The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon (New York:
HarperCollins, 2007. 464 pp)
One of the most celebrated writers of
his generation according to The Virginia Quarterly Review, Michael Chabon
was born in Washington D.C. He earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.F.A from the University of California, Irvine. Chabon
published his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, from his master’s thesis at the age of 25. His third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,
won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union won Chabon the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. He is married to poet Lollie Groth.
Sitka: In Memoriam
A calm morning
toward the end of an Alaska cruise, our ship sidled into port outside Sitka,
Alaska. My dad yelped two registers too high on the deck and I hurried outside.
Two humpback whales had just breached the surface, gulping air before another
descent into the sapphire depths. In the background, the steeple of the
Orthodox Church outlines the brief skyline of this small Alaskan town. I
vividly remember this day spent in Sitka. Well, the Sitka in Michael Chabons’s,
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union exists
in stark contrast with my memories.
Detectives Investigate Murders
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| Photo by Harvey Barrison |
One morning in
his dirty, ill-maintained residence, Hotel Zamenhof, Landsman’s landlord
notifies the detective of a murder on the premises. On top of the near vicinity
of the crimes, Landsman finds intrigue in the victim’s pseudonymity, the style
of execution, and the simulated game of chess in the room.
Collaborating
with his partner, a half-Tlingit, half-Jew named Berko Shemets, and his
ex-wife/commanding officer, Bina, Landsman unravels the clues in this murder
mystery through the sprawling metropolis of Sitka.
In the process of solving a murder, Landsman unveils diabolical plots from the Jewish Diaspora and the American government.
What Would Happen If Israel Didn’t
Exist?
Interestingly,
one of the crucial characteristics of The
Yiddish Policeman’s Union—and a thread I glossed over in the early portions
of the novel—is the alternative history of Alaska. Chabon imagines a world in which the
post-World-War-II state of Israel evaporates in the late 40s. As such, the
Jewish state relocates to Sitka, Alaska where the United States harbored
refugees during World War II. Not officially American citizens, this Jewish
political state evolves into an urban center with a complicated relationship
with the United States.
“Landsman straps an extra clip to his belt and drives out to the north end, past Halibut Point, where the city sputters and the water reaches across the land like the arm of a policeman. Just off the Ickes Highway, the wreck of a shopping center marks the end of the dream of Jewish Sitka. The push to fill every space from here to Yakovy with the Jews of the world gave out in this parking lot. There was no Permanent Status, no influx of new jewflesh from the bitter corners and dark alleys of Diaspora. The planned housing developments remain lines on blue paper, encumbering some steel drawer” (179).
Having visited
Sitka, this image of a bustling metropolis conflicts with the experience of a
small town with a central Orthodox Church. I found it hard to disassociate
reality with Chabon’s alternative. Nevertheless, once I accepted the novel’s
backdrop, the setting became imaginative and intriguing.
A Character on the Verge
In addition to
the strange retelling of history, I found the way Chabon painted the
protagonist to be compelling. The reader commiserates with Meyer Landsman. With
every mistake, Landsman reveals the insecurities we all feel when we don’t
succeed. His marriage has failed; his job is always in flux; his status in the
United States is in question; and his life lies in the balance. Suicide is
always an option:
“Landsman, the son and paternal grandson of suicides, has seen human beings dispatch themselves in every possible way, from the inept to the efficient. He knows how it should and should not be performed. Bridge leaps and dives from hotel windows: picturesque but iffy. Stairwell leaps: unreliable, an impulse decision, too much like an accidental death. Slashing wrists, with or without the popular but unnecessary bathtub variation: harder than it seems, tinged with girlish love of theater. Ritual disembowelment with a samurai sword: hard work, requires a second, and would smack, in a yid of affectation. Landsman has never seen it done that way, but he knew a noz once who claimed that he had. Landsman’s grandfather threw himself under the wheels of a streetcar in Lodz, which showed a degree of determination that Landsman has always admired. His father employed thirty 100 mg tablets of Mebutal, washed down with a glass of caraway vodka, a method that has much to recommend it. Add a plastic bag over the head, capacious and free of holes, and you have yourself something neat, quiet, and reliable.
But when he envisions taking his own life, Landsman likes to do it with a handgun, like Melekh Gaystik, the champion of the world. His own chopped Model 39 is more than enough sholem for the job. If you know where to put the muzzle (just inside the angle of the mentum) and how to steer your shot (20 degrees off the vertical, toward the lizard core of the brain), it’s fast and reliable. Messy, but Landsman doesn’t have any qualms, for some reason, about leaving behind a mess” (153-154).
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| Photo by Eric Gjerde |
Second, the use
of Yiddish required a dictionary close at hand. Chabon leans on the language
just enough that I never felt truly comfortable with the prose.
Yet on the whole,
I enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Michael Chabon executes the hard-boiled, noirish thriller genre well. With a
compelling plot and captivating characters, The
Yiddish Policemen’s Union is worth a read.
Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
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Posted by: Donovan Richards
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