Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Independent
`gripping feat of imagination.'

Waterstones Books Quarterly
'...a master storyteller at work...confirms Chabon's status as one
of the truly great living American writers.'

Guardian
'...Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into
something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words.'

Customer Reviews

Could the Messiah be a Junkie?
The Yiddish Policeman's Union is all you have left when you are de-badged by your ex-wife in the Sitka, Alaska police force. Why no badge? Why are you still policing, sometimes in your underpants, as part of the frozen chosen? The YPU exists in a place where myths influence reality and jostle with humour, prodigal children, prejudices and wise cracks.

Like many officials, Detective Meyer Landsman is under pressure to close and file cases tidily but the hitman style murder of former chess prodigy Mendel Shpilman and bestower of `miracles' in the flea pit of a hotel Landsman also resides in ,does not sit well in the tidy pile.

This is a case Meyer can't leave alone, especially when he finds that Shpilman knew his recently deceased sister.

For me, the pace varies at times, I raced through the initial chapters however towards the end I was thinking phew! this is nearly over. This is my first Chabon novel so I'm not sure if this the norm or the exception?

Hope you are intrigued enough to take a punt. Read it, if you enjoy being out of cosy novel and love being taken somewhere where you least expect.

Noir, science fiction and literature - a heavy meal
Michael Chabon can write brilliantly and I found myself rereading some of the breathtaking prose in this novel which mixes a Raymond Chandler-style detective story with alternative history. Unfortunately, it could have done with about 50-100 pages lopped off because it went on far too long!

Frustrating
Kavalier & Clay is one of my all time favourite books, and when this came out I pounced on it in eager anticipation of a fabulous read. I have to say I was slightly disappointed. Chabon's story telling style is still epic and at times very funny, even in a fairly bleak book like this and there were moments of great beauty and insight that made me light up inside and go 'oooh', but on the whole it was incredibly hard work.

The story revolves around the idea that part of Alaska has been ceded to the dispossessed Jews after WWII on the proviso that they only have it for sixty years and when that time is up they have to find somewhere else to go. The story starts just as the lease is about to expire. Meyer Landsman, a Jewish cop, has made a mess of his life and is living on vodka and cigarettes in a flophouse. A body in the same hostel turns his life around as he races to discover the murderer against the political clock ticking loudly in the background.

The basic cop story is traditional but done with this Jewish Noir twist that makes it extraordinary. It was however, extremely hard work if you are not Jewish or don't know much about Jewish life and lore, which I don't. There were quite a few things I didn't understand and which rather than break the flow and keep looking up every five minutes I decided to hope would become explicable as the book moved on. Some do, some don't, but it was quite frustrating, at times like reading a book in another language altogether.

Because of this it took me a long time to get into the story and I didn't really pick up the pace until nearly half way through. It's testament to Chabon's ability that I stuck with it that long, as with other books I would have been tempted to give up. As it is, the plot pulls you along nicely to the end and things become a lot more understandable as the book goes on.