The Final Solution: Redux

I read Chabon’s The Final Solution after reading shortbus’s original comments.

I’ll start by noting that I think that I enjoyed the novella more than shortbus did. I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes in my early teens, continuing the great tradition of detective stories that began for me with Encyclopedia Brown. It has been a while since then. It was a little sad to come across the once great detective here referred to only as the “old man”. Both of us are getting older. Also making this the feel good hit of the year, the Final Solution in the title refers not only what is likely to be the final case for Holmes, but also to the Holocaust. The case seems to be almost beside the point. Its solution was not obvious to me, but the solution is not all that satisfying. There is a lot in the story that may appeal to the Homes enthusiast. Chabon himself appears to be a big fan. He wrote a review of a new Holmes collection for the New York Review of Books. The review has nothing to do with the books that are being reviewed, but it provides a nice background for reading Sherlock Holmes. You can read the article here. To be fair, this is Part I of a planned two-part review.

1 Comment

• 

  By Shaft, April 1, 2005 @ 10:38 am

  Finished it last night, and this book pretty much blew. At least it was short. Shaft out.

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment