The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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Hugh
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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The story takes place in Sitka, Alaska, in the panhandle. It is mentioned early on that the population of Sitka is 2 million. Now, I am not familiar with Sitka, but I an familiar enough to know that a large metropolitan area like that is not going to fit in the forested backwater of southeast Alaska. But, this is starting off as a hard-boiled detective novel. In fact, the detective is living in a flophouse and drinking whiskey - and of course divorced from his wife. So, I get it. We need a large metropolitan area for such a detective to have his adventures. (I did, however, get up and google Sitka. As I suspected, it really is a podunk town with a population of about 8,000.)

The detective is Jewish, as most of Chabon's characters are. We get into the backstory of the detective and it is mentioned that back in 1948, his ancestors came to Alaska after the Jewish defeat in the 1948 War. Wait, wut? Israel won that war. But since it was only mentioned in passing, I let it go and continued reading. Then, as the backstory gets more detailed, the 1948 war is mentioned again. This time he says that the Jews were massacred and thrown into the sea.

Authors have license to play fast and loose with the facts when the write contemporary and even historical fiction, but not this damb much. Chabon is one of my favorite writers, but I ain't gonna play along with that much fantasy. I've abandoned books for being boring, I've abandoned them for poor writing, but never before have I abandoned a book for a writer going overboard adjusting reality. Today was a first. I would imagine if I continued reading, there'd be a reason for him to twist the story this way. In fact, I googled the 1948 War just to see what he might be getting at. Maybe it was the stalemate in Jerusalem where the Arabs got the east and the Jews got the west. Still, not good enough. Policemen's Union goes onto the shelf unfinished.

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Re: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Post by Patchez »

If you didn't like that don't bother with the Temeraire series. Set during the Napoleonic Wars but with Dragons used as an air force as well as the usual ships and cannons on sea and land.
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Re: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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Patchez wrote:
Fri Jan 08, 2021 6:41 pm
If you didn't like that don't bother with the Temeraire series. Set during the Napoleonic Wars but with Dragons used as an air force as well as the usual ships and cannons on sea and land.
Nice, World of Warcraft - Napoleon
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Re: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Post by scream ale »

Dragons were absolutely part of the airforce during the Napoleonic Wars. Unicorns were also utilized by the military. Look at your history books again.

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Re: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

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And the Lockheed F-104 was actually really build to fight stars, all of em
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Re: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Post by oettinger »

But the ogre army was to strong with their lethal slingshots
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