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A review by cocoonofbooks
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
3.0
The deck was stacked against this one for me — I don't like hardboiled detective novels, I don't like alternate histories, and I don't like self-loathing, alcoholic, lying protagonists who break all the rules and put themselves in constant danger. On top of that, the book — despite being an ostensibly action-packed murder mystery — was too long, went on too many descriptive detours, and contained too many characters to keep straight (including similarly named characters; when Berko bursts through the door with "Gold" under his arm I thought for about four pages that it was his son, Goldy, rather than the henchman named Gold). I also did not like the female characters — the motherly Esther-Malke, the reclusive wife of the rebbe, the so-mannish-she's-probably-a-lesbian pilot Naomi, the pieman's daughter with the sex addiction, and of course, the only one who gets any substantial time on the page, the main character's hard-nosed ex-wife, Bina, who is now his equally hard-nosed (but still very sexy, as we're constantly reminded) supervisor. And I hated that Landsman and Bina got back together at the end, which played into the problematic narrative that depressed, self-destructive men just need the object of their affection to be with them to have a chance at healing .
Despite all that, it wasn't a bad read; obviously there's a reason that it's lasted so long as a favorite of so many people. I thought the setting, this alternate history where land near Sitka, Alaska, was set aside for Jewish refugees in the 1940s, was just a unique backdrop for a detective novel, but it turns out to be key to the mystery, from the notion that the murder victim could have been the Tzadik Ha-Dor to the international schemings to reclaim Jerusalem that end up playing a role in the unraveling mystery. Even if the female characters were rather unimaginative, the male characters were more complex and real (with the exception of the rebbe, a stereotypical Godfather-type figure whose immense weight makes up most of his characterization). I liked the way clues were pieced together and how certain facts that seemed unimportant at the time ended up being significant. I can't say I actively disliked the whole experience of reading it, but in the end nothing really made up for all the aspects of it I didn't like.
I've heard that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is better, and I look forward to reading that later this year for book club. As for this one, it's an interesting twist on the typical hardboiled detective novel, but overall I can't recommend it.
Despite all that, it wasn't a bad read; obviously there's a reason that it's lasted so long as a favorite of so many people. I thought the setting, this alternate history where land near Sitka, Alaska, was set aside for Jewish refugees in the 1940s, was just a unique backdrop for a detective novel, but it turns out to be key to the mystery, from the notion that the murder victim could have been the Tzadik Ha-Dor to the international schemings to reclaim Jerusalem that end up playing a role in the unraveling mystery. Even if the female characters were rather unimaginative, the male characters were more complex and real (with the exception of the rebbe, a stereotypical Godfather-type figure whose immense weight makes up most of his characterization). I liked the way clues were pieced together and how certain facts that seemed unimportant at the time ended up being significant. I can't say I actively disliked the whole experience of reading it, but in the end nothing really made up for all the aspects of it I didn't like.
I've heard that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is better, and I look forward to reading that later this year for book club. As for this one, it's an interesting twist on the typical hardboiled detective novel, but overall I can't recommend it.