I first read The
Yiddish Policemen’s Union back in 2007 and it’s one of those books I’ve
wanted to review for this blog since I first began writing these posts. It’s one of those big cinematic books that you can easily curl up with, filled with of deep exposition, flawed characters, and
of course, action – set against a believable backdrop where the infant State of
Israel died almost as soon as it was born in 1948.
Like the best in alternate history, Chabon's book has its basis in fact
– a proposal in 1940 by then Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to open up
the Alaska Territory to immigration by European Jews. In our timeline, nothing
came of it, but in Chabon’s deeply contextualized and believable alternate history,
the newly designated Federal District of Sitka becomes a refuge for the Jewish
dispora.
But there is a catch, as always. The District is a temporary
creature, meant to last only to 2008, when it will revert to the State of
Alaska, much like Hong Kong did to China in 1997 in our history. As the book opens, the reversion is months away and uncertainty and fear grip the people of Sitka, with many looking to get out before the axe falls.
It’s into this background of decay and fear that we find
Sitka homicide detective Meyer Landsman called in to investigate a murder in a
skid-row hotel. Landsman is in the
tradition of the best of the hard-boiled detectives, but he also carries a deeply
sensitive and vulnerable side. As
he works his way through a case full of crosses and double crosses, he is aided and foiled by deftly-drawn characters, including Landsman’s sardonic ex-wife, Landman's fellow cop partner, who
is only that much more hardboiled than he is, and a sect of fanatics that has
never forgotten the events of 1948.
This book is definitely worth the time invested. If you like
Chabon’s previous works such as The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (a homage to the golden age of
comic books) and if you like rich alternate universes, you’ll love The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.
