That Chabon Sure Has Chutzpah

The main action follows Meyer Landsman, a detective under review for a questionable shooting. Against orders, he investigates the murder of Mendel Shpilman, the estranged son of a powerful, corrupt rabbi. A chess prodigy, junkie and closeted homosexual who some believe performed miracles, Shpilman was whispered to have been the messiah. Solving his murder becomes a way for the detective to redeem himself as a failed son and husband.

Some critics have called “Policemen’s Union” anti-Semitic, in part because characters casually call each other “yids.” (The New York Post suggested that noted Talmudic scholar Mel Gibson direct the movie.) But Chabon has taken great care to portray a wide swath of humanity. The men may be largely broken or corrupt, but the women are particularly strong in their matrilineal fashion. Still, the most tone-deaf development centers on gangsters who, in a bizarre evocation of 9/11, reduce the Dome of the Rock to a “magnificent plume of black smoke.” Imagine Sam Spade stumbling upon an international conspiracy to bring about the Biblical end times. This book is still well worth reading, but oy vay.

title: “That Chabon Sure Has Chutzpah” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-05” author: “Cameron Wilson”

The main action follows Meyer Landsman, a detective under review for a questionable shooting. Against orders, he investigates the murder of Mendel Shpilman, the estranged son of a powerful, corrupt rabbi. A chess prodigy, junkie and closeted homosexual who some believe performed miracles, Shpilman was whispered to have been the messiah. Solving his murder becomes a way for the detective to redeem himself as a failed son and husband.

Some critics have called “Policemen’s Union” anti-Semitic, in part because characters casually call each other “yids.” (The New York Post suggested that noted Talmudic scholar Mel Gibson direct the movie.) But Chabon has taken great care to portray a wide swath of humanity. The men may be largely broken or corrupt, but the women are particularly strong in their matrilineal fashion. Still, the most tone-deaf development centers on gangsters who, in a bizarre evocation of 9/11, reduce the Dome of the Rock to a “magnificent plume of black smoke.” Imagine Sam Spade stumbling upon an international conspiracy to bring about the Biblical end times. This book is still well worth reading, but oy vay.