I picked up this book for the wrong reason: it was supposedly set in Sitka, Alaska. The truth is that it is set in an alternate Sitka–a federal district housing millions of Jews, who were temporarily relocated there after World War II. Sixty years later, their residency is about to expire, and the Alaskan Jews are preparing for yet another diaspora. The best reason to pick up this book is for the alien mix of Jewish and Tlingit references, the intricate characterizations, or the classic noir detective story. The narration skips around disconcertingly. It’s a mess of politics, religion, (alternate) history, and fateful coincidence. It’s not quite as good as Chabon’s masterpiece The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (then again, what is?). But what anchors the story and elevates it above a cliched thriller is the characters: Meyer Landsman (detective and protagonist), his partner Berko Shemets (mixed race Jewish and Tlingit), Landsman’s ex-wife and current boss Bina Gelbfish, the deeply conflicted man whose murder sparks the token homicide investigation (and whose identity I will not spoil here, because even though the book came out in 2007, I am proof that some people come late to good books), and others. They are complex, variously flawed, unlucky but optimistic, ruthless, and hopeless. It is the most engaging and varied cast I have encountered since Mink River. We’ll call this Chabon’s lesser masterpiece.
Read if you enjoyed: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell
Find The Yiddish Policemen’s Union at Multnomah County Library