The Yiddish Policemen's Union

A Novel

trade paperback, 464 pages

English language

Published Nov. 10, 2008 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-00-714983-4
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OCLC Number:
750821246

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4 stars (3 reviews)

For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word …

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Review of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an alternate reality novel where, after the WWII, Jews were relocated to Sitka, Alaska. The lead character is Meyer Landsman, a disillusioned but still occasionally brilliant policeman who wants to make a final effort in solving a case before the Sitka district becomes again an official part of The United States.

The alternate history gives the writer an opportunity to set his story into an environment which is familiar from old crime novels but in which almost all of the characters are Jewish. Other than that, though, the history has a limited role in the story; it obviously affects the story and is, in some ways, prominent as a plot device, but with minor tweaks the story could've been set in just about any small town.

Chabon uses the opportunity to fill the dialogue with Yiddish (?) vocabulary. Even though you get used to it, …

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4 stars

Subjects

  • Historical - General
  • Fiction / General
  • General
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Historical

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