Review: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

As i said in my last post, I plan to mostly use this space to report on my doings in my semester abroad in New Zeland. However, I might as well work on my interests, and so I'll also use this space to write what I think about the books I'm reading.


I've just finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon. Chabon is the writer of The Amzing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and also Summerland, two books I quite liked, and I can now add this book to that list. Chabon is excellent at perfectly capturing atmosphere, and this is a book that thrives upon the atmosphere of the story.

The book is a mystery in an alternate version of Earth, where in the 1930s a part of southern Alaska, revolving around the city of Sitka and taking its name from the same, was designated a federal district wset aside forJewish refugees from Europe and Russia. After World War II and the failure of the state of Israel (which was overwhelmed by the Arab states around it), Jews poured in and created a home in Sitka. Generally ignored by American government, which refused to make the district anything more than a temporary arrangement, and hated by the native tribes that surround it, Sitka in the sixty or so years since its founding has created a world where Yiddish is the language of choice, the secular authority of the Sitka police butts up against the religious power of the powerful Hasidic community, and some of the original immigrants have built secret tunnels out of their houses--just in case the Americans change their minds about being hospitable hosts.

Into this setting is dropped Meyer Landsman, a Sitka Police detective and alcholic living in a fleabag hotel. Reversion--when Sitka goes back to being part of Alaska-- is imminent, and rumors are floating around that only 40% of the current population will be allowed to stay. As the book opens, Landsman is woken up by the night manager of the hotel, who has discovered another tenant shot in the head. Landsman finds a chess set and a tefillin in the mysterious man's room, and becomes fascinated with the case. In his investigation, he enters a world of chess maniacs, conspiracies to bring about the messiah, and political maneuverings that will determine the fate of all the Sitka Jews.

The characters of this book are all fun. Landsman himself is as cynical and pessimistic and yet hopeful as one would hope for: he seems exactly the kind of chacter to be the star of a book about Jews. His partner (and cousin) Berko Shemets and his ex-wife (and boss) Bina Gelbfish serve as perfect foils for him, pointing out all the times his logic is flawed and the many, many times he's about to venture into legally iffy territory. The fact that they both love him and are constantly exhasperated with him (especially Bina in the second halfof the book) helps humanize Landsman, and makes him a character that the reader wants good things to happen to. Mendel Shpilman, the murdered man, although he is only present in other people's remberances, is such a dynamic and interesting character that he is arguably the most alive character in the book. I often wished that the scenes he appears in would be longer. More minor characters like Zimbalist the boundary maven (whose job is to create spaces that Orthodox Jews can travel through on Shabbat), the miniature Tribal Policeman Willie Dick, and the mysterious Alter Litvak, whose crushed voicebox prevents him from speaking, all make big impressions on the reader: I felt like I was riding along with Landsman and meeting these strange but fascinating people.

The atmosphere of the book is amazing. The world of Sitka is fascinatingly Jewish in a definitive and captivating way. Something about the Yiddish, the struggle between the secular Landsman and Berko and the Orthodox Jews, and the general feeling of people reveling in their own misery and misfortune made me, as a Jew, feel like I was right at home. I have no idea what this might make non Jews feel, but I hope they can enjoy the story as well.

All in all, I found The Yiddish Policemen's Union to be a wonderful book that I loved reading. I would recommend it to anyone, and hope they would enjoy it as much as I did.