From the Bookshelf of 2018 TCPL Reading Challenge! …

[close] In 1938, the US Secretary of the Interior proposed to open up Alaska to Jewish refugees from Europe. That plan did not come to fruition. In The Yiddish Policeman's Union, however, Chabon imagines it did. Decades later, the US government wants that land back. Also, a heroin addict has been murdered, and it's up to a depressed police detective to solve the crime.

My favorite part of this book is the details of the Jewish community that came together. Chabon recognized that this group of people would develop their own slang. The best is that cops are called latkes because their flat hats look like pancakes.

This book is an homage to noir novels. There are points where it feels like Chabon went too far with the descriptive language because it beers into parody instead. It's worth getting through the overwrought language, though, to read this very fun story.