Monday, May 14
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
From the NY Times mostly positive review of Michael Chabon's new book “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” his first big serious one since the best-selling, brilliant and Pulitzer Prize-winning “Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay." The new book is a mystery novel. Kristen, lover of the mystery genre, got Chabon's new novel for me over the weekend, and I haven't yet read it but will start as soon as I a) finish, b) skim to the finish, or c) give up on "I Am A Strange Loop.
I like Chabon because in many ways he's a capital L capital W Literary Writer, or started out aiming that way at least. But as this quote from reviewer Terrance Rafferty hints at, he's also been working his way through various genre styles, too, styles that most capital L capital W Literary Writer-types scoff at. In other words, he's doing what I aspire to: writing great stories, with actual plots and interesting, real characters that aim beyond their genres.
Says Rafferty: "Chabon takes pains to supply an elegant, satisfying solution for his murder puzzle; he has too much respect for the genre not to. He has in recent years become a zealous proselytizer for a more genre-inflected and plot-friendly sort of literary fiction, a rabbi of the sect of Story. I think, though, that for him plot is, like chess, no more and no less than a beautiful game, something to be played as scrupulously and passionately as you can, but warily — with an eye to the danger that the game could start playing you. When that happens, and you find yourself in that forced-to-move trap, the sensible thing is to knock the board over."
I like Chabon because in many ways he's a capital L capital W Literary Writer, or started out aiming that way at least. But as this quote from reviewer Terrance Rafferty hints at, he's also been working his way through various genre styles, too, styles that most capital L capital W Literary Writer-types scoff at. In other words, he's doing what I aspire to: writing great stories, with actual plots and interesting, real characters that aim beyond their genres.
Says Rafferty: "Chabon takes pains to supply an elegant, satisfying solution for his murder puzzle; he has too much respect for the genre not to. He has in recent years become a zealous proselytizer for a more genre-inflected and plot-friendly sort of literary fiction, a rabbi of the sect of Story. I think, though, that for him plot is, like chess, no more and no less than a beautiful game, something to be played as scrupulously and passionately as you can, but warily — with an eye to the danger that the game could start playing you. When that happens, and you find yourself in that forced-to-move trap, the sensible thing is to knock the board over."
