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The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Chabon
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $3.00
You Save: $12.95 (81%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  293 reviews
Sales Rank: 1103
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0007149832
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780007149834
ASIN: 0007149832
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Has been read, but remains in great condition. Ships within 2 business days. 100% Customer satisfaction guaranteed.
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Product Description
For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end. Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage. At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 288 more reviews...
 Outstanding prose, addictive story, rushed and confused ending. November 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While it may take a few pages to get in accord with Chabon's rhythm, it becomes a great, fanciful ride. Creative use of English and Yiddish spices the already interesting storyline, told in the noir style of a fictional urban shtetl. I searched the book for an unimaginative sentence and could not find one. My only gripe is the short shrift given to the ending, leaving this reader a bit confused and unsatisfied.
 Hard-boiled detective, soft-boiled book. November 22, 2008
Having finished The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay a few months ago with a sense of post-coital satisfaction, I admit to having high expectations when I began The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Michael Chabon sets the novel in an alternate universe, wherein Israel failed as a country in 1948, and the US set up the District of Sitka in southeastern Alaska as a temporary settlement for displaced Jews. Now, the sixty year lease on the District has only two months to go, and Detective Meyer Landsman, homicide division, is under strict orders to finish off his backlog of cases, preferably without the annoyance of actually investigating them. But the more Landsman tries to figure out the murder of a junkie who lived in his building, the further he becomes drawn into the scheming motivations of the orthodox underworld.
Chabon structures the novel's language to match his historical revisioning. "I felt like I had to invent a whole new language, a dialect," he states in a NY Times article, reprinted in the P.S. paperback edition. This dialect helped me feel as if I were in a different place, one where Yiddish, hostility, and humor merge to form a detective who reads as if from behind the fog of a hangover. Unfortunately, this also keeps Landsman from feeling real. Indeed, although the third-person narration stays with him throughout the novel, for me, Landsman was one of the least interesting characters.
More involving is Landsman's partner and cousin, Berko Shemets, a half-Indian man whose multiculturalism opens the door for the novel to explore issues of ethnic tensions in and around the District. Since Chabon shoves a lot implications about US foreign policy and religious fervor into the last part of the novel, it would have been nice if he took his time in considering those matters through thoughtful characters like Berko. In the end, though, The Yiddish Policemen's Union depends more upon deus ex machina plot devices than careful layering and presentation of complex themes.
Good Concept But Not A Great Book November 12, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
When earlier in the year on NPR I heard about Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, I immediately knew I wanted to read it, yet within twenty pages I began to suspect I'd made a mistake in buying what was far more a film noir sort of tale than the sociological one I'd been hoping for. So, yes, I was disappointed in this book. It starts off with a scenario sure to whet curiosity, this Jewish colony existing and thriving in Alaska, but whereas I wanted the novel to be an exploration of this intriguing concept, it was a crime story instead. I admit it wasn't a bad detective novel and I did stick around to see how it came out, but I'm not a big fan of that genre as much as I am one of alternate history, and I wanted to see more concentration on this hypothetical Yiddish culture atop the Pacific than Chabon gave it. I guess my giving this book three stars instead of higher is more reflective of my own disappointment than in this being in any way a bad book, because it wasn't. It just was not what I wanted it to be and I bet I'm not alone there.
Ghetto Mentality Retrogression November 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon: Ghetto Mentality Retrogression
Review by Arthur L. Finkle
Mr. Chabon writes a masterpiece of a "what-if" portion of history. In this case, what if the Jews lost their War on Independence on 1948?
The solution was one proffered at that time, of region in Sitka Alaska for a 40 year term, after which there would be no more sanctuary.
In clear, lyric writing, Chabon brings out the historical facts and dress them with the "ghetto mentality" prevalent in European Jewry. No longer did the "New Jew" posses the Spartan-like Israeli warrior; instead, we still have the pacifistic minority who try to eke out a living. We see that self-determination is not even on the radar screen for this forlorn group.
This mystery is shrouded with "Jewish-isms" - the cerebral approach; psychological turmoil; lust for life (over cover); some of the underground elements (which include some of the arcane elements of the red heifer paradox). It even characterizes the Chasidim, as the Other, as well as the fractious Jewish community.
I used this book in a book club with extraordinarily good results, particularly showing how the World War 2 generation coped to survive in a world hostile to Jews.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.)
 The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon October 29, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Writing Style - 3/5
Characters - 2
Storyline - 1
Resonance - 2
The Not-Too-Revealing Synopsis
A murder that no one wants to talk about takes place in a alternate history-Jewish enclave in Alaska just as relations between it and the larger state and nation reach maximal strain.
The Review
Chabon's Alaskan settlement and its' problems are both believable and interesting. Chabon's plot and characters are not. We are introduced to every good guy and bad guy cliche with the wild twist that they are not your normal good guys and bad guys - they're Jewish good guys and bad guys. The writing isn't just adorned with Yiddish linguistic idiosyncrasies and Jewish cultural novelties, it's bludgeoned with them. Every problem and every solution runs through Alaska, runs through the this particular Bay and runs through the Jewish community. It is too neat, too predictable and wholly unsatisfying. The best part about the book are three minor characters that are certainly not worth the read to get to. They alone provided intrigue. A dose of moderation could have brought the different, promising elements together in this work. Instead everything was so heavily painted it bled and left an ugly, muddled picture. I do not recommend this book.
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