Shalom-fiction
Huh, turns out that I've read the winner of the Best Novel Hugo before it won the award for once. Which means it's a good time to mention that I read it and loved it.
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon.
Speaking as a fan of speculative fiction, it works tremendously as a work of speculation. Speaking as a fan of hard-boiled detective stories, this is true to that genre as well. It does not adopt the tropes of noir in order to achieve a gritty patina; this book is noir, but with a Chandleresqe optimism under the surface.
All that would be enough - but Union is also about Jews. Their history, their habits, their eternal precariousness and eternal endurance. It's a missive to an entire people, filled with reproach and love. There are stories within stories in the narrative, almost all of which can relate not just to the characters but to the Jewish people writ large throughout history. To this Gentile's eyes, anyway.
It's human, it's deep, and it's wickedly funny.
Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon.
Speaking as a fan of speculative fiction, it works tremendously as a work of speculation. Speaking as a fan of hard-boiled detective stories, this is true to that genre as well. It does not adopt the tropes of noir in order to achieve a gritty patina; this book is noir, but with a Chandleresqe optimism under the surface.
All that would be enough - but Union is also about Jews. Their history, their habits, their eternal precariousness and eternal endurance. It's a missive to an entire people, filled with reproach and love. There are stories within stories in the narrative, almost all of which can relate not just to the characters but to the Jewish people writ large throughout history. To this Gentile's eyes, anyway.
It's human, it's deep, and it's wickedly funny.