Another Review of The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Gatherer Paul M. wrote a terrific review of Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, found here.

I just finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union and might have a slightly different take.

First, I agree that this is a disappointing follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  But that book was made so much more accessible to the general public because the Jewish characters within it were almost completely secular.  The scope and story arc of The Amazing Adventures was also much more sweeping, the time period more intriguing, and the subject matter -- the American Dream -- more engaging.  In contrast, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is set over a relatively short period of time (maybe a week or more), is set in Sitka, Alaska and has a rather anti-hero main character.

Where my opinion diverges from Paul's is the nuances that your typical non-Jewish person is going to find incredibly inacessible and obscure.  You have to wonder what Mr. Chabon was thinking when he wrote this book, putting inside jokes, language barriers and arcane subject matter into such prominence.

The book parodies our current times.  As we all know, Jews established the State of Israel and the Middle East has been exploding in increasing violence ever since.  What many don't realize is that a good-sized contingent of our conservative government, comprised of Evangelical Christians, support everything that the Israeli government does.  Why would a rather pedantic Christian base support a primarily Jewish Government under fire from a primarily Muslim population?  Because they firmly believe that the Jews must rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem before Christ can return and paradise ensues (after some bad times of course).

In The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Chabon cleverly removes the Jewish Government from Israel.  Israel was never established.  The Roosevelt administration gave refugee Jews part of Alaska instead.  True to the spirit of US attitudes during WWII, these Jewish refugees were refused asylum in the US, and are given instead a 50 year lease in Sitka.  Like the Native Americans they are gradually displacing, they are of the US but not citizens (but a sovereign group unto themselves).

In this setting, the Messianic longing of the religous Jews, the wheeling and dealing of a conservative, evangelical Christian US government and the frustrated disappointment of the failed Zionists combine like gasoline and electrical sparks.

Yes, on the surface there is a cheesy detective, but Meyer Landsman is a flawed character like Dave Robicheaux (from James Lee Burke's novels set in New Orleans).  The murder is just a part of a parable about redemption  and control over one's own fate.  At the end of the novel, it doesn't matter who murdered the would-be Messiah.

What was important was that, like Jesus, this man's death started a chain reaction that redeemed the people who were most in pain, including the main characters.

I'm not surprised that a lot of the wit and tongue in cheek is lost on non-Jews who read this book, and I wish I had an easy way to give you my perspective, like a pair of spectacles, so that you can see what I see.

Maybe I'm an easy grader, but I give The Yiddish Policemen's Union three out of five stars.  If you're Jewish, it would be closer to four out of five, but it is what it is.