Hugo Nominee book #3.
Meyer Landsman is a policeman for Sitka, Alaska, the current residence of 2 million Jews who have been forced out of Israel and onto this spit of inhospitable land. In effect, they are out of sight and out of mind for the US and the world. Landsman is down on his luck. His wife left him. He may not have a job after the coming Reversion (that nobody seems to know about). He's an alcoholic and a horrid chess player in a world where his father was known as one of the best. He's living in a squalid hotel apartment. His half Tinglet-half Jew partner tolerates his morose outbreaks.
Then a murder occurs downstairs from where he lives. Next thing Meyer's ex-wife, Bina, becomes his boss and tells him the murder investigation is done. Can you see yet where this is going? Oy vey! He disobeys direct orders and continues to investigate, landing himself and his partner in a world of trouble. Bina is forced to relieve him of his badge and gun, but that doesn't stop Meyer as he continues to get sucked into a whirlwind of Jewish intrigue concerning chess, cows, Messiahs and a return to the homeland.
To paraphrase a friend of mine, this was yet *another* "...alcoholic detective sticking their nose where it's likely to get cut off." Two books that I've read recently come to mind: Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith and When Gravity Fails by George Alex Effinger. Same plot, same characters, different setting.
The alternative history is pretty minor to the overall story. I really feel that you could cut and paste the characters and plot and plunk them in NYC and the story wouldn't miss a beat. I think this my main contention. Yeah, it's kinda cool to have a bunch of Jews living in Alaska, but does that make it "award worthy?" Not really, IMO.
The author is really, really flowery in his language. I recall one bit I read over my morning cereal that was something like "the cows were angels scattered on the green heavens of the field". This particular sentence was just kinda stuck in between two other sentences that basically said the cows were out standing in their field. He had a lot of this throughout the book and after a while it was like, Oy vey indeed.
Still, I enjoyed this book. Meyer Landsman wasn't as morose or depressing as Arkady Renko but I think that was due to Meyer's comic sidekick - Barko. In some ways it was kinda like watching the old TV series Northern Exposure, where being off your rocker is the norm. I would read another book by Michael Chabon.
2 comments:
You had more patience with it than I did. And I have read another Chabon--The Final Solution--and it's fairly unlikely I'll give him a third try.
I'm currently undecided whether to put this above or below Brasyl on my ballot. I gave up on both partway through. Yiddish was more readable but less original. Brasyl was original but not enjoyable. Hmm.
I'm about 1/3 of the way into Brasyl and it probably will get set aside when Halting State shows up. Yiddish I could follow; Portugese...not so much and that is annoying me.
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