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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16703.The_Yiddish_Policemen_s_Union_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1178032098m/16703.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16703.The_Yiddish_Policemen_s_Union_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2715.Michael_Chabon">Michael Chabon</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6901840?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>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. <br/> <br/>Edited to Add: <br/> <br/>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. <br/> <br/>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? <br/> <br/> "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." <br/> <br/> <br/> 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? <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/220178?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>