Oy, What A Book

Dana's post about the artist's need to reach and connect with an audience had such good thoughts in it. I particularly liked the chef's take, that his art is for the purpose of making his customers happy for a couple of hours.

For a long time, I've held a favorite prejudice, that so-called literary writers who try to write mysteries can only fail. I've believed this because their stories seem to be only for themselves with no thought about connecting to the reader. Well, this week, I had to flush that prejudice swirling down the toilet. Goodbye, old friend. I commend you to the sea.

One of the new Edgar nominees brought this about. THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION by Michael Chabon manages to both defy and embrace several genres at once in a beautiful way. It's a classic detective story with a classic protagonist, one who himself defies and embraces the qualities of cops and PIs from the best of those genres. This from a guy who is a Pulitzer Prize winner. Who would have thought?

If the Edgar committee had not chosen this book, who knows when I might have read it. Its description and blurbs didn't appeal to me. It's set in 2007 but in an alternate world, one in which Israel lost its battle for statehood in 1948. The U.S. allows the displaced Jews land in and around Sitka, Alaska with a lease of 60 years. Now, the lease is almost up. When the land is about to revert, the Sitka Yiddish police department is ordered to close all its unsolved homicide cases before handing over control to the new U.S. police force.

Sound funny? Deep? Not to me, but I was oh so wrong. It is both of those things and a fantastic mystery all wrapped up in gorgeous imagery. They don't tell you these things on the cover because it's better for it all to sneak up on you and grab you before you know what happened. This is what makes me love a book and a new-to-me author. The humor, intelligence and the imaginative nature of Yiddish Policeman's Union are not things one normally expects in an Edgar nominee. Hats off to the committee for recognizing it.

Don't take my word for it. Don't be turned off by the book cover or the fact that the writer hasn't, until now, been known as a mystery author. This is a one-of-a-kind book. I'm so in love with it, I will risk reading a non-mystery, literary book by Chabon. He's that fabulous.