The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Alas, I need to stop reading reviews; there were so many positive ones about this novel by Michael Chabon, and yet it’s terrible, terrible. It’s a black comedy which is partly a homage to the Raymond Chandler era, partly to the whole Jewish comedy genre (I can hear The Princess Bride’s voice loud and clear) and is mostly incomprehensible – as exhausting as reading Jabberwocky, for every phrase contains at least fifty percent Yiddish. I’m sure if you were familiar with Yiddish, the language and culture, this book would be hilarious, but otherwise it’s just not readable.

Landsman is a worn-out cop who is investigating a murder, and neither he (nor the readers) can really work out why, seeing the entire country – of Alaska, which has been the Jewish homeland since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war didn’t turn out so well – is probably going to fall, and all their cases are going to be filed away anyhow. His superior turns out to be his ex-wife, and yes, they get back together sort-of, and the murdered bloke turns out to have all sorts of twists and turns, and in the end, I did not care, and I hoped the entire alternate world turned out to be some bizarre Sliders bubble, and mercifully popped.