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I was completely sucked in
“This is an amazing novel. The reader steps into a world created by the unlikely combination of cultures and alternative histories. It is completely strange yet eerily familiar. This is not a casual read. The reader has to work hard to keep up with the characters and Chabon's inventions (there's a glossary in the back), but it is well worth the effort.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-11-08. -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Unless You Know Yiddish, Don't Bother
“I cannot believe this won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards! It's like it's written in a foreign language. Don't waste your money, unless you know Yiddish!!!”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-28. -
A mystery story, an alternate-history, and full of imagination and compassion
“This is an alternate history of the Alaskan territory of Sitka, where post-World War II Jews are resettled in an Israel-less world. The main character, Meyer Landsman, is a homicide deterctive trying to solve mysteries on the eve of the reversion, in which "America" will take back Sitka and the Jews will be scattered once more. Michael Chabon is a fabulous writer: A deft and moving master stylist, who puts his craft to work in fables, genre-like stories of only conventional intellectual depth, but full of love, allegiance, human evil and the other verities of emotional life. Don't come at it with inappropriately high expectations for nuance -- this is, always, a detective/mystery story with the familiar trope of the hard-case, hurting-inside detective still wearily, faintly hoping for redemption. Yet it delivers on the genre extremely well, and delivers something more in the form of imagination, illuminating and making real the alternative-history of Sitka, and in the form of genuine feeling and compassion for the humans who inhabit that land of chilly longing. This novel worked especially well as an audio book, wonderfully narrated by Peter Riegert who creates multiple character voices, all with a New-York Yiddish twinge to their distinct personalities.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-11. -
Gorgeous Writing
“In an alternate history, the Jews who were victimized during the Holocaust are resettled to Alaska, instead of Israel. They are given control over the region for sixty years, at which point this land will revert back to the United States. Nobody knows what will happen to the Jewish population at that time.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-01.
It is two months from this reversion, and Detective Meyer Landsman has bigger troubles on his mind. He's still pining after his ex-wife, and he has several cases to pin on someone. His biggest problem, though, is the murder case he's been ordered to drop. Despite the orders and the trouble he might cause to himself and his partner, Landsman can't seem to let go of this homicide. Once he starts to investigate, he finds that the story goes deeper and might be even more dangerous than he imagined.
I loved the whole idea of an Alaskan Jewish homeland. I liked the way the characters interacted with each other, and the different ways they viewed their precarious situation. Dialog was fascinating and amusing, sprinkled with enough Yiddish to keep me intrigued, while still being easy enough for me to read. Landsman was a likable character, as was his cousin and partner, Berko.
I would have liked to have seen more of the relationship between Landsman and Bina; very little was shown of why they broke up or why they might have fallen in love in the first place. I also would have liked to have seen more of the reversion madness. I was looking forward to finding out what the United States government had planned for Alaska, and was disappointed the story ended before we had a chance to see it.” -
Fantastic--in every sense
“This is a fabulous book. You will be amazed, and in a good way, that this is based on a fictional history and location. It's very well written and darkly funny. (I fervently hope that the Coen brothers make this book into a movie. If they do, I would bet money that it turns out to be one of their really great, legendary movies.) It's fun to read, speaks to an intelligent reader, and I wish it was about twice as long.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-21.
I must admit that I found the punchline/conclusion to be a bit odd, to the point where I felt it constituted somewhat of an off note in the book as a whole. But it's not that bad, and it by no means ruined the book for me! I have to give it a 5-star rating just because in its entirety, this is just a wonderful, entertaining novel. ”
