Brooks on Books: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

Here's the deal: I really liked this book, and I feel compelled to recommend it and tell you a little about it. Michael Chabon has skillfully blended disparate elements such as romance, alternate history, and Jewish culture into a detective novel. I think that's a fine achievement, but even then I'm underselling it, because Chabon writes so well, his book is more universal in appeal and reach than even that broad description indicates.

OK, I told you I liked it. I'll even tell you at first getting into it was difficult, partly because of the unconventional setting. It's an Alaska in which Jews were resettled in World War II. It's an alternate world in which Israel collapsed in 1948. This is an intriguing premise, but it takes a while to wrap your mind around the re-imagined history. Chabon doesn't just spoon-feed this to readers, but he embeds it in the story--as he should. It's ultimately rewarding, but I must confess that it took me a bit to really get into this locale.

Another factor that delayed my embrace of the book was that many of the names, such as Melekh Gaystik,threw me a bit. It reminded me of when I dove into "Crime and Punishment" and all the long consonant-filled Russian names piled up and almost blended together. However, I settled in to Chabon's novel soon enough, and the mystery absorbed me along with the colorful details he included to establish an intriguing and accessible alternate reality.

When Chabon introduces the boundary maven and describes his work in Chapter 13 (almost a quarter of the way in), I'm hooked. Professor Zimbalist and the way he uses strings--often literally--to help observant Jews get around the restrictions of the Sabbath provide one of the book's most fascinating conceits. I apologize if the concept isn't new and I'm an idiot for not knowing it, but at any rate Chabon uses it with great skill. It's one of those things that make you go , "Huh!" because it's flat-out interesting in its own right, but it also fits in perfectly with the themes of the novel.

Later, there is a shootout of sorts in the snow. There are chase scenes and interrogations and other conventions of detective fiction, all enlivened by the unique environment. Chabon's prose is sharp enough to make everything stand out regardless, but the premise and setting make all the elements of the story fresh.

At this point, though, I'm already running out of things to say about the novel (I won't flatter by myself by writing "intelligent things to say"). The "problem" is, my old chum Mike and his friend James gave the world an insightful, compelling discussion of "Yiddish Policeman's Union" months ago. So in short, read this book. If you want a little more, I recommend you click here and see what a couple of readers who are writers say about it.