Ms. Hen reviews The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Ms. Hen at the library

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Michael Chabon

Harper Collins

2008

Ms. Hen came upon this book in a strange way. Many years ago, someone left it in the coffee shop where she used to work, and she took it home, but never read it. She thought it was part of a series, but she recently learned that it is not. She found out Michael Chabon is considered a San Francisco writer when she was researching writers before her vacation last year. She dove into this novel at the beginning of the year headfirst.

The first thing Ms. Hen noticed about this novel is that it is extremely descriptive, and it’s dense in the way that words burst from the pages. The descriptions are beautiful and appropriate, but it lends the book to slow reading, which at times is fine for Ms. Hen.

Ms. Hen also recognized that this is a book containing multiple genres. It is primarily a detective novel about a police officer, Meyer Landsman, trying to solve the murder of a man who lived in the same hotel that he does. It is also alternative history novel about a Jewish state called Sitka, which was created in Alaska after Israel failed in the 1940s, a story taken from a footnote in history. The story also has a touch of magical realism: people believe in the coming Messiah and the miracles he performs.

Meyer Landsman finds out Mendel Shpilman, a junkie, was murdered in the hotel where Landsman also lives. He investigates, and finds out that several people thought that Shpilman was the Messiah, because he would give people a blessing and their lives would become better. Shpilman was also a chess prodigy, and the son of a rebbe. Landman has to deal with the imminent ending of the Sitka state, as well as working with his ex-wife Bina as his new superior officer.

At first Ms. Hen didn’t like this book because she thought it was misogynistic and Landsman was a pig. Then she got used to his views and attitudes towards women, and she figured the novel could not be written any other way. Most of the books Ms. Hen have read recently have been written by female authors, so reading an intrinsically male book was a slight shock to her sensibilities.

The characters in THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION are all rough people, hardened by their place in the world. There are primarily tough cops, and drug addicts, and criminals. Ms. Hen thought that if some people read this, they would think it is Anti-Semitic, but she decided that if these characters were banished from the Holy Land to Alaska of course they would all be bitter and resentful and turn into criminals and low-lives waiting for the Messiah who will bring them to the promised land.  This book is complex, but some of the Jewish references might have been lost on Ms. Hen. Also, she thinks there may be chess symbolism that went over her head, since she does not play the game.

Ms. Hen liked that there was a mention of a magical chicken. The characters are superstitious waiting to be saved, “And just last week, amid the panic and feathers of a kosher slaughterhouse on Zhitolovsky Avenue, a chicken turned on the shochet as he raised his ritual knife and announced, in Aramaic, the imminent advent of Messiah.” Ms. Hen thinks that this proves that chickens are important, as she has always known.

Ms. Hen enjoyed this novel, even though it was dense and a much of it she might not have understood. She liked dwelling in this mystical, rough world for a while, even if it’s a place where she would not like to go. She admired the people with hope for a better life, waiting for a sign, even though they pay the price in many ways.