The yiddish policemen’s union by Michael Chabon

Book set in Sitka, United States. Reviewed on 2019/04: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwZlTCon2py/

I’m not going to dwell on the main story itself. The #thriller #detective #police story including its #jewish angle and denouement has been written about so many times in other books that I didn’t find anything new here. What I did find enormously interesting was the #whatif setting and the painstaking way in which #chabondescribed almost every single character. You can clearly see in the text that #michaelchabon was immensely dedicated to craft full-fledged characters pushing the story forward and also interacting with the specific date/time and environment. Chabon definitely delivers on people’s main expectation here: what it would be like to visit a Jewish enclave in the #territory of #alaska in the 1950s. You can’t but to enjoy his master skill on using so many elements, history, geography, human geography, politics, etc. to make this #alternativeworld feel alive and real. #theyiddishpolicemensunion is a portal to another dimension, an invitation to let ourselves be transported there. Despite the weak story-line, you can’t help but to marvel at the larger-than-the-pages presence of the characters and wonder whether it’s just real at the end. The characters and the setting end up transcending reality itself. #recommended #sitka #jewishstate#harperperennial #americanliterature#crimeinvestigation #yiddish#alternativehistory #tlingit