Chabon’s Who Dunnit

There has been lots of BGB fuss about Michael Chabon’s new book, including an Atlanta reading recap and a stalker-ish You Tube production. After a pretty slow start (I read 2 other books before getting past page 80), The Yiddish Policemen’s Union turned out to be a page turner that had me cram-reading the last 75 pages in the bathroom of our Gulfport, Mississippi hotel room at 2 am.

In case you haven’t heard, the YPU takes place in Sitka, Alaska, the home of millions of Jews after WWII because, to simplify things, there was no where else for them to go. Sixty years have passed and the “yids” (quoting the book here) are facing being kicked out of their homes, businesses, world, once again. In the middle of all this, there is the murder of a chess playing junkie and the ensuing unauthorized police investigation by a depressed, alcoholic Jewish detective and his half-Tlingit (Alaskan Indian), half-Jewish cousin/partner.

I’ve read most, not all, of Chabon’s books and have never had this hard of a time diving in. Anyone who has read the opening pages of Kavalier and Clay, and been immediately captivated, knows what I mean. Without completely dissing college basketball (which I’ll admit I know nothing about), I felt like the first hundred pages were a big, televised championship game (that I was recently fortunate enough to attend). Anytime a player did something purposeful, say, got to the end of the court, passed to someone else, and maybe even got a shot in, there would be a time out, a foul, or a commercial lasting long enough to completely distract me. Similarly, Chabon spends so much time describing in minute detail the Sitka backdrop, the personality traits of each character, and the histories of the different Jewish factions between each line of character dialog that I would forget who said what in the first place. It was very difficult for a twitchy reader like myself to stay focused for long.

That said, what a cool story! Chabon said in his Atlanta reading that he developed this story line after finding a 1950s Yiddish language phrase book and imagining a place where one would need these phrases to find a bathroom or a train. The result was a beautifully interwoven book which includes a completely detailed fictional city (Sitka exists, but not as described in the YPU), the ever present theme of faithful and faithless Jews being persecuted and homeless while awaiting the arrival of the Messiah, and the back story of the lives of the extended family members and acquaintances of each of our detectives – all combined with a classic who-dunnit and why. I think I might have figured out part of the who done it before I was supposed to, but I couldn’t wait ’til the end to find out the why…and eventually the what.

Shortbus Chimes In

Clearly I haven’t gotten into the habit of posting, but I have turned a few good pages this year. Here is my top 6 list, not necessarily in order, and not necessarily books published in 2005:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Olive, My Love
The Plot Against America
Harry Potter VI
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (go ahead and read all three)
The Tender Bar

The Final Solution

Having read and enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time but clearly not having passed my A levels in math, I feel the need to represent the common literate. My vocabulary won’t dazzle and amaze, nor will my words have many syllables, but you can put away your dictionaries when I sign on. With that said, my latest book was Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution.

This is a mystery involving a retired, unnamed Sherlock Holmes, a mute boy, a murder, a missing parrot, and a bunch of people who don’t seem to matter very much. I expected another great tale from this author, and I was disappointed. In the past, I couldn’t put down Chabon’s books until finished. Not only was this one put-downable, it had a simple, predictable ending. The only thing of any interest, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, is the amount of huge, ridiculous, unusable SAT words the author chose to impress his readers. On the plus side, I was curious enough to finish the book, which I won’t do if it’s really bad. Of course, it was only about 75 pages long. Ok. Now DJ Cayenne will proofread.