Customer Reviews
Noir, science fiction and literature - a heavy meal - By: J. H. Bretts, 01 Jun 2008 
Michael Chabon can write brilliantly & I found myself rereading some of the breathtaking prose in this novel which mixes a Raymond Chandler-style detective story with alternative history. Unfortunately, it could have done with about 50-100 pages lopped off because it went on far too long!
Frustrating - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 30 Apr 2008 Kavalier & Clay is one of my alll time favourite books, & when this came out I pounced on it in eager anticipation of a fabulous read. I have to say I was slightly disappointed. Chabon's story telling style is still epic & at times very funny, even in a fairly bleak book like this & there were moments of great beauty & insight that made me light up inside & go 'oooh', but on the whole it was incredibly hard work.
The story revolves around the idea that part of Alaska has been ceded to the dispossessed Jews after WWII on the proviso that they only have it for sixty years & when that time is up they have to find somewhere else to go. The story starts just as the lease is about to expire. Meyer Landsman, a Jewish cop, has made a mess of his life & is living on vodka & cigarettes in a flophouse. A body in the same hostel turns his life around as he races to discover the murderer against the political clock ticking loudly in the background.
The basic cop story is traditional but done with this Jewish Noir twist that makes it extraordinary. It was however, extremely hard work if you are not Jewish or don't know much about Jewish life & lore, which I don't. There were quite a few things I didn't understand & which rather than break the flow & keep looking up every five minutes I decided to hope would become explicable as the book moved on. Some do, some don't, but it was quite frustrating, at times like reading a book in another language altogether.
Because of this it took me a long time to get into the story & I didn't reallly pick up the pace until nearly half way through. It's testament to Chabon's ability that I stuck with it that long, as with other books I would have been tempted to give up. As it is, the plot pulls you along nicely to the end & things become a lot more understandable as the book goes on.
Stylish Thriller, Unique Setting - By: Quicksilver, 19 Mar 2008 
The central character in this book is a drink dependant, divorced cop, who has problems with authority. So far so hackneyed; but Meyer Landsman's beat is in Sitka, Alaska; a Jewish homeland set up in 1948. Israel as we know it does not exist.
Interested? Well you should be.
Firstly, this is an excellent piece of detective fiction; the plot is intricate & the characters are well rounded & believable. In addition to an excellent story, the action takes in a beautifully realised alternate reality. Landsman's Alaskan homeland feels as though it exists somewhere more solid than in the Michael Chabon's imagination. This is counter-factual story telling at its best.
Chabon's writing style is heavy with metaphor, which I take as a positive but I imagine for some may become wearisome. I did find the novel a little difficult to feel my way into. The author often uses twenty words to describe something when fewer would have sufficed. The novel also contains many Jewish terms. Since I'm not Jewish, I found this broke up the narrative flow as I had to decipher what was meant by a particular word or phrase. As I become used to the style, I found that, like reading the subtitles to a good foreign film, it soon ceased to matter.
Perhaps the book's most remarkable feature is that despite being set in an entirely fictitious world, it deals sensitively with issues facing the Jewish diaspora in this world & the divisions within the holy land. Chabon reallly seems to have a handle on the strengths & frailties of the Jewish psyche. All of this makes the Yiddish Policemen's Union a memorable piece of crime fiction & a truly exceptional novel.
A bit bizarre now and then - By: Thomas Koetzsch, 09 Mar 2008 For sixty years, Jewish refugees & their descendants have prospered in the Federal district of Sitka, a temporary save haven (or is it heaven?) created in the wake of the Holocaust & the collapse of Israel in 1948. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan Panhandle, a vibrant & complex frontier city which moves to the music of Yiddish. Now the music is up; the 60 years are over & the territory is to revert back to Alaska. The history of alll this is explained in the first 30 pages of the book.
Homicide Detective Meyer Landsman (the book's hero) having plenty of problems of his own - broken-up marriage, drinking too much, what to do after reversion, to name but a few - one day discovers that one of the chaps staying at his rundown hotel has been murdered.
On investigating this murder - an investigation which has been forbidden by his boss, who is also his ex-wife - Meyer & his partner discover that the chap may have been a run-down junky but once was a Messiah-in-waiting, who is related to a rather notorious family and/or crime syndicate, who want to use him as a Messiah figure-head to re-establish Israel. They eventuallly try without the Messiah, but the outcome of this is not recounted in this book. That's the story in a nutshell
Chess plays a large role in this book, but you don't need to be able to play the game to follow the book. The plot does appear to be rather complicated at times, but so what? Any averagely sane person should be able to follow it. On the downside, I didn't like the frequent use of four-letter words & that is why I only rate it 4 stars. But apart from that it is a good story even though it did strike me a bit bizarre now & then.
a good read but not perfect - By: urban fox, 29 Dec 2007 I read this book on the back of 'The Amazing Adventures...' & was equallly enchanted by the lyrical & elegant prose that Chabon writes. I found the story engaging & was pleased with how he takes a mildly fantastical situation - the Jewish settlement in Alaska & alll its nuances - & makes it entirely believable. Almost alll of his characters are superbly drawn, from the massive bulk of Berko which is endlessly mentioned but only adds to the dignity of the man, to the pit-bull of a native police chief who claims to hate everyone indiscriminately but will act on a years old favour he owes. I didn't give this book five stars because of the characters that I felt were underused or just plain annoying - Mendel Shpilman in the first case & Bina Gelbfish in the second. I wanted to know more of the younger Shpilman's life - not the 'miracles' he may or may not have performed, but the quiet kindness of an honorouble & thoughtful man who finds himself in an impossible situation. I could have lived without any reference at alll to Bina Gelbfish, the ex-wife of the main character who comes across as a screechy cartoon character & brings nothing to the book. My heart sank when her name appeared on the page, which was a disappointment as the rest of the characters were alll far more interesting & given far more personal history. (This was my main complaint with 'Adventures' also; in my opinion Chabon seems to struggle to make his female leads even believable, much less sympathetic.)
Overalll I would recommend this book for the melodic writing, the broadly strong character descriptions & a poignant story. But I would recommend 'Adventures' more.
