The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season427 pages, about 9 hours: the length of 1.3 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbDetective Meyer Landsman investigates a murder in the run-down hotel where he lives.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA blog review calls the shelf’s Motherless Brooklyn, at 316 pages, a leaner detective novel doing similar work.
The case for it
on Meyer Landsman
“the main character is one with whom any reader, Jew or not, can identify”
three stars · a book blog on Bina, the ex-wife
“Bina is hardly a femme fatale, but a hard-nosed woman”
a book blog on the prose
“the prose is just a joy to read and so easy on the eyes”
a book blog on the boundary maven
“My personal favourite character was the boundary maven”
a book blog
The case against
on the alternate history
“The real problem with the book is the piecemeal way Chabon introduces his alternate reality.”
Adam Mars-Jones · The Guardian, 2007 on the character names
“Many characters have similar, unfamiliar Eastern European names”
a Substack review on the pacing
“I thought the plot moved a bit slow at times”
a forum reader on the prose style
“a completely overwritten, self-conscious barrage of hyperboles that rarely engaged me”
a book blog
