wigstown 's review for:

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

4.0

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I don't know why I resisted this book. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America could have been to blame. His alternative history of Jews in America seemed strained and implausible. Cloaked in the impossible world of a hard boiled detective novel, Chabon's reimagined history is rich and wonderful. He's able to transcend genre, too. He touches on universal themes -- the sins of our fathers, misbegotten messiahs, the inhumanity of extremism.