3.66 AVERAGE


It took me three long weeks to finish this verbose murder mystery. It had great potential, but the focus was often ruined by additional imagery that didn't necessary paint a picture. For example:

The way she (Bina, Landsman's ex-wife) looks reminds Landsman of an engagement party they went to years ago, for a friend of Bina's. The birde-to-be was marrying a mexican (sic), and as a kind of joke, the party had a Cinco de Mayo theme. They hung a papier-mache penguin from a tree in the year. Children were blindfolded and sent forth, armed with a stick, to deal the penguin blows until it broke open. The children beat the penguin with savagery, and then the candy came showering down. It was just a bunch of wrapped toffees, peppermint, butterscotch, the kind your great-aunt could be relied upon to supply from a dusty crevice of her handbag. But as it rained from the sky, the children swarmed with a bestial joy. And Bina stood there watching them with her arms folded and a pleat at the corners of her eyes.

What in the world?! All of that description, and I still have no clear picture of how she was standing or how she looked. Furthermore, it is not germane to the story, so why just fill the page up with words like a poor Literature student who is trying to meet a page requirement for a term paper? Chabon could benefit from the advice I used to give my students: Writing should be a like a skirt; long enough to cover the topic but short enough to keep it interesting.

In short, I would not recommend this book nor would I consider reading another book by this author.

I think I've used this comparison before, but reading this was like trudging through wet sand for me. Really dense language (I don't know how else to describe it) that slowed everything down and made it hard to get into the story.
challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Loved this 
adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

There was both a lot to like and a lot to hate here. As much as I tend to like genre mash ups, I really feel like this would have been stronger if it had been less murder mystery and more alternate history. I was interested in the world building, and parts of the plot were really interesting, but it lost me a lot, partially because the main character didn't interest me and partially because the murder mystery aspect just really wasn't well written or plotted.

I love detective novels, and I liked the book of Chabon's short stories that I read a couple years ago, so I was pretty sure I would like this too. The mystery itself is sometimes too coincidentally connected to the (excellently drawn) detective and sometimes overly broad, but the mystery isn't nearly the best part of this book. The best part is the alternate history and the created world of Sitka -- the Jewish homeland in Alaska that never was. Until now.

It puts an interesting twist on what might have happened if a group of Jewish people had been able to settle in Alaska during the 2nd World War.

Michael Chabon created a totally believeable alternate reality, complete with an understandable lexicon and a history with depth. I enjoyed the story and felt empathy for the main character, the flawed Meyer Landsman. However, this book started slow; it took a little while to grab me. And while I found it generally inventive, the end felt a bit reminiscent of "Skinny Legs and All" by Tom Robbins. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Chabon has a wonderful sense of humor and a great imagination. I will continue to read his work.

Favorite metaphor was the sound of someone's voice being likened to an onion rolling around in a bucket. Funny book, good mystery. Maybe 4.5 stars.
challenging dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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