Paperback, 160 pages
English language
Published Nov. 1, 2005 by Harper Perennial.
The various points of view were well done, and seeing Holmes as very elderly was fresh and interesting, but the mystery was not very compelling and sort of deflates at the end.
In all honesty: two pages into this book, not knowing anything about Chabon or the contents of this book, I felt this was most probably written by an American pretending to be English, born and braised.
While Chabon can obviously write well, the book works as a whole piece, but I tended to get interrupted by the details really bothering me as every dialogue sounded as though Chabon had really wanted to be Arthur Conan Doyle, writing about Sherlock Holmes; the title of this book is a reference to a Sherlock Holmes story.
The mystery in itself is plain and simple: where's the parrot? An old detective tries to solve everything.
A light, quick read, but painful and really, Conan Doyle's stories are infinitely better.
In all honesty: two pages into this book, not knowing anything about Chabon or the contents of this book, I felt this was most probably written by an American pretending to be English, born and braised.
While Chabon can obviously write well, the book works as a whole piece, but I tended to get interrupted by the details really bothering me as every dialogue sounded as though Chabon had really wanted to be Arthur Conan Doyle, writing about Sherlock Holmes; the title of this book is a reference to a Sherlock Holmes story.
The mystery in itself is plain and simple: where's the parrot? An old detective tries to solve everything.
A light, quick read, but painful and really, Conan Doyle's stories are infinitely better.
An excellent twist on Sherlock Holmes.
The Final Solution has a compelling premise, but the execution (perhaps a poor choice of words when dealing with a book that obliquely refers to the Holocaust) leaves a bit to be desired.
Although he's referred to solely as "the old man," it's immediately apparent that the protagonist is intended to be Sherlock Holmes at 89. The idea of Holmes coming out of retirement during World War II to solve one more mystery is intriguing, but the reason why he becomes involved in this particular case (a murder and a bird-napping) seems a bit flimsy. While I'd hoped to see the master detective--even a Holmes diminished by age--there wasn't much in the way of brilliant deductions, just a few "Easter egg" references to past cases and an admittedly clever allusion to the title of what was intended to be Holmes' final case, "The Final Problem."
The characters were too many …
The Final Solution has a compelling premise, but the execution (perhaps a poor choice of words when dealing with a book that obliquely refers to the Holocaust) leaves a bit to be desired.
Although he's referred to solely as "the old man," it's immediately apparent that the protagonist is intended to be Sherlock Holmes at 89. The idea of Holmes coming out of retirement during World War II to solve one more mystery is intriguing, but the reason why he becomes involved in this particular case (a murder and a bird-napping) seems a bit flimsy. While I'd hoped to see the master detective--even a Holmes diminished by age--there wasn't much in the way of brilliant deductions, just a few "Easter egg" references to past cases and an admittedly clever allusion to the title of what was intended to be Holmes' final case, "The Final Problem."
The characters were too many in number, and too sketchily rendered to leave much an impression. This surprised me, since characterization was such a strong point in his previous novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
Another issue I had is that the viewpoint character for the climactic scene is a parrot. This isn't an unforgivable sin--it was an interesting portrayal--but it IS pretty goofy.
Finally, detective novels (even self-consciously literary ones) live and die on their mystery, but here Holmes solves the lesser one while ignoring the larger one. He nabs the murderer while failing to uncover the nature of the German numbers constantly recited by the parrot at the heart of the case. The reader will likely figure it out right away, but Holmes never does. I imagine this was intentional on the part of Chabon; he seems to want to say that even a master detective is incapable of realizing the scope and true horror of the Nazis' depravity. However, it didn't feel right or authentic that Sherlock Holmes would let this particular puzzle slide.
While I don't feel like my time was wasted reading this book, I do feel like the interesting premise was wasted on an undercooked story.
Bravo, from the Sherlock Holmes fans.
