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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this book. The premise was inventive and the characters were well developed. It would have been helpful to have a Yiddish dictionary for those of us whose Yiddish is need of improvement.
I had a love hate relationship with this book, but I think it was just not the right time to read it. It was my book for pleasure next to a bunch of books I had to read for uni. It wasn't really light enough to function that way though. Still, I have to say, I definitely like Chabon's writing in the novel, it has gotten me very interested into reading more of his work. The story was a little to heavy and complicated for light reading and it took me a long time to read next to all he other stuff I've been reading. The story didn't manage to pull me in enough and I had to fight my way through at times. But at other times I really enjoyed both the story and the way it was written. I think probably just not the right book at the right time, but all in all it was actually a good book.
Extremely stylish, compelling, funny hardboiled detective fare. At once a solid entry into the genre and a loving send-up of it. Basically just a long string of the main character going to different places, meeting different Types of Weird Guys, and getting the shit beat out of him along the way, but what a string of guys it is. Very light touch on the alternate history here, little offhand mentions of radically different events, and yet the world is pretty much the same in its nature. The biggest joke of this book is that the mind-blowing, almost unthinkable thing that comes to light at the end is not as boggling as what happened and continues to happen in real life in that particular respect.
Chabon presents an alternate history, where after WWII the jews were resettled in Sitka, Alaska and Orson Welles made his "Heart of Darkness". A murder mystery provides us an in and a detective of the finest hard-boiled tradition. The Yiddish slang perfectly mirrors the kind of chatter you get in an old-fashioned pulp novel and the characters' chosen tongue also works well for the elaborate metaphors and fatalistic humor that's an essential part of the genre. The main conflict though is the struggle between the not-quite-American jew who would like to make a life of what he has, and those who still long to return to the ancestral homeland. Chabon's fantastical conceit works brilliantly.
It took me awhile to finish this book - not because I didn't like it - but because Michael Chabon's stories are so complex and fascinating. I've gotten myself used to much lighter fare and this isn't the kind of book I could sit down and read in an afternoon. I love how Chabon has reimagined the world and history for this story and I just love to reread his sentences. I don't want to get into the crazy concept, but it's filled with great characters and a good mystery to keep you going!
I picked this up because I've always like Chabon's fiction, and while I've never been big into mysteries I figured if anyone could write one I would enjoy it would be Chabon. I found concept of reconceiving Jewish history quite interesting- the failed state of Israel is replaced with a chain of islands in southern Alaska (equally as desolate, yet totally opposing in terms of landscape), ownership of which is about to be retransfered to US control. The first few chapters were easy enough and the characters were intriguing. Yet as it progressed, both the mystery and the narrative, I found myself less and less interested. The author helpfully provides a dictionary of Yiddish terms at the back of the book, but having to flip back and forth to determine meanings only resulted in further distancing myself from the story. Maybe if I'd read it with more force, instead of reading a chapter or two and putting it down from exhaustion then picking it back up again a week later to do the same, I might have appreciated it more. But halfway though, when the pieces of the puzzle began to come together, I found myself wholely uninterested. And don't get me started on the ending.
If you've got plently of patience, give it a whirl. If not, just go back and reread any of Chabon's other wonderful more cohesive novel.s
If you've got plently of patience, give it a whirl. If not, just go back and reread any of Chabon's other wonderful more cohesive novel.s
It took far too long to finish - it was a challenge to keep interested in this story. The amusing aspect of it really didn't hold up for long but it was good enough that I wanted to know how it ended. And that wasn't really worth it. But I can't say the book is worth less than 3 stars since it's pretty imaginative and written moderately well.
I found the plot/resolution to be a little much, but I did really enjoy the characters and the author’s way with words.
Amazing alternative reality PLUS great murder mystery PLUS Alaska PLUS God/Messiah stuff = insane.
If you want to read a book about a down-and-out detective trying to solve a murder in a fantastical world, read China Mieville's far superior The City & The City instead. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, for all its bells and whistles (that cover art is stunning), is just not quite as good as the former. Even Chabon's writing isn't enough to redeem this book's uneven pacing and overwritten prose. The result is a story that moves along as reluctantly as the readers' wavering interest in the plot.