Michael Chabon has created an inspired setting for one of the most noir books I’ve read in a long time. Picture this: instead of Palestine, the Zionist movement ended up in Sitka, Alaska, in a temporary arrangement with the US government. After the Holocaust and disastrous declaration of the State of Israel, Jewish refugees were shipped North, where the nascent Jewish homeland became a hotbed of political activism, Jewish-Native race riots, crime, and religious fervor. In Chabon’s alternate history, the clock is about to run out on that temporary arrangement, and the Jews who have no place to go are waiting out their fates.
At the center of the story is Meyer Landsman – disgraced cop, divorced husband, alcoholic, potential suicide – who takes on his last case only because the victim was murdered in the flophouse that has become Landsman’s all-but-actual grave. When the victim turns out to be a junkie with powerful connections, the mystery takes off. Despite the deadline for the handover, at which time all open cases will be tossed out, Landsman and his partner, a half-Jewish/half-Tlingit cousin, set out to solve it.
Suffice it to say, the resolution of the mystery takes them in unexpected directions, but the mystery isn’t the wonder of this book. The sheer risk that Chabon takes to set up a thoroughly believable history is astonishing; the imagined world the Alaska Jews create is peopled with singular sights and sounds; the language a delight to roll off your tongue as you read it. Landsman is a thoroughly developed character, but even the most minor characters stand out as if we’d seen them standing on the street only half an hour before.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is one of the most remarkable books I’ve read in 2007. Mazel tov, Mr. Chabon!
Hey, you has a huge library book collection . salute!
I enjoy all of your posts.
Thank you.
Hearing all this talk of the new Chabon release makes me a little sad…
A year ago, I would have been thrilled and no doubt attended his book signing. He’s been my favorite author since I first read his debut novel THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH back in the early 90s.
But I can no longer support the work of an author who has no regard for the story and characters that put him on the literary map.
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a film version of MOP coming out later this year… Written and directed by the guy who brought us DODGEBALL, in which he’s CHANGED 85% of Chabon’s original story.
And the sad part is… Michael Chabon himself APPROVED of the script! WHY would he do this? I can only think of one possible answer: $$
If you are a Chabon fan, esp MOP, I suggest you do NOT see this movie. You will be sadly disappointed at the COMPLETE removal of the gay character, Arthur Lecomte, and the fabrication of a romantic love triangle between Art Bechstein, Jane Bellwether, and a bi-sexual Cleveland Arning. And really, what is MOP without the presence of Phlox Lombardi? Alas, she’s barely in it.
For a copy of the script email: bechstein[at]yahoo[dot]com