The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Feb 19, 2012 Megha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

When I think of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, I can picture a complacent Chabon frequently patting his own back while writing this book. If he can come up with three ornamental ways to portray one thing, he includes all three of them in the book. He seems mighty pleased with his writing and probably believes in sharing his beautiful mind with everyone. He will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat with suspense, to furnish a leisurely description of the setting before moving on. Every litt...more

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Jun 03, 2007 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who "weary of ganefs and prophets, guns and sacrifies, the infinite gangster weight of God"

"I don't care what is written," Meyer Landsman says. "I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag."

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is one of those rare, rare novels of ideas that is also character-driven, and the people...more "I don't care what is written," Meyer Landsman says. "I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag."

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is one of those rare, rare novels of ideas that is also character-driven, and the people of this book are warm-blooded and quirky; they do not stand for ideologies, and this is no morality play. Chabon manages to write a top-notch piece of mystery-detective-novel-noir that simulatenously parodies and celebrates the genre. The plot is a page-turning thrill, and his prose throughout is gorgeous -- suitably hard-boiled to give his nozzes clout, ripe with metaphors (pastiche or fresh), always delicious enough to taste Literary. This is speculative fiction that makes you feel, not just think: Will Meyer and Bina reunite? Will Meyer ever be OK? What did it feel like to be blessed by Mendel Shpliman, to play chess with him?

And of course Chabon's book makes you think. It's full of Big Questions... What would have happened if countries had -- however reluctantly -- opened their doors to European Jews during WWII, sparing 4 of the 6 million killed? If Zionists had botched things in Israel and instead found themselves in Alaska, disputing land with Native Americans, dreaming up terrorist plots to win back the holy land? Characters and readers alike must wonder, can a people who have been driven from place to place, who have been massacred and betrayed, who are desperate...can they make good moral choices? Can they choose to live by the book, "the book," or any book at all?

The Yiddish Policeman's Union is about horrible things done to and by Jews, to and by people all over the world. It's about entitlement and destitution. In ways both obvious and subtle, it examines the Problem of Israel, the real one we face, and America's role in it -- the dangers of fundamentalism, of a "Jewish" state, of the lack of one, of the pain of believing in nothing and the stain of believing in anything. It cracks open the possibility that we do not and cannot understand everything around us. While the story is painful and the outlook for the characters often grim, Chabon helps us believe in miracles, blessings...even the crumbs of salvation. They taste, I think he'd tell us, like a shtekeleh.*

*an Alaskan-Jewish Filipino-style Chinese doughnut(less)

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Feb 22, 2012 Cassy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, physical-borrowed, award-hugo, 2012, fiction-adventure-and-mystery, region-america-canada, event-missed-author

1. Chess
2. Police investigations
3. Judaism (Yiddish, red cows, those little hats)
4. Alaska

I don’t know much about any of these topics. And honestly, only the last one piques my interest. Which meant from page one, it was going to be an uphill battle for Chabon.

And he lost the battle. I mean he was slaughtered on that hill.

Now that I have finished the book, I have negative interest in items 1 to 3. I am still curious about Alaska. Yet once it was used in the set-up, the cold tundra was tossed a...more

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May 04, 2013 Clouds - (¿head-in-the?) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-stand-alone, locus-sci-fi, hugo, science-fiction, reviewed

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Edan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You know that fashion rule where, before you leave the house, you're supposed to quickly turn to a mirror and then take off the first accessory that catches your eye? Well, I feel like Chabon should have done that with his prose, which is sometimes so ridiculously overwritten and boastful that it ruined an otherwise pretty interesting story.

With some writers, I want them to put on another accessory or two--please, would some bangle bracelets kill you?--but with Chabon I'm like, Dude, before you...more

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Mar 17, 2009 Lena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Lena by: Moonrat

Shelves: fiction

When I first heard about this novel, I found its premise too fascinating to resist: it's a noir-inspired murder mystery set in an alternate universe in which refugees from the failed state of Israel are living in a section of Alaska temporarily loaned to them by the US government. At the beginning of Chabon's novel, their lease on this land is about to expire, signs of the messiah's imminent arrival are accumulating, and a dead man has inconveniently turned up in the fleabag hotel of broken down...more When I first heard about this novel, I found its premise too fascinating to resist: it's a noir-inspired murder mystery set in an alternate universe in which refugees from the failed state of Israel are living in a section of Alaska temporarily loaned to them by the US government. At the beginning of Chabon's novel, their lease on this land is about to expire, signs of the messiah's imminent arrival are accumulating, and a dead man has inconveniently turned up in the fleabag hotel of broken down detective Meyer Landsman.

The narrative revolves around Landsman's quest to solve this murder despite growing evidence that there are quite a few people who would strongly prefer he mind his own business. The story is a complex one, the basic murder mystery woven through with issues of religion and race, politics and love, loss and redemption.

Despite the intriguing premise, it took me quite some time to get into this novel. Though I felt a certain amount of detached pity for Landsman, I simply didn't find him involving enough as a character to really care that much about him. It wasn't until the identity of the dead man was revealed that I really felt myself begin to get invested in just where this story was going. Unfortunately, that didn't occur until 100-plus pages in.

Chabon's writing may have contributed to my difficulty engaging with this story. Though he is clearly a highly creative prose stylist, there were times when he shifted between past and present in a way I found very confusing. In addition, he would go on such long expositional passages between brief lines of dialogue that I would forgot what the main thread of the conversation was about and have to go back and re-read. Perhaps this is all very literary, but quirks like these repeatedly took me out of the story.

Despite those problems, I did enjoy this novel in a detached sort of way. I found the themes it explored and the way it explored them intellectually interesting. But it just didn't grab me emotionally as much as I expected it to from the premise. I think my taste and Chabon's style are perhaps not the best match.
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Sep 16, 2010 Alex Telander rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2007

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION BY MICHAEL CHABON: Michael Chabon is a writer that many other writers are envious of: he’s young, he’s brilliant, and his books will undoubtedly survive long after his is gone. Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay aside, Chabon’s writing seems almost effortless, but is pure craft and magic. Unlike John Irving, who plots out the complete story beforehand, and then meticulously crafts each sentence and paragraph to be perfect (which is why he...more THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION BY MICHAEL CHABON: Michael Chabon is a writer that many other writers are envious of: he’s young, he’s brilliant, and his books will undoubtedly survive long after his is gone. Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay aside, Chabon’s writing seems almost effortless, but is pure craft and magic. Unlike John Irving, who plots out the complete story beforehand, and then meticulously crafts each sentence and paragraph to be perfect (which is why he can take up to five years to finish a book), Chabon has both the story and ability from the start in creating his piece of art.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, like his other books, takes you to a place you never could’ve imagined. In this alternate reality, during the time of the Second World War, two million Jews are transported from Germany to Alaska, where they invented their own small civilization meshed in the bitterness of their treatment in Germany and their treatment in Alaska, a cold and distant place from the contiguous United States. The main city is known as Sitka, but there is little independence, and any whisperings of nationalization are immediately quashed. Yiddish is the primary language, with very little American spoken. Little happens in this people’s history from World War II to the present, other than a pathetic World’s Fair that now only retains the constant reminder of the reaching stone structure known as the Safety Pin. Sitka is not a happy place for anyone, as they dream of Zion and their return to their true home.

Landsman is our main character, a policeman who’s been in the service for many years but has little to show for it, apart from a trashed hotel room, a failed marriage, a dead sister, and his own depression over the state of his life. And it is then that he finds out about the dead body in the room nearby. A man has been murdered and the case begins. With his partner, Landsman travels around the area, picking up clues, and trying to piece the every-growingly complex case together. At the same time, his ex-wife returns to the precinct now as his boss, with the news that big changes are happening and all outstanding cases must be dealt with post haste. But as Landsmen digs deeper, he finds a larger plot taking place, involving more bodies, and more importantly the death of his sister. The pressure increases from important people in high places, as Landsman with the help of his partner and ex-wife, who he is growing close to again, gets closer and closer to the truth.

While my hope is that Chabon will return to this incredibly developed world in future stories, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is nevertheless a thrilling mystery; a Sherlock Holmes case with a Jewish twist, that keeps the reader hanging on until the end when the case is solved, and everyone seems happy. However, the state of Sitka and these many homeless Jews remains in jeopardy, to be resolved perhaps at a later date.

For more book reviews, and author interviews, go to BookBanter.(less)

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Sep 03, 2008 Sandi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, cross-genre, hugo-nominees-2008

I picked up a copy of “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon purely out of curiosity. This novel was nominated for, and won, the prestigious Hugo Award. The Hugo Award is for outstanding science fiction and I have never seen “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” on the science fiction/fantasy bookshelves in any bookstore. It’s only been in the mainstream fiction section. Now that I’ve read it, I still don’t understand how it won the Hugo. True, it is an alternate history; but it’s a socio-p...more I picked up a copy of “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon purely out of curiosity. This novel was nominated for, and won, the prestigious Hugo Award. The Hugo Award is for outstanding science fiction and I have never seen “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” on the science fiction/fantasy bookshelves in any bookstore. It’s only been in the mainstream fiction section. Now that I’ve read it, I still don’t understand how it won the Hugo. True, it is an alternate history; but it’s a socio-political alternate history rather than a technological one. Any differences in science and technology due to the events that veer off from real history aren’t covered in the course of this novel. In addition to it not being science fiction, I’m surprised it won the Hugo because it’s really not that good. I know that saying this book is not good, or is merely okay is heresy, but I’m saying it.

My problems with this book stem mainly from the semantics and the fragmented storytelling. I liked that Chabon implemented Yiddish into the telling of the story. I liked that he used sentence structure that mimicked Hebrew/Yiddish sentence structure. I thought the use of present tense was unusual and interesting. I know that in Hebrew, present tense is often used in storytelling to make it more immediate. What I disliked about the semantics of this novel was they way it went back and forth between present tense and past tense. I figured out that the present tense was used when the story was focusing on Landsman and what he was doing. The past tense was used for telling about things that were happening. That sounds pretty straightforward, but it isn’t. There were a few times when Chabon would be telling about something that happened to Landsman in past tense then pick up on the present and switch to present tense. The tense would change from one paragraph to the next.

Now, just the fact that I was analyzing verb tenses should tell you how tedious I found the story. It had so much potential. The murder mystery was a good one. Landsman had a lot of potential as a protagonist. The alternate history of millions of Jews being relocated to Alaska in 1948 because of the failure of the Jewish state in Israel was intriguing. The impending reversion of the Jewish territory to the United States and the uncertainty of what would happen to the Jews in Sitka added dramatic tension. However, none of the individual element gelled into a compelling narrative. It seemed like a lot of great ideas strung together with no real connection. The language had the potential to enhance the story, but ended up detracting from it. The characters seemed to be two-dimensional symbols rather than three-dimensional people. The author would go of on expository tangents that had nothing to do with the story. Towards the end, solutions to different aspects of the mystery came out of the blue. A heretofore-unseen character would show up and hand Landsman and the reader a huge piece of the puzzle, no deduction necessary.

For me, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” was a book that had a heck of a lot of potential and a lot of great ideas. It just failed to put it all together in a way that was compelling and/or comprehensible.
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Jun 20, 2008 Kersplebedeb rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people interested in Jewish culture and speculative fiction.

Imagine a crazy world in which, following the Holocaust, Jewish survivors languished in DP camps in Europe, were often still barred or discouraged from immigrating to the various "democracies", and found themselves pushed into emigrating to the Middle East where, through a variety of historical coincidences, they founded a new society based on dispossessing the indigenous Arabs and acting as imperialism's pit bulls in the region.

That's the crazy world we do live in.

In many ways, Michael Chabon's...more

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Oct 18, 2007 Deidra rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: noir fans who aren't expecting much

Had a pretty lengthy review, which was deleted when I made the mistake of changing the shelf. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Long story short: I still don't get why Michael Chabon is supposed to be one of the great writers of the 21st century. "Wonder Boys" was an enjoyable read. Nothing life-changing, but smart, fast, and chock full of quirky characters.

"Kavalier & Clay"....not so good. I am a fan of the comics industry, and I have to say the beginning describing it's birth had me riveted. A...more Had a pretty lengthy review, which was deleted when I made the mistake of changing the shelf. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Long story short: I still don't get why Michael Chabon is supposed to be one of the great writers of the 21st century. "Wonder Boys" was an enjoyable read. Nothing life-changing, but smart, fast, and chock full of quirky characters.

"Kavalier & Clay"....not so good. I am a fan of the comics industry, and I have to say the beginning describing it's birth had me riveted. And then the characters' hardships begin. And then they continue. And keep going. The depressing acts were so unrelenting that it started to border on the melodramatic, one long dirge on the suffering and pain humanity inflicts on itself.

Now "The Yiddish Policemen's Union". I have to admit that I only made it through about 3/4 of this book. See, Chabon seems to have done the same thing all over again: taken an interesting, original concept and then populated it with contrived, formulaic plot lines and tired characters. Example: A mystery set in an alternate reality where the Jewish population has been relocated to Alaska after the atrocities of WWII. Sounds good, right? Well, it would be if he didn't just drag out the tired old noir cliches: the alcoholic, loner detective on a destructive downward spiral who won't give up the case; his family-man, responsible partner, there to pull him from the messes he makes; his estranged ex-wife who he still loves. Give me a break. I couldn't get enough of an investment in these characters to actually care where the plot was going.

There are some interesting scenes and it's obvious Chabon is well-educated in the areas of Jewish ritual and history. But even with a couple of unforseen twists, it wasn't enough to keep me reading.

Also, as a sidenote: I have to say the book jacket for this edition is one of the most obnoxious I've ever seen. Could his name get any bigger? The entire spine of the book is taken up with "PULITZER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR" which completely overshadows the actual TITLE of the book. I know Chabon had nothing to do with this design, but it's pretty bad.

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Oct 28, 2007 Emma rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of speculative fiction and/or Michael Chabon

Jews, Alaska, chess, and murder: usually these subjects don’t have much in common. That's until you read Michael Chabon’s new novel “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” where these elements come together to create the core of this quirky noir story.

Chabon’s novel is based on an interesting conceit: What if Jews had not been able to settle in Israel after World War II and, instead, were granted temporary residency on the Alaskan panhandle?

The original plan was set into motion around 1939 by Harold Ic...more

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May 15, 2007 Sam Thielman rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Hebrew detectives; Alaskans

Michael Chabon's latest novel manages to be both painfully specific (add [www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com] to your bookmarks list if you're going to read it) and generously engaging. Even with the chill of both murder and the Alaskan setting weighing down the proceedings, Chabon's hero Meyer Landsman gives off an unaccountable, wonderful warmth.

It doesn't hurt, either, that the writer's prose gets better and better with each successive novel. Chabon has championed genre fiction in interviews and...more Michael Chabon's latest novel manages to be both painfully specific (add [www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com] to your bookmarks list if you're going to read it) and generously engaging. Even with the chill of both murder and the Alaskan setting weighing down the proceedings, Chabon's hero Meyer Landsman gives off an unaccountable, wonderful warmth.

It doesn't hurt, either, that the writer's prose gets better and better with each successive novel. Chabon has championed genre fiction in interviews and with a couple of recent anthologies, but he has never made a more convincing argument than The Yiddish Policemen's Union, a grab-bag of alternate-history sci-fi ideas mixed into a classically structured detective novel. It's nearly impossible to be modest about high-concept writing this extreme, but Chabon manages just that: he'd rather you were busy with an extended metaphor or a bit of slapstick than oohing and aahing over his historical gymnastics.

And those gymnastics are considerable. The Jewish refugees from Hitler's Western Europe, it seems, are holed up in Alaska, having failed in their attempt to take back the Holy Land by the Arabs some 60 years ago. Sitka, a little town near the coast, is the seat of Jewish authority, a place where Yiddish is spoken almost exclusively (the residents do take time to swear in English) and Hebrew is a foriegn language.

This is the backdrop for a good, old-fashioned homicide - a guy in a hotel room is killed, leaving a clue-free scene and a corpse who had been living there under onion-skin aliases, each of which peels away to reveal a little more of his character.

As happens occasionally in the higher class of detective novels, "Emmanuel Lasker" (the dead guy) becomes one of the book's most interesting characters. Who was he? Why was he killed? Does his life parallel Landsman's life? Why?

Chabon makes a point of answering all the logistical questions by the end of the book, which comes out of a strange place, frankly. The final supervillain team-up between fanatical evangelical Christians and fanatical Zionist Jews is a distant connection at which Chabon works perhaps a little too hard. There's also a series of eerie and frankly horrible 9-11 parallels in the final chapters about which I still don't know what to think. Still, his solution to the whodunit is deeply satisfying, and rooted thoroughly in both the rich characters and in the clues we've already seen Meyer uncover. It's a satisfying book, though it's less like the Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay than his Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Final Solution. He may name-check Nabokov with the best of the current crop, but Chabon's heart lies in old-fashioned narrative, and that marriage between the highbrow and the lowbrow is what ultimately makes his work worth reading.(less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Bennard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

from The Book Hooligan

"I don't care what is written, I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag." - Meyer Landsman

When I was a kid and someone mentioned Alaska, I always thought of a land enveloped in snow. In my litt...more from The Book Hooligan

"I don't care what is written, I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag." - Meyer Landsman

When I was a kid and someone mentioned Alaska, I always thought of a land enveloped in snow. In my little imagination, it is where a Filipino kid, who has never seen a speck of snow, spends his entire youth playing with snowballs and creating snowmen. Now, in my post-teenage life, when I hear someone mention Alaska, I think of Sarah Palin hunting a moose as she ponders the national security threat that is Putin's head. Never in my life would I associate Alaska as a land where millions of Jews live and, using the term loosely, thrive.

Enter Michael Chabon and his book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which portrays an Alaska inhabited by the Jews, mostly European, in an effort to escape the Holocaust. This was made possible due to the US Congress' approval of the Slattery Report, a proposal to develop the Alaskan territories by accepting Jewish refugees from Europe who are escaping German persecution. So America sets aside Sitka, Alaska as the Jewish metropolis in which Jews are allowed to reside. However, this setting is not permanent as Sitka's independence is only for a 60-year period after which Reversion, the return of Sitka to the US, will go through. Add to that the complication that, in this alternate history, Israel ceased existing after three months of its inception.

It is near the end of the Alaskan Jewish State that the setting of Chabon's story begins. Without giving too much away, it is about the investigation of Meyer Landsman, our protagonist, into the killing of a man that lives in the same hotel that Landsman lives in. What is extraordinary about the murder is that the murdered man was the son of the most powerful gangster in Sitka and also the presumed Tzadik ha-Dor, the Jewish's potential Messiah. Once this was revealed, you just know it that this is going to be different from your typical whodunit.
And different it really is. The plot involves a lot of twists and turns. We are taken from an island controlled by a Hasidic sect whose leader is a Rabbi/Gangster to across the Jewish-Tlingit border where a Jewish paramilitary compound is masquerading as a rehabilitation center for young Jews. It involves bodyguards that are seemingly manufacture; a Jewish expert on string that is vital to the Sitka Jews; red cows; the Temple built by Solomon in Israel; a famous pie in a certain airport; and a Zugzwang, a chess problem without a solution. It's exciting, quiet, pensive, and funny (sometimes all at once).

Alaska itself can be assumed to be as important as its characters. A desolate place that is very different to the promised land of the Jews, a land of ice instead of the land of milk and honey promised by God to Abraham. Instead of the vision of the Jews clad in desert clothing, the Jews have themselves in layers upon layers of winter wear in order to protect themselves from the cold that they have been exiled to. And this place of exile, cruelly enough, is not their permanent home and they will soon find themselves without the comfort of a homeland. Chabon had given Meyer a place without hope, a place which he will soon leave, and yet Chabon also gives him a purpose, a sort of urgency, to find the killer who murdered his, and the Jewish people's, potential savior.

In addition to Alaska, a character masquerading as the setting, Meyer also has his cousin and partner, Berko Shemets. Berko, against all logic and reason, is a product of two races that hate each other in Chabon's Jewish Alaska. He is half-Jew and half-Tlingit Indian, two factions/races who are fighting for territory. The fight culminates in the burning of a Jewish synagogue and the subsequent massacre of Tlingit Indians, including Berko's mother. Meyer's cousin is an interesting character in this book filled with such, both minor and major. The conflict between his two identities is an interesting to observe as he is not accepted in both Jewish and Tlingit societies. Only Meyer, his family, and a few close friends can really accept who he is.

There is also Bina Landsman, Meyer's former wife and now current boss. She is the only strong and interesting female character in the book. Another character of opposites, a woman strong enough to confront danger while still having the soft spot for those who wronged her, particularly Meyer, who forced her to abort her child due to Meyer's lack of faith that it will be born without defect. In the end, Meyer and Bina got back together in a totally non-romantic way, they just did because they realized that they are perfect for each other as Bina is perfect fodder for Meyer's pessimism and because Meyer is not intimidated by Bina's authority.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a showcase for Chabon's creativity and his abundance for words. However, this same abundance, that sometimes possesses great beauty in description, can be a bit repetitive. His descriptions can be tiresome at time as it runs on whole paragraphs and even pages in order to just describe a person and what he is thinking. It is a good thing that the plot is very engaging even if it is clunky and dragging at certain pages within the book.

However, even if it is flawed, I liked this book very much. Not only for the thrills that it provided but also for the things that it taught me. More than a murder mystery, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an exploration into an individual's, and a race's, search for identity in a world that does not accept them. Even if we are not Jewish, we all felt the feeling of being unwanted in a way or another and we also engaged in the search for a place that will finally accept us and a place where we can find our true identities.
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Aug 04, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-others, alternate-history, conspiracy, crime, detective, mystery, neo-noir, hugo-award, nebula-award, police-procedural, 2000s

Many people seem to enjoy Michael Chabon’s books so I was pleased when I finally had a reason to read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. In the dark Alaskan winter in the city of Sitka; Detective Meyer Landsman’s ex-wife has just become his boss and has handing him a huge stack of old cold cases that she wants him to solve. While Landsman life may feel like its already hit rock bottom, he’s only just discovering the mess that he’s in; a mess that will lead to a conspiracy.

This alternative verson of...more Many people seem to enjoy Michael Chabon’s books so I was pleased when I finally had a reason to read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. In the dark Alaskan winter in the city of Sitka; Detective Meyer Landsman’s ex-wife has just become his boss and has handing him a huge stack of old cold cases that she wants him to solve. While Landsman life may feel like its already hit rock bottom, he’s only just discovering the mess that he’s in; a mess that will lead to a conspiracy.

This alternative verson of Sitka, Alaska in this book is a Yiddish-speaking metropolis. That was the whole basis of this book; Michael Chabon’s idea came from a book he found called 'Say It in Yiddish' which had sayings that he would never have a chance to use because Yiddish isn't the primary language of any country. While toying with the idea of a hypothetical Yiddish-speaking country this book was born. The idea was Israel lost the 1948 war; the Jews established a Jewish state in Alaska.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is an interesting blend of Michael Chabon's heritage with a love of old mystery novels. Chabon has called it a homage to Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald and Isaac Babel. But while the noir stylings of this book are good this book also has a satirical nature about it, with a comic look at the Yiddish language and Jewish culture. Michael Chabon originally published an essay called Guidebook to a Land of Ghosts; which he discussed some thoughts he had of the travel book Say It in Yiddish, this essay was responded with a spiteful reaction from a Jewish community. This vitriolic response only spurred Chabon on and eventually he developed the idea of this book.

While there was some parts of the book that felt like it dragged on, over all the balance between the comical and the noir seemed to work. There are some great line coming from thing book; a highlight for me was "He feels like he suffers from tinnitus of the soul." I was really surprised with just how well the dark and gritty mystery mixed with Chabon’s satirical style. I liked the whole concept of a Jewish noir novel; it was a refreshing take on a genre that I love. Well worth checking out this Alternate history novel; as it is one of the best I’ve read. I hear that the Coen Brothers are looking at adapting this book into a movie, if anyone could do this book justice as a movie, it would definitely be them. I’d be interested to see if this movie ever gets made and how it translates onto the screen. (less)

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Jan 24, 2009 Logan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery-thriller, i_am_in_love

This is a book that I didn't want to read. Once I actually acquired a copy it sat mouldering on my shelves for over a year before I got to it. Having only read Kavalier & Clay and having been only mildly whelmed by it, it didn't call to me at all. Then, madness of madnesses, it was not only nominated for, but won the Hugo Award, even when stacked up against such brilliant scifi writers as Ian McDonald and Charles Stross. Upset doesn't begin to describe my reaction. How dare this dabbler in g...more This is a book that I didn't want to read. Once I actually acquired a copy it sat mouldering on my shelves for over a year before I got to it. Having only read Kavalier & Clay and having been only mildly whelmed by it, it didn't call to me at all. Then, madness of madnesses, it was not only nominated for, but won the Hugo Award, even when stacked up against such brilliant scifi writers as Ian McDonald and Charles Stross. Upset doesn't begin to describe my reaction. How dare this dabbler in genre fiction, already with a Pulitzer under his belt, swoop in and steal this award (and accolades) from more-deserving authors struggling to break through that glass ceiling that genre writers toil beneath? It wasn't even true SciFi! The only fantastic element is that it's an alternate history type of story! To say that I was predisposed to hate this book is an understatement. I wanted to loathe this book, write a scathing review, inspire mass riots and book bannings. This affront to Science Fiction could not stand!

Imagine my surprise, then, when within the first 50 pages I was so deeply sucked in that I almost missed my connecting flight. The next 100 flew by so quickly that I didn't notice when the plane had even landed until everyone around me began standing up. The book was just that engrossing. Still, it's not Science Fiction.

Imagine, if you will, a world where Israel has yet to be established. Sure, there was a push for it after WWII, but the Arab nations made good on Amadinejad's oft-stated threat to "push the Jews back into the sea." So once again landless and reviled (apparently there were no Truth and Reconciliation committees) the scattered Jews turned to the Americans who offered them a 60 year lease on several ice-blasted scraps of islands up in Alaska. You can't help but think that it's a return to Shtetl living at its finest.

Once settled in Sitka the Jews go about solidifying their holdings, building up a major metropolis, dealing with the displaced Tlingit tribes (you'd think a group of people who had been chased from one corner of the world to the other would have more compassion for oppressed peoples), and quashing the militant zionists in their midst. All goes well for nearly six decades, until the time for Reversion comes. Then everything hits the fan.

Meyer Landsman is a washed-up disgrace of a policeman pulling a Leaving Las Vegas in a fleabag hotel until one of the other boarders is found in his room with a bullet in the back of his skull. For whatever reason, Landsman takes personal offense at this and begins investigating, against the direct orders of his new boss, his ex-wife with whom he shares a guilt-ridden past. Along the way he ventures deep into the heart of the very insular and very Orthodox crimes families that may or may not be planning for Civil War, into the frozen wastes of Alaska, and deep beneath the city itself.

To say that I was captivated is an understatement. This book grabbed me and would not let me go. This was no crisply polished apple of a story. It is dirty, it stinks of spoiled plum brandy and poor quality tobacco and it's falling apart from years of abuse. In other words, it hits my literary G Spot just right. Chabon mixes just the right blend of tradition, corruption, history and the eccentricities of a people who, reviled for no good reason throughout the world, have turned so insular and secretive that they no longer know themselves. I would be kicking myself for waiting so long to read this book, were it not for the fact that I finally got to enjoy it now and am still basking in the heady afterglow. But, still, it's not Science Fiction. Hugo selection committee, take note.(less)

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Nov 02, 2008 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery, alternate-history, nebula-award, hugo-award, locus-award, detective

The one thing I kept thinking while reading this was Arkady Renko - if the story took place in Moscow and the protagonist's name was changed to Arkady Renko (the protagonist from Martin Cruz Smith's "Gorky Park" and related books) I don't think I would have noticed the difference. (Ok, the whole Yiddish thing would have been out of place, but otherwise...) The similarities were rather overwhelming.

All of that being said, The Yiddish Policemen's Union was a good read. In an alternate universe wh...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Damian rated it 3 of 5 stars

I usually bias my ratings to a 2 or a 4. A 3 just says "average" which isn't much help to folks looking for a good book to read. In the case of the Yiddish Policemen's Union I was so torn that I ended up sitting on the fence. I loved the concept: After the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel, the Jewish people are given a "temporary" safe haven in Alaska. I was annoyed by the lack of an understandable plot. I mean there's a plot of course but it just seems l...more I usually bias my ratings to a 2 or a 4. A 3 just says "average" which isn't much help to folks looking for a good book to read. In the case of the Yiddish Policemen's Union I was so torn that I ended up sitting on the fence. I loved the concept: After the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel, the Jewish people are given a "temporary" safe haven in Alaska. I was annoyed by the lack of an understandable plot. I mean there's a plot of course but it just seems like an afterthought. Maybe 1940's noir doesn't require a plot and it's more about the development of the characters. The characters are delightful and I found myself laughing aloud every 8-10 pages when a particular passage tickled my fancy. My favorite bit out of the whole novel involves sharing a bed with a toddler. Those of you who've never had this experience probably won't understand but trust me, you're not really missing anything.

"Sometime in the middle of the night, Goldy (a 4 year old) careers into the room. His tread is heavy and lumbering, a baby monster's. He doesn't just climb into the bed, he roils the blankets the way a wire whisk roils a batter. Its like he's fleeing something, panicked, but when Landsman (the main character) speaks, asks him what's wrong, the boy doesn't answer. His eyes are closed, and his heart beats steadily and low. What ever he was running from, he found shelter from it in his parents' bed. The kid is sound asleep. He smells like a piece of cut apple that's starting to turn. He digs his toes into the small of Landsman's back with care and without mercy. He grinds his teeth. The sound of it is like dull shears on a sheet of tin.
After an hour of this kind of treatment, around four-thirty, the baby starts to scream, way out on his balcony. Landsman can hear Ester-Malke trying to comfort him. Ordinarily, she would bring him into her bed, but that's not an option tonight, and it takes her a long time to settle the little grandfather down. By the time Ester-Malke wanders into the bedroom with the baby in her arms, he's snuffling and quieter and almost asleep. Ester-Malke dumps Pinky between his brother and Landsman and walks out.
Reunited in their parents' bed, the Shemets boys set up a whistling and rumbling and a blatting of inner valves that would shame the grand pipe organ of Temple Emanu-El. The boys execute a series of maneuvers, a kung fu of slumber, that drives Landsman to the very limit of the bed. They chop at Landsman, stab him with their toes, grunt and mutter. They masticate the fiber of their dreams. Around dawn, something very bad happens in the baby's diaper. It's the worst night that Landsman has ever spent on a mattress, and that is saying a good deal."

I guess I'd only recommend this book to folks who like the idea of Jews in 1940's America Noir or people who love the author. Otherwise I'd say you're pretty safe missing it.(less)

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May 22, 2007 Clidston rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this is a hell of a book. The prose style is ravishing - Chabon is definitely a maximalist. His language is virtuosic, full of pyrotechnics and equally in love with the idiom of hard-boiled detective fiction and with Yiddish. It blows you away, and it's also funny.
The world that Chabon creates - the federal district of Sitka, Alaska which became a temporary Jewish homeland after the Holocaust and the collapse of Israel in 1948 - is so thoroughly, magnificently detailed that you never questi...more Wow, this is a hell of a book. The prose style is ravishing - Chabon is definitely a maximalist. His language is virtuosic, full of pyrotechnics and equally in love with the idiom of hard-boiled detective fiction and with Yiddish. It blows you away, and it's also funny.
The world that Chabon creates - the federal district of Sitka, Alaska which became a temporary Jewish homeland after the Holocaust and the collapse of Israel in 1948 - is so thoroughly, magnificently detailed that you never question it for a moment. It's immersive - there is no blinking.
This book did for me what Tolkien's books did for so many people (and what no book has done for me since William Pene duBois' "The Twenty-One Balloons" in fourth grade) -- provided another world for the reader to enter and live in which has all the depth, flavor and texture as the real one, and is preferable. It makes your heart break to put the book down and remember that none of it is real. There are no Jews in Sitka.
Each character is vividly imagined and seemingly taken as an opportunity to have as much fun as possible with the premise - there's the detective's partner, a half-Tlingit-half-Jewish behemoth who wears a yarmulke and carries a tribal warhammer to aid in interrogations. There's the heavy, in this case a 400-lb hasidic rebbe. And there's the deceased, a gay, heroin-addicted, reluctant tzadik hador who uses tefillin to tie-off before shooting up for the last time and also happens to be a chess prodigy.
And it's deep, too! As if writing the first alternate-history-Yiddish-noir weren't enough for one book, Chabon also gets into some fairly heavy thematic territory: fathers and sons, faith and redemption, doubt and despair, alcoholism and drug dependency, marriage, messianism, homeland, and what I sense are the big questions for himself -- what is the birthright of the Jewish people? What is the inheritance of every Jew? What does it mean to be Jewish?
Do I have any problems with the book? Alright, maybe the pace slows a bit in the middle section (although I'm grateful to have spent more time with these characters). Maybe the solution to the mystery, the revelation of the grand conspiracy, feels less credible than the rest of the story. Maybe it seems like a stretch, but it also may be that it has to be as it is for thematic reasons.
I can't quibble with this thing. I loved it. It was a knockout. It's hard to be objective when a book is just two of my favorite things (Judaism and a murder-mystery) together at last, but I haven't gotten this much giddy joy out of a book since I was ten years old and reading about the diamond mines of Krakatoa. It carries you away - you put it down, and just like when you were a kid, you stare off, grinning, and say "wow..."(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 14, 2007 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, own, usa_canada, post-2000

This book was an impressively-realized disappointment.

The entire way through, I couldn't stop thinking that Chabon had lent his extraordinary talent to the wrong cause. Although his noir is quite good, it's simply not his native language, and it shows. Chabon is so much more expressive than this mode of writing allows.

Furthermore, and this was a new experience for me with regards to Chabon, I couldn't muster any feeling for the characters, who were so clearly imaginary, no matter how vividly des...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: games, science-fiction, the-tragedy-of-chess

My father's family is Polish-Jewish. My paternal grandmother was fluent in Yiddish, and whenever I see my parents they talk incessantly about Israeli politics. I must have read at least half of Isaac Bashevis Singer at one time or another. Also, I'm a chess player. I even knew the chess problem in question, and had read Nabokov's explanation in Speak, Memory of his thought processes as he constructed it.

So how would it be possible for me not to love this book? But my reasons for loving it are s...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, time-travel-alt-history

I love Chabon's prose, but I can't read it for more than an hour at a stretch because it's exhausting. His writing is very sensual; he wants you to taste and smell and visualize every scene. There are no throwaway, transitory sentences and no wasted opportunities for a vivid metaphor. Normally I don't have the patience for that kind of florid writing and admittedly it could be distracting sometimes. I was often pulled out of the story when I paused to admire the turn of a phrase. I can certainly...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Matt rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

And I thought Jonathan Lethem was the king of alternative noir detective novels (and in my book he still is..)

Writers love the noir detective genre. One of these days I am going to have to try and read Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and try to figure out what the appeal is.

This book may be more appealing to Jewish Americans as it takes place in an alternate universe where somehow Israel just didn’t work and the Jewish people find themselves in Alaska. They can’t even get a break in alter...more

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Jun 05, 2008 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

On one level, this book is a standard detective story, with nods to noir film and at least one name-check for Raymond Chandler. The protagonist is a hard-drinking policeman who cracks wise and has trouble with dames (well, at least one dame), and takes an enormous amount of physical abuse in the course of performing his duties... duties which he often defines more broadly than his supervisors really expect. Sound familiar?

On another level, it's a science fiction novel, taking for its setting a...more

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Apr 03, 2008 Colinski rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Chess playing fans of detective fiction who are somewhat familiar with Jewish culture

Recommended to Colinski by: The Week Magazine

OK, so it's certainly not the first hard-boiled detective novel set in an alternate reality. But what an inventive reality! Chabon created a parallel Earth that almost could have been. In the book's universe, a couple key events went very differently then they had in our own.

In 1940, there was a brief proposal from the Roosevelt administration to allow European Jews to emigrate to Alaska to escape the Nazis. In Chabon's universe, that proposal went through, in part thanks for an accident of fate...more OK, so it's certainly not the first hard-boiled detective novel set in an alternate reality. But what an inventive reality! Chabon created a parallel Earth that almost could have been. In the book's universe, a couple key events went very differently then they had in our own.

In 1940, there was a brief proposal from the Roosevelt administration to allow European Jews to emigrate to Alaska to escape the Nazis. In Chabon's universe, that proposal went through, in part thanks for an accident of fate that killed the Alaskan territory's congressional delegate. The second key event in this universe was the collapse of the fledgling state of Israel in 1948, when the Palestinians drove the Jews out seemingly for good. So, Sitka, Alaska, on Baronof Island in the Alaskan Panhandle became the new Israel, and the Tlingit Indians the new Palestinians. Having been settled by European Jews, Yiddish is the official language, and over the latter half of the 20th Century the area briefly boomed before falling on hard times and high poverty and crime rates. 60 years later, the Sitka settlement, which has been an autonomous region akin to an Indian Reservation, is about to revert back to the state of Alaska, and all residents will be subject to normal US immigration policy, signaling the imminent end of the new Jewish homeland.

This is the world Chabon brings us into as we follow Meyer Landsman, our alcoholic protagonist, as he seeks answers to a mysterious murder of a chess-playing junkie in the fleabag hotel Landsman calls home. What he finds is bigger than Sitka and involves an Hasidic crime syndicate, chess, a rehab center, the US government, and... well, you'll just need to read it.

For those that like to know the meaning of every word you don't understand, you may want a Yiddish dictionary (there are online ones out there), since the dialogue and narration is peppered with it throughout. I was OK just gleaning meaning from context. A little familiarity with Jewish culture may be helpful but I don't believe it's necessary.(less)

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Oct 04, 2007 Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this for an upcoming book club meeting - it's not the kind of story I'd usually go for. I found the writing style difficult and cumbersome. Chabon's constant similes are tedious and clumsy, and although I understand that the Jewish/Yiddish vocabulary was necessary to the themes of the book, I was stumbling over them, trying to pronounce them in my head or ask people what they meant. I got tired of the characters unmercifully belittling and insulting each other. Characters truly so bitter,...more I read this for an upcoming book club meeting - it's not the kind of story I'd usually go for. I found the writing style difficult and cumbersome. Chabon's constant similes are tedious and clumsy, and although I understand that the Jewish/Yiddish vocabulary was necessary to the themes of the book, I was stumbling over them, trying to pronounce them in my head or ask people what they meant. I got tired of the characters unmercifully belittling and insulting each other. Characters truly so bitter, jaded, angry and resentful, well, I'm not that interested in reading about it. That said, I give it three stars because it held my attention and I found some of the characters and history fascinating.

Edited to Add:

This week's book club book was The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I am embarrassed to say that I missed most of the irony of the book, did not get the sense of humor (although the red cow with painted white spots was rather silly), and didn't realize that some of the historical facts were fiction. I mean, I obviously know that Israel really does exist, whereas in the book it's still Palestine, and I know that we haven't gone to war with Cuba. And I know, or strongly suspected, that there was no Jewish State in Sitka, Alaska. But I didn't know that there isn't really a Verbover sect of Jews. I just don't know that much about the "black hats," as Chabon calls them. And the Yiddish was mostly completely beyond me.

I'm glad I went to the book club, because we explored the themes of the father-son relationship, identity, and redemption, all of which was fascinating. The most interesting, though, was the discussion about the promised land and the question Chabon raises about it - can a promised land created in violence and bloodshed truly be a promised land?

"Fuck what is written," Landsman says. "You know what?" All at once he feels weary of ganefs and prophets, guns and sacrifices and the infinite gangster weight of God. He's tired of hearing about the promised land and the inevitable bloodshed required for its redemption. "I don't care what is written. I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunch of old bones in the sand. My homeland is in my hat. It's in my ex-wife's tote bag."

Another thing I did not know - the Orthodox Jews do not believe that Israel is the promised land, because they believe that the Messiah must return first, and that only his return makes the promised land viable. Or something like that. And I learned a lot about Diaspora, which I didn't know about before. Is the promised land where you are? Like Meyer, is it in your hat?(less)

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Nov 28, 2007 John Wiswell rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Crime & conspiracy fiction readers, religious readers, Jewish-interested readers, literary readers

It’s an alternative history novel about Jews in the 20th century that makes more references to Cuban politics than to the Holocaust. It’s a book with a rich use of language that references Looney Tunes more than it references William Shakespeare. It’s a hardboiled crime and conspiracy novel after the hearts of old detective stories, and one you read for the language. Chabon shamelessly abducts the world-weary, overindulgent prose of that genre from the 50’s and 60’s to explore the English langua...more It’s an alternative history novel about Jews in the 20th century that makes more references to Cuban politics than to the Holocaust. It’s a book with a rich use of language that references Looney Tunes more than it references William Shakespeare. It’s a hardboiled crime and conspiracy novel after the hearts of old detective stories, and one you read for the language. Chabon shamelessly abducts the world-weary, overindulgent prose of that genre from the 50’s and 60’s to explore the English language (with healthy doses of Yiddish), playing in kinetic and invigorating ways. The story could have filled ten pages; his wonderful words take four hundred. I barely even recognized characters, as I was so enchanted by the way he wrote, the way he weaved personality around characters and events. Now, sometimes he whiffs. Sometimes he’s just using twenty words to describe something two would do better. What kind of squeeze does a baby's foot have? Just exactly how does a dead messiah lie any different than anyone else? You can tell he's laid a stinker by rephrasing a questionable sentence, but you likely won't feel compelled to do so. That's because Chabon's language truly is beautiful. The frequent Yiddish isn't a problem to non-speakers -- if you read a sentence aloud, nine times out of ten you'll have a sense of the meaning. His narrative style is that meaty. He knows how to turn a great line, like, “If you have to waste the Sabbath, at least don't waste the sin,” or, “It doesn’t matter to the wind whether a flag is red or it’s blue,” or, “a sense of doom that is indistinguishable from peacefulness,” or, “Every messiah fails the moment he tries to redeem himself.” That ten pages of plot I mentioned is very interesting plot, stepping on religion, persecution, murder and conspiracies, so if you absolutely must have plot in your books, Chabon will deliver a satisfactory dose. But please, try this for the way he tells the story. I honestly think it’s easier to lose yourself in his storytelling than in his story.(less)

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Mar 10, 2008 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Tim by: The publisher of this book.

I really liked the start of this book. It was cruising along, likable characters, good depth, great backstories that were doled out just right. Up until the last hundred pages or so I was loving it. Then we get into this messianic world changing conspiracy thing. OK, the book is set in an alternate universe, so I guess changing the world id allowed and expected. Still, for some reason I was put off by the conspiracy. I'm conflicted about it. I still think the book is really well written and almo...more I really liked the start of this book. It was cruising along, likable characters, good depth, great backstories that were doled out just right. Up until the last hundred pages or so I was loving it. Then we get into this messianic world changing conspiracy thing. OK, the book is set in an alternate universe, so I guess changing the world id allowed and expected. Still, for some reason I was put off by the conspiracy. I'm conflicted about it. I still think the book is really well written and almost entirely enjoyable. What is most amazing is the setting itself, which doesn't feel like a made up place. Jewish Alaska comes off seeming very real and so does it's history with its ups and downs. The "warsaw tunnels" that the Jews fresh from Nazi Germany built, the abandoned developments at the edge of town where hope gave out, and the remnants of the Sitka World's Fair all make the world seem real and sad. This fog of sadness that hangs over Sitka is convincing and part of what makes the end of the novel so difficult. Throughout this book there is the question of 'reversion'. Sitka, a district in Alaska, is about to revert to the United States, and so the fate of the 2 million or so Jews who call it home is uncertain. I found myself wanting reversion to be reversed, for Sitka to be allowed to continue on. You get this sense of the hope that these people had for their new home. It is the hope that accompanies every diaspora, the hope for a normal life. There is also this conflict between that hope that is placed in the new life, and the feeling of loss for the old one. For a certain portion of the Sitka Jews, home is always going to be Israel. In that respect I like the conspiracy aspect of the story, which involves a return to Israel. Chabon makes the comparison between a salmon and the zionists, "forever dreaming of its fatal home". There is something to this aspect of the story, something meaningful. I just wish it had been done better. Even during this muddled final third of the novel, the characters and setting shine.(less)

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Jul 16, 2008 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, fantasy, mysteries, favorites

Michael Chabon is just a wonderful author and his new book is just as entertaining as his earlier stuff like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Wonder Boys. Okay, so I'm a huge, dorky fanboy, so shoot me - and go read this book.

For me, The Yiddish Policeman's Union worked on all levels of writing: Chabon writes hilarious one-liners and enjoyable characters, he knows the ins and outs of the hard-boiled detective genre and using these building blocks he constructed a thoughtful pi...more

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May 21, 2012 Jenn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: highlyrecommend, mystery-suspense

I do not understand chess or how to strategize like a real chess player. Michael Chabon does. Of course he does. I am in awe of the considerable mental powers of Michael Chabon. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay is one of the most incredible books I have ever read. I cannot believe what the author knows and can do stylistically and I find his books more totally immerseive than most literary writers I have ever read. I started thinking in Yiddish phraseology while reading this book and...more I do not understand chess or how to strategize like a real chess player. Michael Chabon does. Of course he does. I am in awe of the considerable mental powers of Michael Chabon. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay is one of the most incredible books I have ever read. I cannot believe what the author knows and can do stylistically and I find his books more totally immerseive than most literary writers I have ever read. I started thinking in Yiddish phraseology while reading this book and also dreaming about the characters. I woke up yesterday, surprised that I wasn't in Alaska. That being said, this is more of a 4.5 star review for me, because it took me a while to get to that point. The first 50 pages of the book felt a little like I was reading a foreign language. None of the Yiddish terms are defined - and the book is chock full of them - and the alternate history that Chabon presents is just stated as a given. It's a little disorienting at first. However, after I hit my stride, I couldn't put it down. I laughed aloud and marveled at the descriptions and was fascinated by the characterization. I had the mystery figured out - mostly, so the ending wasn't a complete surprise - but the way it all tied together was awesome! And, yes, the book IS a murder mystery, but it is so much more: it's a homage to noir fiction - a genre I love, it's a study in how someone who strategizes like a chess player can structure a novel about chess players so beautifully, it's a story about loss of faith and existentialism and Zionism and a people who are adrift without a homeland. I wish that Chabon would write a series of detective novels with Landsman and his lovely, lovely cousin and partner Berko Shemets - or John Bear - (when Berko pulls his Tlingit hammer out of the back of Meyer's car at one point, I thought I would die with laughter and admiration at the sheer awesomeness of this story of Yiddish gangsters and troubled policemen) and have them solve a bunch of mysteries. This Sitka, Alaska is a great place to be, in all its seedy, murderous, scheming glory. (It sorta made me hate the way that the U.S. conducts its foreign policy just that much more!) I love Noir-style detective stories, but this one raised that genre to a whole 'nother level!(less)

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Apr 27, 2009 Amy marked it as to-read

Hm. I just finished Kavalier & Clay, the only book of Chabon's I've read, and I loved it. So I went over to this book, thinking to add it, and the first review I started began with this godawful quote from a main character:

"I don't care what is written. I don't care what supposedly got promised to some sandal-wearing idiot whose claim to fame is that he was ready to cut his own son's throat for the sake of a hare-brained idea. I don't care about red heifers and patriarchs and locusts. A bunc...more

1 like · like · see review

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