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sophelstien 's review for:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
this book is amazing. i got derailed reading it because life happened to me but i haven't loved a book so much in a long time. the prose is beautiful, i love the way it's stylized, i love that the narration calls people "latkes." it's also a really beautiful exploration of jewish identity, what it means to be jewish, diasporic, transient yet rooted in place and tradition alike, completely at the legal and political whims of your host country and in uncomfortable conflict with other ethnic minorities in the region. i think the alternate history that michael chabon presents in this book, where the zionists lose the war of '48 and are violently expelled from palestine, resulting in ashkenazi refugees being placed in alaska instead and maintaining shtetl society, is totally believable (and in so many ways, preferable). tbh i did not finish the last ~50 pages of this book solely because my life got in the way and i moved on, but looking forward to rereading when i have the time. so many bits of this book made me cry, it was written so tenderly and thoughtfully. really enjoyed this one.