The best Yiddish detective fiction you'll read this week

November 4, 10:24 PMBirmingham Books ExaminerElizabeth Woodworth

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Cover of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Will Staeble

The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon is the kind of novel that moves you along as a reader, though the past, the present, gun fights, fist fights, wild escapes in the woods wearing only underpants, flying sea planes, gangsters (from Russia and China), Jewish culture, native Alaskans vs. the Jews (who are transplanted from an Israel that never got to exist post-WWII.  Like many detective novels, this one includes a protagonist who is generally unlikable: mistake-making, heavy drinking, troubled, wife-losing, bad-dressing Yiddish cop.  And yet, I guarantee, you'll be drawn to him in short order and be hoping for him to succeed.  And that includes the bizarre characters you meeting along the way.  I'll add more as I can, so please stay tuned; until then, this should be a book that you put on your night table on the waiting list for reading "very soon."

I'll only say this for now.  Pie is very important in this book.  Pie.