understanding of self, yet project it into the brain and knowledge of the smarter-than-average parrot, Bruno.

Another powerful element in Chabon’s writing is conciseness and mastery of pacing. He doesn’t spend time making up portions of the story to place between events, and cuts right to the important, plot-filled portions. Going from the discovery of the boy, we skip forward a few days or maybe weeks to the boy, Linus, eating dinner with a family. Each event in the story that is important is covered and everything else that could get in the way is carefully avoided.

Chabon’s use of these three elements, characterization, point of view, and pacing makes the book a good teacher for what can help your reader connect with the story and help them along in it; yet while he uses these elements well, the novel itself was rather unappealing. The mystery of the boy and his extremely clever parrot leads to a murder mystery that centers as the story’s plot. The problem with this plot device is that the mystery doesn’t engage the audience. With the introduction of an incredibly wise old sleuth, the mystery is practically solved on its own without the audience needing to question or deduce who was responsible for the murder.

Overall I was rather displeased with the book. It had great visuals which I looked up to and sought entertainment from, and I loved where Chabon turns to the parrot’s perspective, but the murder mystery and wise old man fell short of my expectations and left me unengaged in the story to truly enjoy reading it.

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Jan 13, 2011 Northpapers rated it 2 of 5 stars

Michael Chabon is an unapologetic nerd, which is one of the things that makes his work so likeable to me. He wins a Pulitzer Prize for a piece of historical fiction about two friends during the golden age of comics, and follows that audacious victory by writing a piece of Sherlock Holmes fan fiction that's barely long enough to be called a novel. So he publishes it as "A Story of Detection."

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. Chabon's gift for long, eloquently crafted sentences and his predil...more Michael Chabon is an unapologetic nerd, which is one of the things that makes his work so likeable to me. He wins a Pulitzer Prize for a piece of historical fiction about two friends during the golden age of comics, and follows that audacious victory by writing a piece of Sherlock Holmes fan fiction that's barely long enough to be called a novel. So he publishes it as "A Story of Detection."

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. Chabon's gift for long, eloquently crafted sentences and his prediliction for shifting perspectives get in the way of an otherwise great little yarn.

I never expect sparse prose from Chabon, nor do I think a short story can't sustain stylistic flair, but as a subjective reader, I feel the story slipping away from me.

There are reasons for the rules that govern genre fiction. Generally, if you write a detective story, it is best to use first person or, at the very least, to limit the perspective to one main character. This creates a sense of immediacy, a feeling of immersion, and a focus that you need for that edge-of-the-seat effect and that sense of epiphany at the solution.

Chabon's changes in perspective bother me. Each one happens quickly, without warning, and they do not remain in play long enough to engage me. I feel that the climax loses its gravity because of one such change. Just as I adjust to the inside of the head of an unconventional character, the section ends, the tension releases, and the story is over before I have a chance to care.

There's also a reason I typically see short sentences in detective stories. Detectives are fact-oriented. The emotional and artistic movements of a detective story usually flow from an interest in the facts. While this is another rule that can be well-broken, The Final Solution suffers for it, at least in the heart of this reader. Long sentences seem wasteful, excessive, and distracting. The facts and bits of information that are so central to the solution of a story get fluffed, obscured, and blunted by long sentences.

That Chabon is the master of the sentence, and a powerful storyteller, remains clear to me. I just feel that The Final Solution broke rules to its own detriment, where Chabon's other work seems to benefit from the same gestures. So I won't say The Final Solution wasn't a good book. All I can say is that, as a reader and fan, it didn't work for me.

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Jan 16, 2010 Casey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Although the detective in The Final Solution is never mentioned by name (he is referred to throughout only as "the old man") it is understood that this story is Michael Chabon's tribute to Sherlock Holmes. He imagines Holmes as a retired beekeeper in the quiet English countryside, ninety-some years old and losing not only his physical dexterity, but his mental capacity as well. Nothing could be more terrifying for someone as brilliant as Sherlock Holmes, and Chabon captures Holmes' terror and sa...more

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Oct 21, 2009 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't find the Final Solution "magical or entertaining" to me the story was disquieting. The writing was taut, edgy, tense, I felt some inner anxiety while reading the prose. It was about sad people, the Panicker's who take in a sad boy who though intelligent is mute and worst of all about a once great detective who has with age succumbed to the disintegration of his physical body. Michael Chabon has created an engaging but not entirely likeable story that includes the central character Sherl...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Sandie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, thrillers-and-mystery

My taste for "literary masterpieces" must be lacking. This homage was a mish-mash that probably has Arthur Conan Doyle turning over in his grave. Chabon submerges the reader in a clutter of virtually inconsequential "clues", characters that are limp and colorless, and a murder and a mystery that can only be characterized as run-of-the-mill. An 89 year old Sherlock Holmes, possessing limited mental capabilities, should not have wasted the precious little time left in his life attempting to resolv...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Ilana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Linus is a mute born child who is Jewish and he escaped the wrath of the Nazis. He has this precious parrot, who keeps repeating numbers in German. Linus and this old man, they never truly mentioned the name in the story. They go off and try to find out what the numbers mean, but in the meantime this man named Mr. Shane is killed. And people are trying to find out from what, and maybe, perhaps the numbers might mean something!

I can connect this to school, actually. Because, if something strange...more

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Aug 15, 2009 Ryan Mishap rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-crime

Can this guy do anything wrong? Well, okay, this is much thinner than his other books--still wondefully written--but it was a serial in the Paris Review and only qualifies as a "novella" (a word of which I am not fond).
1944, England, and the war is not over yet. A young Jewish boy wanders down the railroad tracks, a gray parrot on his shoulder. The attention of an old man is ensnared, and he rushes out when it looks like the boy will harm himself accidentally. The boy does not speak, but the p...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book at a used bookstore this weekend and knew nothing about it other than liking the author's other works. As such, it was an unexpected treat. I've recently finished the The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II, and actually picked up The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the same time as Chabon's book just for fun. Finding out that The Final Solution features an elderly Holmes (though never by name) only added to the fun. The mysteries are underwhelming, but they hardly...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Elliot rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, the prose! The prose!!!

Chabon's sentences sumersault across the tongue, his descriptions always just what Billy Collins meant when he wrote, in his poem "Thesaurus":

Surely, you have seen pairs of them standing forever
next to each other on the same line inside a poem
a small chapel where weddings like these
between perfect strangers, can take place

Every now and then, I had to remind myself to stop drooling all over myself and continue onto the next page. I don't read nearly as much fiction -- c...more Oh, the prose! The prose!!!

Chabon's sentences sumersault across the tongue, his descriptions always just what Billy Collins meant when he wrote, in his poem "Thesaurus":

Surely, you have seen pairs of them standing forever
next to each other on the same line inside a poem
a small chapel where weddings like these
between perfect strangers, can take place

Every now and then, I had to remind myself to stop drooling all over myself and continue onto the next page. I don't read nearly as much fiction -- contemporary fiction, especially -- as I ought to, so I can, admittedly, be a bit of a lightweight for this postmodern trickery, easily drunk after just a few shots, close to blacking out after a mere 130 pages.

Reading this makes me want to immediately pick up The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which I strangely abandoned about 70 pages in, although I had found it very interesting. (It suffered from what I call Catch-22 syndrome, the unusual quality of being utterly hilarious, deliciously capitivating, perfect for your tastes, and, somehow, easy to leave alone after you've been without it for a week or so.)

My only qualms about this novella have to do with the limitations of Chabon's genre choice. The genre conventions of detective literature constrain the story, perhaps unavoidably. Although Chabon shines with his shifting narrative perspectives and expert ventriloquism (even a chapter where the narrator explores the mind of a parrot!), the fact that the story has to be so plot-driven means that we don't connect with Mr. Panicker, for example, as much as we should. Chabon peppered what would otherwise be a standard, cardboard character in a detective story with emotional, spiritual, and class frustrations that I wish were examined more fully. The same goes for Mrs. Panicker, whom we leave behind about halfway through. As a result of the brevity and primarily plot-driven nature of The Final Solution, the fact that Reggie is half-black seems superfluous and unneccessary. Chabon perhaps was not prepared to write about everything he felt in so short of a novel that, by genre alone, wasn't well-suited for subplots or grander musings of brilliance.

Even as a detective novel, this appears to fall short. The old man, an aged reinvention of Sherlocke Holmes, doesn't make any tremendous deduction towards the ending, using his wit and attention to make his more astonishing insights only early in the text. We also experience the solution to the "mystery" through the mind of a parrot trapped in a closet, removed from the actual events, and deprived of the catharsis we would expect when our Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo finally unmask the villain.

But all this makes it seem as if I weren't enthralled with the book. Though the characterization does feel incomplete, I am still fascinated with the members of Chabon's odd team -- Mr. Panicker, whose marital troubles and converge with his faltering spirituality; the old man, whom Chabon graces with beautiful prose descriptions that capture the pains of aging and the imminent death; Linus, unable to speak after escaping from Nazi Germany; etc. If Chabon's use of genre fiction eats at away at his potential for literary fiction, I am still very pleased with what he was able to produce. I hung at every word, examining clues, catching slight hints at what the various symbols and motifs represented both subtextually and in relation to the plot. And, of course, I was floored by the writing, which was simply fantastic.

The 3.5 stars I give this novella are those of someone who perhaps intuitively loved the book more than he can stand to admit when looking at it critically (see, for example, my review of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, which I adore, but which I also gave 3.5 stars to). I will wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone and everyone, despite and in spite of its shortcomings. Yay Michael Chabon!(less)

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About Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon (b. 1963) is an acclaimed and bestselling author whose works include the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000). Chabon achieved literary fame at age twenty-four with his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), which was a major critical and commercial success. He then published Wonder Boys (1995), another bestseller, which was mad...more

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“A bitter, disappointed, and jealous man kills the man he believes to be his wife's lover, this you consider to be unlikely. A murderous Nazi spy with orders to abduct a parrot, on the other hand—” — 5 people liked it

“Long life wore away everything that was not essential.” — 3 people liked it

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