The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0007149832 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0007149832 Global Overview for this book
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this in a great indy bookshop 'Parnassus' in Ketchikan, Alaska, when I was looking for some local fiction. Ever better, this is set in an imagined post-war Jewish community of Sitka in the nearby Baranof Island ...
Also by Chabon ('Shay-bon'), sadly unread at the time - Wonder Boys
(29/04/24) *Includes spoilers*
The book is written as an alternative history of a proposed settlement of persecuted German Jews to Sitka, a small area of the Alaskan panhandle. This was a real idea, made by US Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes both for humanitarian reasons but also to develop Alaska’s industry. The local population and Washington politicians rejected the idea.
Jews in Alaska
In this story the population has increased to 3 million, a Jewish state-within-a-state, Yiddish-speaking, combining European culture and various Jewish sects with local Indian (Tlingit) and Russian influences. As the book starts the Sitka District is preparing for a ‘Reversion’ to American control, so ending the dream of a Jewish homeland, for 50 years having special interim status. Hard-boiled down-at-heel detective Meyer Landsman is rudely awakened with the murder of a Jew in his hotel lodgings, a heroin addict, hiding from his family under an assumed name, and a half-finished chess game, which becomes a vital clue. He becomes obsessed with identifying his [Mendel Shpilman’s] killer and unpicking his past. It transpires that he is the scion of the gangster Verbover sect, a miracle-working potential Messiah (Tzaddik Ha-Dor). There is a more complex plot involving Jerusalem, the 2nd Temple, and the realisation of a Biblical prophesy (in this history the Israeli state lost the 1948 war), but it would take too long to explain! Chabon’s writing is accused of being too complex, and yes the language is rich and full of jargon, and there is a lot of wonderful descriptive detail and exotic characters, but I love the commitment to the style and imagined world that he has created.
p230 Regarding the title, ‘’The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”; the dogged but increasingly isolated Landsman tries to use his dog-eared union card as ID in the pie shop, the point in the mystery where Mendel’s death becomes linked with his sister’s fatal flying accident. This idea of a fraternity of Jewish detectives is used as a motif at the end of the book, as Meyer and his ex-wife - now his boss - Bina Gelbfish look to an uncertain future. The book includes strong themes of redemption for both the Jewish nation and individuals; Meyer himself, murdered Mendel (actually assisted suicide), his half-Indian cousin Berko, and his uncle Hertz Shemetz.
Addendum:
In the accompanying notes in this edition we hear Chabon’s inspiration, about a book ‘Say it in Yiddish’, and imagining a non-European Yiddish society. Also his preference for plot-led and ‘genre’ books. In terms of TYPU, yes it definitely has a strong plot, but as for genre, there are elements of a crime-thriller-mystery, but I don’t know how [if] you would classify a reimagined history and present?
Also by Chabon ('Shay-bon'), sadly unread at the time - Wonder Boys
(29/04/24) *Includes spoilers*
The book is written as an alternative history of a proposed settlement of persecuted German Jews to Sitka, a small area of the Alaskan panhandle. This was a real idea, made by US Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes both for humanitarian reasons but also to develop Alaska’s industry. The local population and Washington politicians rejected the idea.
Jews in Alaska
In this story the population has increased to 3 million, a Jewish state-within-a-state, Yiddish-speaking, combining European culture and various Jewish sects with local Indian (Tlingit) and Russian influences. As the book starts the Sitka District is preparing for a ‘Reversion’ to American control, so ending the dream of a Jewish homeland, for 50 years having special interim status. Hard-boiled down-at-heel detective Meyer Landsman is rudely awakened with the murder of a Jew in his hotel lodgings, a heroin addict, hiding from his family under an assumed name, and a half-finished chess game, which becomes a vital clue. He becomes obsessed with identifying his [Mendel Shpilman’s] killer and unpicking his past. It transpires that he is the scion of the gangster Verbover sect, a miracle-working potential Messiah (Tzaddik Ha-Dor). There is a more complex plot involving Jerusalem, the 2nd Temple, and the realisation of a Biblical prophesy (in this history the Israeli state lost the 1948 war), but it would take too long to explain! Chabon’s writing is accused of being too complex, and yes the language is rich and full of jargon, and there is a lot of wonderful descriptive detail and exotic characters, but I love the commitment to the style and imagined world that he has created.
p230 Regarding the title, ‘’The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”; the dogged but increasingly isolated Landsman tries to use his dog-eared union card as ID in the pie shop, the point in the mystery where Mendel’s death becomes linked with his sister’s fatal flying accident. This idea of a fraternity of Jewish detectives is used as a motif at the end of the book, as Meyer and his ex-wife - now his boss - Bina Gelbfish look to an uncertain future. The book includes strong themes of redemption for both the Jewish nation and individuals; Meyer himself, murdered Mendel (actually assisted suicide), his half-Indian cousin Berko, and his uncle Hertz Shemetz.
Addendum:
In the accompanying notes in this edition we hear Chabon’s inspiration, about a book ‘Say it in Yiddish’, and imagining a non-European Yiddish society. Also his preference for plot-led and ‘genre’ books. In terms of TYPU, yes it definitely has a strong plot, but as for genre, there are elements of a crime-thriller-mystery, but I don’t know how [if] you would classify a reimagined history and present?
