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melyssa57 's review for:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
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.
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.