imbravo

So, why should you read this? "Reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union is like watching a gifted athlete invent a sport using elements of every other sport there is -- balls, bats, poles, wickets, javelins and saxophones."-Elizabeth McCracken or this: As the bookstore host at Chabon's recent reading said in his introduction:"In this era where fiction just reads like memoir, and memoir seems fictional, it's entirely refreshing to read a work that has been rendered whole cloth from the imagination." That's why. Chabon brilliantly uses alternate history and detective-noir to explore not only modern Jews and their relationship to faith and Israel, but the more universal theme of a sense of place and belonging. The novel is so well realized, this Jewish refuge of Sitka, Alaska; its odd politics, even odder residents, gun-toting hasids, yiddish slang, culture-clash and deliciously 'different' historical events (Did you ever see Orson Welles' Heart of Darkness on the big screen? What about when they dropped the Big Bomb on Berlin in WWII?). Chabon's playfulness leaps off the page in his wordplay and the wit of his characters--I want to go back to the beginning for another trip through this Yiddish Sitka--and as the hard-boiled element peals away, and the larger issues loom before the reader, this fascinating timeline shockingly and abruptly begins to mirror our world and the terrors we face. Thus The Yiddish Policeman's Union--at first glance disguised as whimsical thought-experiment--evolves into a profound and haunting work, extremely relevant to our times.

2022-11-14 18:32