What if the state of Israel had fallen during World War II and the surviving Jews were given dominion over a small swath of land in Alaska? This region grows, taking in refugees from all over the world, and eventually achieves a tentative status as a US territory known as Sitka.
This outlandish idea is the premise for Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.” Part noir novel, part alternate history, “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” is a delightful, engrossing read from start to finish.
Chabon’s novel centers around Meyer Landsman, who, in true noir fashion, is a rickety alcoholic well past his prime, living in a run-down hotel in the outskirts of Sitka. He is also recently divorced, and his new boss happens to be his ex-wife and one true love. The district of Sitka is set to revert back to US control in six weeks, and it is put to Landsman and his partner Berko Shemets, an Inuit turned Orthodox Jew, to resolve all of their existing cases.
So things start off pretty complicated. It only gets worse when a junkie living in the same hotel as Landsman is murdered. The boy was a chess prodigy, and possible Messiah, and Landsman takes a personal interest in the case. Landsman disobeys orders and takes on the case, quitting drinking in the process (his DTs provide the element of unreliable narration and potential insanity necessary in all noir novels).
Pretty soon, Landsman and Shemets are barreling around Sitka, stepping on all the wrong toes. Sitka’s equivalent of the mafia is a violent sect of Orthodox Jews, headed by a morbidly obese rabbi. He takes care of the spiritual well being of all the devout Jews of Sitka, and cuts a tidy profit on the side.
Sitka’s main language is Yiddish, and Chabon crafts a fascinating noir slang by melding Yiddish’s natural tones with a darker, distinctly American edge. A stool pigeon is a “shtinker,” a gun is a “shomer” and cigarettes are “papiros.” The characters babble back and forth like this, confusing the reader and any Americans who cross their path.
Chabon’s story builds quickly, encompassing modern day events in an almost unbelievably convenient way. He sticks close to conventional noir storytelling, but manages to make it his own along the way. “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” builds on recent religious ideas, featuring a group of Americans trying to jump-start the apocalypse, but it manages to end on a bright note for both the Jews of Sitka and Landsman.
As an alternate history, “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” works almost perfectly. The situation is unbelievable, but Chabon’s writing is so charming this doesn’t really matter. In the end, the reader is left pondering a world consumed by religious fanaticism, a reflection from which we might all benefit today.
