Yiddish Policeman's Union

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon is
the June choice for Winchester.  Later in the year, we'll
be discussing it at the Boulder Junction group.  After
a number of  unsuccessful attempts times to read 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, I'm not
even sure why I picked up this book.  But -- I'm so glad
I did!  Reading it the second time around is even better.

Chabon takes a real proposal made during WWII -- to create a
temporary Jewish settlement in a portion of Alaska.  He writes the
book as if the settlement occurred, WWII turned out differently,
there is no state of Israel and "Reversion" -- turning the settlement
back into the control of the state of Alaska and forcing resettlement
of the Jewish population -- is only two months away.  

Meyer Landsman is a broken down, alcoholic, divorced police
detective who finds his neighbor's body, a man using the pseudonym
"Emanuel Lasker".  "Lasker", a heroin-addicted former chess prodigy,
has been murdered and he just may have been the Messiah.
Landsman has nothing to gain from following through on this 
case except redemption.

The other characters in the book including Berko, his cousin/partner;
Bina, his ex-wife/boss; and Dennis Brennan, the reporter who speaks
incredibly bad Yiddish, are so well-written you could pick them out
in a crowd.  The bad guys are truly bad and the good guys all have
problems.  

Throughout the entire book, I felt like I was living in a black and
white detective movie with Peter Lorre and Humphery Bogart.
The Coen brothers ("Fargo", "No Country for Old Men") have
purchased the movie rights so it's going to be interesting to see
how they handle the story.

June 18 -- During the book club, Holly mentioned an interview
with Michael Chabon on the Borders Book Club site.  Here's
the link.