"The Yiddish Policemen's Union"

This large novel by Michael Chabon (chosen by my book club as the September read) is one of the ten books he currently has authored. He is also the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" which one of my fellow book club members had read and she said it is a completely different read from "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" and she did recommend it.

As another book club member commented, "The Yiddish Policemn's Union" is a novel rich in detail. I found it a good read but I sometimes had difficulty keeping up with all the players as well as all the clues to the mystery (or mysteries within mysteries)because there was so much detail. I had clues throughout the book that could have helped me solve the murder mystery but, because they were scattered throughout the book and amidst all the details, I sometimes lost track of the clues. If they came up again, I had to search back to read about how they were first referenced.

I did like it well enough that I got halfway through the book and pulled my trick of skimming ahead to see how it ended then returning to read it in detail and fill in the gaps I'd missed by skimming. I didn't find it a particularly quick read -- maybe because of all the details -- but I would read more by this author. He took liberties in this novel with historical data and did an excellent job of setting up an "alternate world" that I found so believable that at times I was asking myself (and my spouse) if it were really true - Did it really happen that way!?

pazt