Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union

[sprig5]

I haven't actually read Chabon's more Jewish-focussed writings, although I did see him speak at the JCC in Washington, DC, 2 years ago, and I was kind of dismayed to hear him try to imply that his first marriage hadn't worked out because the woman wasn't Jewish. Maybe that was the case, but I'd hate to think it was that simple. It seems that Chabon has tried on many identities, in life and/or through his writing. His celebrated Mysteries of Pittsburgh was about sexual orientation/identity (at least that's how it spoke to me in the 80s). There are bits of that issue also in the book that takes place in academia--title I can't recall right now. Kavalier and Klay is about superheroes, but used in metaphor for Jewish life (haven't read it).  Chabon said in interview that Jews started the superhero genre of cartooning in the U.S. early in the 20th century. And the newest novel. which takes place in an alternate Jewish homeland, and has gotten mixed reviews, but sounds interesting.

NEXTBOOK FEATURE
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LISTENING BOOTH
Land of the Lost
Michael Chabon's new novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, depicts a frozen homeland where beat cops speak Yiddish, snack on blintzes, and chase Hasidic gangsters                       
http://www.nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=606
Podcast: http://www.nextbook.org/audio/podcast_feature606.mp3

"part of my nature to be interested in borderlands"
straddles genres etc., being from America where many cultures bump up against one another
"the more of that that Israel had, that mixing, the better off everyone would be"