Saturday, February 07, 2009

The Yiddish Policeman's Union: early thoughts

I've been reading Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union this week. I started it before the holidays, and had to turn it in to the library before we went on vacation; it took a while to get it back from the library.

It's full of great lines:

Landsman is at the wheel of a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport, which he bought ten years ago in an access of nostalgic optimism and has driven until all its secret flaws seem indistinguishable from his own.


I've seldom enjoyed the ride of a novel as much as this one. Every page has wonderful language on it. There's a lot of metaphor, but it's not difficult to decode, so you can just enjoy the images it builds in your mind.

1 comment:

  1. I loved that book. Interesting alternate historical premise--it took me entirely too long to really figure out where Sitka was on the map. The whole bit with polar bear imagery is fun as well.

    You should try Gentlemen of the Road. It's not quite as good as some of Chabon's other work, but it's an interesting bit of Fritz Leiber-like adventure set in the real Jewish kingdom of Khazar, now long lost to time.

    ReplyDelete