Adventures in Cultural Consumption:
The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon: It's not Kavalier and Klay, and marred by some unnecessary cultural and political commentary in the final act--unnecessary in that it could be omitted from the narrative without loss, and in that it makes no sense as political commentary: the problem is fundamentalist Christians, but it's also Zionist Jews, but it's also secular Jews who will take advantage of true believers, but it's also Americans for whom a state of Israel makes for a beachhead in the Middle East, but it's also sort of the Muslims as well--i.e. the problem is everyone, in an indiscriminate way.
Ignoring that, which appears from nowhere in the last hundred pages and is easily the least interesting thing in the book, it's quite good: enjoyable within its genre, and capable of positing a fantastic world made real. Recommended, if not quite unreservedly.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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