The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Well written, compelling take on the hardboiled detective story set in an alternate history where Jews were given grudging shelter from persecution in Alaska.

I found it hard to put this book down. Chabon's clear, colorful prose is nicely seasoned with the more abstract, terse style of Raymond Chandler and the result is delightful. As it is a detective story, the characters are a bit archetypal but they are filled out nicely. The setting is fascinating and well envisioned as a weird mix of Jewish and Tlingit culture that I doubt has ever been even suggested by another author.

The only criticism I would level is that the novel feels a little... tidy. There's a certain economy of characters and locations that felt a little contrived as they were revisited. I would have also liked another hundred pages or so exploring the consequences outside of the main mystery storyline, but if anything that's a testament to the intricate world Chabon created and how engaged I felt at the end. Definitely worth a read.

What if instead of turning them back the US had offered Jews fleeing Europe temporary residency in a city in Alaska? What if the fledgling state of Israel had then collapsed in 1948? What if decades later the US insists on going through with "reversion", returning the land to Alaska and only offering citizenship to a few of the Jewish residents?

And what if that is only the backdrop (or is it?) to the murder of the heroin junkie found shot in the same hotel where Jewish homicide detective Meyer Landsman sleeps and keeps the pieces of his wrecked life?

This is a rather amazing book, and it kept revealing new complicated sides. The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is that it never really pulled me in. It was always a bit too complicated, dark and amazing for me to see it as real, so I cared a little less about the fate of Sitka, and Landsman, and the solution to the murder of the heroin junkie.

OK, first a disclaimer: I did not finish this book; i got about 2/3rds of the way there and gave up. Now, I was a fan of Chabon; in particular i loved the funny and offbeat Wonderboys - I'd go so far as to call it one of my all time favourite novels. But i was underwhelmed by his acclaimed Kavalier and Clay (K&C); I could see that it was well written and crafted but the story was just too depressing for me and the subject matter too removed from my own experiences that I struggled to care about it. I wanted to love the book, but it seemed like it wasn't really written for me.

Unfortunately I can say much the same about Yiddish Policeman's Union, only without the redeeming features that led me to finish and partially enjoy K&C. The story starts off in an interesting enough fashion (much like k&c) - its set in an alternative world where Israel failed and the Jews of the world sought refuge in a new semi- state in Alaska. This and other elements of the alternative history initially grabbed my attention. Unfortunately the book quickly moves beyond this premise to become focused on 3 main themes; Judaism, Chess and Noir mystery. This unfortunately comprehensively failed to keep my interested even despite my love for Noir fiction.

The biggest problem I have with the book is that it is unforgiving in its assumption of knowledge and attention to detail in Jewish culture and traditions. I know very little about Jewish culture, and I was very quickly lost in a world of alien phrases, cultural and religious references I had no knowledge of and characterisations that I could see were in someway lampooning stereotypes and archetypes but again ones I could not recognise. Then throw in the obsessions with chess that infuses the story and I'm sorry to say it rapidly became a tedious journey.

Perhaps I could have forgiven this and learnt much about a new culture, but the novel moves at a glacial pace and I found myself rapidly loosing interest in the characters and not caring one iota about the central mystery. All I seemed to be getting was more references to Judaism, Jewish culture and chess, padded out by a surprisingly clichéd take on the noir detective.

All in all, I was very disappointed by the book and I can't see myself ever picking it up again given how hard a slog and how unrewarding it was to get as far as I did. Like K&C, I can see that Chabon writes cleverly, eruditely and imaginatively. But despite him having written one of my favourite novels, I am sadly coming to the conclusion that he doesn't write enjoyably for me. Others may love this novel, perhaps it makes more sense to an American rather than a Brit, or perhaps you need to be more forgiving of being thrust into an alien world and always feeling like an outsider looking in. But as for me, I'm sorry to say I can't recommend this book and I am very much looking forward to getting rid of my copy as quickly as I can. I gave it 2 stars as Michael Chabon can write (I was tempted to give more for the same reason but I think 2 stars is a more honest reflection of how I felt about this book)

This is the sort of book that only Chabon could have written. An exemplar of the Noir genre (probably the best of its class for the past several years) -- Sitka, Alaska is a dark place, inhabited by a plethora of morally gray characters and equally gray bureaucracy. Meyer Landsman is a man on the edge of life, struggling with alcoholism; emotionally dependent on being a police officer, but too emotionally broken to consistently be a good one.

Added to the mixture is a generous helping of Jewish culture, Yiddish language and a not entirely kind treatment of the relationship between spiritual beliefs and good deeds.

Much has been noted about how, although set in Alaska, Union points a critical eye to the non-alternate history Jewish settlements in Israel, which, while true, is incidental to the greatness of the book.

One point of criticism: I am not sure how approachable this book would be to a non-Jewish reader. I was highly critical about the pre-existing amount of culture knowledge needed for Oscar Wao, and by comparison there is more foreign language and far more cultural and religious references in Union.