Every since Wonderboys, I have been waiting for Chabon to blow me out of the water with a story filled with just as many zany plot twists and antics as there are real human characters with very serious dilemmas. I thought The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay had the great character elements that Wonderboys had, and I feel it introduced two of the most memorable fictional friends you are likely to find in modern literature, but I thought the story relied too much on the reader have the same amount of love for comics as Chabon did, and I was left slightly disappointed. His other two books I have read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Werewolves in Their Youth, were simply forgettable, with Mysteries verging on Foer-like badness in places. While The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is the best book of his I have read since Wonderboys, it is still only okay, but at least not forgettable. It is a classic Chandler-esque story of an unsolved murder being investigated by a surly detective about to reach his breaking point in life, and all the wild people he meets on his way to finding out why this person was killed, and how close he himself is to the murder. The twist Chabon presents here is that everything takes place in this Jewish town in Alaska that was started as a safe haven for Jews during an alternate version of World War II. It presents the idea of Hasidic Jews being involved in organized crime, which reminds me of Once Upon a Time in America, but more funny. Overall it is not bad, but not great. It has many cool plot points and presents esoteric information that doesn’t bore the reader to death, (I know a lot more about Chess now, but still no interest in playing it). I do recommend it, and I do plan on reading the next Chabon book that comes out, hopefully soon.
Rating: 4/5
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