The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.)

Readers who enjoy mysteries will find much to like in THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION. This includes a flawed but likeable protagonist, an involving story that unfolds with surprising turns, fully realized secondary characters, and terse but funny dialogue. While there may be better mysteries, TYPU shows that the gifted Michael Chabon is very comfortable working in this genre.But if, like me, you don't really enjoy mysteries? Then, what you get in TYPU is an example of an exceptional literary talent content to work within a limited form. Yes, in reading the reviews on this forum, I find people who see great originality. "Chabon set his murder mystery among black hat Jews." "He combined a mystery with a provocative alternative history." But can't someone with Chabon's talent push the boundaries of the form? In my opinion, this didn't happen.I've read THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY, WONDER BOYS, and THE FINAL SOLUTION. Like most people, I think ADVENTURES will last. But, I also think that the element that made ADVENTURES great--not the terrific writing but the presence of powerful and disturbing dark forces throughout the book--is missing in WB, TFS, and TYPU. Instead, what Chabon creates in these three novels are genre books--a campus novel and two mysteries. For Chabon, ADVENTURES might have been the great book that emerged before he settled into a wonderful but lesser pattern. You see, the talent doesn't overflow in his later books to create something new and unprecedented. Rather, the talent produces, say, Meyer Landsman in TYPU and Grady Tripp in WB, who are sympathetic and likable losers that lurch from calamity to calamity, but still get the girl.Early in TYPU, there were also spots that seemed a tad long. Then, I found myself ticking the similes and metaphors, which, in retrospect, is a terrific way to appreciate what Chabon can accomplish. Here are some that I ticked in Chapter 31.o "It's not light oozing through so much as a residue of light, a day haunted by the memory of the sun."o "An invisible gas clouds his thoughts, exhaust from a bus left parked with its engine running in the middle of his brain."o "When he comes back, he looks like his sinuses have been pulled out through his ears and he blames Landsman for it."Chabon is definitely a writer to watch. But is he only seeking that sweet spot in the market, where literary talent is content to achieve a best-seller?

As a reading experience this is one of the best books I've read this year, and I am glad I invested my time in it. To summarize and not repeat what has been written in plenty of other reviews here: the prose is enchanting and the rich complexity of the characters and the world make for an all-enveloping vision as I read through the story.However a few things threw me off about this book, namely, my own experiences with Yiddish. As a language and a culture that I have encountered through my family (predominantly secular) and through my associations with Hasidic Jews (obviously orthodox), Chabon's Yiddish seemed a bit off, and although it wasn't a deal-breaker for me, it took a little getting used to. This book's Yiddish just isn't exactly the Yiddish I know, however, I make no claims to speak the language or have lived a Yiddish life. I finally came around to accepting Chabon's setting in Sitka, Alaska as more of a, "If this were what we got instead of Israel," senerio, and since I've personally had a lot of exposure to Hebrew, Israel and modern Israeli culture, I felt Meyer and Berko fit in a little better as I found myself seeing them this way.The plot also disappointed me on a certain level, as it starts off so seductively as we slip into a noir-of-sorts city that makes its way into a bigger world; I was fine with letting go slightly of that dark noir ambiance, but I was not pleased with how the book concludes; the wrap up betrays the theme of the book in some ways as it ends uneventfully (an explosion reported on the TV doesn't count for much with me), bad-guys sort of winning, nothing too learned to take away except that Meyer is getting old and contending with the idea that he needs to settle--his story to tell, at the end, was already told, better to have left it at that than to make it a tale he's now going to share with a journalist.On a final positive note, the characters are robust and so very real, especially the Black Hats who are without exception brilliantly written.

In the 1940s, the US Government approves a proposal to establish a settlement for European Refugees at Sitka – a seaside town in Alaska. These refugees, largely Jews fleeing the holocaust, establish a culturally and economically thriving settlement. In this fictional narrative, the state of Israel lasts but a few months in 1948 before it is overrun by Arab forces and destroyed completely. Thus Sitka becomes the focal point of Jewry, with members of various denominations packed tightly into that tiny town. Sixty years later, this territory is set to be handed back to the State of Alaska, throwing life in the frigid shtetl back in flux.Meyer Landsman, a highly respected homicide detective is at rock bottom due to his failed marriage and consequent alcoholism. With two months to go before the Sitka Police Department is either integrated into the Alaskan administration or disbanded altogether, Landsman’s life gets more complicated when he begins to investigate the shooting death of his neighbour – a heroin-addicted chess prodigy.What ensues is a thrilling ride through the Alaskan shtetl – two murder mysteries entwined with a sinister global plot featuring eccentric chess players, Chassidic gangsters, and diabolical government agents.Within the first three pages, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union rises miles above mere pulp fiction as a masterpiece that can be enjoyed at multiple levels. The book does well as a thrilling whodunit with a well-woven plot, sufficiently justifying the time you take with it. The more discerning reader has deeper themes to enjoy. Chabon has made up an intuitive Yiddish slang to correspond with life in the Film Noir shtetl. Common Yiddish terms appear matter-of-factly through the text, and the alternative meaning clicks in place effortlessly – instances are “sholem” for firearm and “latke” for patrolman. Yiddish phrases such as “A shvortz yor” and “Er zol kakn mit blit un mit ayter” appear in their English approximations throughout the book – a sort of a secret handshake to readers with exposure to the mame loshen.Beyond the linguistic theme, there is the deeper exploration of Jewish identity. Landsman’s colleague and cousin – Berko Shemets – is the son of a Jewish father and a Tlingit mother. The implicit question of Berko’s Jewishness takes the reader on a tumultuous and thought provoking ride through his personal history; his view of his father; the Jewish-Tlingit conflict in the early days of Sitka; and the varied cultural interpretations of “Who is a Jew?”Without weighing down the plot or flow, Chabon effortlessly integrates a succinct narration of the exhausting rigours of Chassidic observances and Judaism’s heretofore unfulfilled hopes of a messiah. There is also a riveting account of politics and power play within a Chassidic clan.In short, Michael Chabon has crafted a pulp masterpiece that is entertaining, tragic, funny, and educational. There’s the ever-present spark of an indefatigable hope in a time of intense bewilderment. At the end of this book, whoever you are, you’ll empathize deeply with its characters and feel a little Jewish.

This is the first Michael Chabon I've read and I felt at sea for the first five pages or so. After that I was hooked. I particularly love the originality of his descriptions. My book is full of short highlighted sections that are spot on but completely fresh.

como regalo es perfecto para estudiantes de ingles avanzado, además de ser muy interesante el tema del libro. . .

Masturbatory. The guy has an imagination and he can write but this book was so f-ing boring. I slogged through a hundred pages and then skimmed the rest. Seemed like work to read it. A big no thank you. What were those other reviewers thinking?

What prose, what imagination. Interesting story, compounded to a blissful journey with Chabon's unending leaps of fantastic metaphors and similes.