The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon Fourth Estate, 432pp, £17.99 ISBN 0007150393
The spirit of Raymond Chandler infuses Michael Chabon’s detective story set in the imagined Alaskan district of Sitka, an area that was supposedly designated a safe haven for displaced Jews after the Second World War. Now, several decades later, this temporary homeland is threatened. Only ever a stopgap, Sitka is due to revert to American governance.
In the midst of this, there is a murder: drug addict Emanuel Lasker has been killed in a seedy hotel room, shot in the head. Chabon’s Philip Marlowe is homicide detective Meyer Landsman, a man whose faith, and latterly his wife, have deserted him. His investigations drag him into some dark and dangerous places, particularly after he discovers that Lasker was the son of Sitka’s most powerful rabbi. It also causes him to clash with his boss (and ex-wife), Bina.
The plot becomes increasingly murky and tangled as Landsman probes deeper into Sitka’s underbelly, but Chabon’s writing, liberally flecked with Yiddishisms, is always engaging. In any case, the plot is secondary to the skill with which Chabon depicts the alternate world of Sitka, and to the humour and warmth of tone that permeate this sprawling but satisfying novel.
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