A review of Sarah Hannah's Inflorescence by Lorraine Wolters
Hannah, Sarah. Inflorescence. Dorset, Vermont: Tupelo Press, 2007. 88 pages, paper, $16.95.
As lived, grief is a wholly subjective sentiment, not easily harnessed or rigidly separated into labeled stages. When conveyed artistically, however, this emotion has the ability to transcend time and space. The elegy is a lamentation for the dead, thus allowing an uninvolved spectator to relate to the bereaved. Here, the writer’s challenge lies in her portrayal of the deceased: Through the provided lens, will the reader come to know the life remembered?
In this, her second book of poems, Sarah Hannah continues this elegiac tradition. Slightly guarded by a witty and sarcastic exterior, Hannah surrenders to her audience her own journey of great loss, vivid nostalgia and final release. The aptly named Inflorescence is a conduit, in verse, to compelling emotion and a sensory alliance with nature.
Writing about Inflorescence, John Deming pinpoints the element that differentiates other “versified accounts of cancer” from Hannah’s: it is her “insistence that her mother wants to die, and not because she is old or ill […she] has willed her own death, romanticized it as a means of enacting self-against-the-world pathos, and taken pleasure in the effect that it will have on her ex-husband and others.”
Divided into four sections, Inflorescence chronicles the mental deterioration and eventual death of Hannah’s mother, painter Renee Rothbein. The first section, “In Hospital,” establishes a sense of Rothbein’s sudden departure from her home (“The Garden As She Left It”) as well as her deep-seated malaise, evident in “Common Creeping Thyme (Serpillum a serpendo).” Amid grim realities, Hannah calmly records events, addressing her mother about her prognosis: “You’ve always wanted/ A brain tumor […].” It is a puzzling understatement; yet the poem as a whole is skillfully garnished with the lyrical run-down of “every herb you grow so expertly/ In pots behind your place.”
While a confrontation with morality begins this book, Inflorescence continues with its second section, “In The Old House,” as a remembrance of a life lived-for better or worse. Hannah fully confides in the reader, and even allows us to take her place for a few choice moments. “Read The House” is a prime example-Hannah presents a quiet, introspective and foreboding scene, creating a lasting sense of urgency with the singular and final line, “The house does not forgive you.”
This section is riddled with the red and blue imagery-more specifically that of fire and water-evoking the traditionally eastern (Hindu) perspective of the creation of new life in the wake of inevitable destruction. “At Last, Fire Seen As a Psychotic Break” illustrates this cyclical movement with a fire, beginning “in the crux and beam and insulation” and ending with the possibility of “quelling,” and the question: “If you stood nightly by the wall,/ Felt around for the heat,/ drawn a cold, wet cloth across the surface,/ And, speaking soft words,/ Held it?”
“In Home Hospice,” the collection's third section, introduces a deeper, more etiological portrait of Rothbein. Continuing her use of floral names and imagery as a lens, Hannah juxtaposes her mother’s early life with her last moments in hospice. Her use of the word Mum allows for these two points in time to converge: the poem titled “Inflorescence” creates a narrative of Hannah attempting to calm her mother as she desperately cries out for “Mum.” Hannah takes the reader into the past, as she asks her mother, “Can you see her, your rotund English mother […]/ or,/ My lady, do you call to me?” The British moniker for “Mom” overlays the image of a mum, a round vibrant flower, as Hannah continues to demonstrate her mother’s mental state (“Your fists/ Strike the sheets”), as well as the constant reminder of the pastime they both share (“All around us: flowers.”).
The final section of the book, “Inflorescence,” deals with an unfolding and subsequent flowering. Hannah’s mother died, and in doing so, she has entered another, greater realm of existence. The poems here are both haunting and perplexing-fitting sentiments, as Hannah inquires of her mother in “County of Last Residence:” “Are you living now in every whirring, worrying thing?/ […] Maybe you’re all the dead, and there are plenty,/ And all of them are you […].” Admittedly haunted by her mother, Hannah finds Rothbein’s presence inescapable in the overwhelming “current” of nature.
Inflorescence is a strong and well-paced collection of poems, the culmination of which is a profound and lyrical commentary on not just the intricate process of grieving a loss, but also how to live a life constantly surrounded by death. Hannah emits a sarcastic charm and unforgiving humor in her Author’s Notes, gripping the reader even after the collection ends; and for a moment, she springs to life, her somehow familiar voice resounding in each word. The parallel between nature and mortality begun early on sustains its grip on the reader’s conscienc. The one certainty we can gleam from Hannah’s Inflorescence is that life and death are simply and indelibly intertwined: “The dead are dead;/ Flowers are pretty.”
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Weathering The Storm
A review of Ann Pancake's Strange As This Weather Has Been by Erin O'Hara
Pancake, Ann. Strange As This Weather Has Been. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2007. 360 pp., paper, $23.95
Imagine you’re in your kitchen, and you hear it. The rumble, low and distant at first. Thunder? No. It gets louder, dishes shake and then shatter, you hear tress snapping and crashing, and you look out your window just in time to see a black wall of water crash into your house. This was the unfathomable reality for the people of the Buffalo Creek Hollow in West Virginia in 1972, and the looming possibility that haunts the characters of Ann Pancake’s endlessly powerful debut novel Strange As This Weather Has Been.
The inhabitants of the mountain hollow of Yellowroot, West Virginia, deep in the heart of Appalachia, are not as simple as they may initially seem. Written largely in Appalachian dialect, Pancake proves her mastery of language in the very first pages, when the character whose voice we hear, Lace, is “Stunned golden inside with the dream and the crave and the new of that boy.” While some have criticized her use of vernacular, obsessing over noun suffixes, her language immediately absorbs you into the mountain lives of the novel’s main characters, a family of six trying to maintain their life and livelihood while their surroundings are being destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.
The book’s chapters switch points of view, allowing us to see ever-deeply into the minds of these people suffering the same loss differently together. The perspectives of different characters, mainly Lace, the mother, and the three of her four children, Bant Carey, and Dane, are woven together in a somewhat irregular manner – sometimes connecting clearly through space, time and relationships, and other times branching away from the rest of the characters and the timeframe of the coal mining, like when Lace recollects the time before the children were born, or when we hear from Avery about the tragedy he survived in Buffalo Creek decades earlier. Nevertheless, the narrative always makes its way back to a unified core. The book takes on the structure of a braided river: intertwined, just loosely in some parts, while completely whole in others.
Still, despite the diverse weaving, one theme persists: the hold and the power and the subsistence of the land. Bant, a fifteen-year-old girl and perhaps the novel’s most touching and perceptive character, constantly retreated to “Those places where if you sat quiet, the space dropped away between you and the land”, her grandmother’s voice perpetually in her head, reminding her to appreciate and respect the land. Lace insisted,
“…you’d have to come up in these hills to understand what I meant. Grow up shouldered in them, them forever around your ribs, your hips, how they hold you, sit astraddle, giving you always, for good or for bad, the sense of being held. It had something to do with that hold.”
Another character, Mogey, who only receives one chapter all his own, sums up his connection to the land:
“So when I’d first walk into the woods, I’d say to myself, ‘Look here what God’s give us.’ Bust just about as fast as I could have that thought, this second one would come from deeper: ‘This is God.’ And then, from under that thought, from deeper yet, another thought would come, saying, ‘I go here. This is where I go.’ And last of all, the most certain thought, but also the most dangerous: ‘This is me. This, all this, is me.’”
The heartbreaking tale does have its light-hearted moments, mostly fulfilled by Corey, a rambunctious ten-year-old constantly seeking attention and adventure, thrilled by the treasures the flood has delivered into the creek that runs through the hollow, and his six-year-old brother Tommy who follows him like a shadow. Corey tells himself, “Be patient. Like the time they found the baby possum, and it didn’t want much to do with them at first, either. Then finally it let them pet it. Then, true. It died. Well, just be patient.”
While the switching of characters and context can be frustrating at times, having to shift focus at the author’s whim and often abruptly at the most thrilling parts, we ultimately bond with them irreversibly. The plot picks up near the end, with a shocking and unexpected climax, giving the rest of the story an added resonance. But what we are left with at the tale’s close is not the plot or even the individual characters that we have come to respect and admire. We are left with the shock and disgust that the devastation these characters face is not fiction but reality, the overwhelming desire to know more, to do something, and the awareness that “what we’re doing to this land is not only murder. It is suicide.”
Pancake, Ann. Strange As This Weather Has Been. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2007. 360 pp., paper, $23.95
Imagine you’re in your kitchen, and you hear it. The rumble, low and distant at first. Thunder? No. It gets louder, dishes shake and then shatter, you hear tress snapping and crashing, and you look out your window just in time to see a black wall of water crash into your house. This was the unfathomable reality for the people of the Buffalo Creek Hollow in West Virginia in 1972, and the looming possibility that haunts the characters of Ann Pancake’s endlessly powerful debut novel Strange As This Weather Has Been.
The inhabitants of the mountain hollow of Yellowroot, West Virginia, deep in the heart of Appalachia, are not as simple as they may initially seem. Written largely in Appalachian dialect, Pancake proves her mastery of language in the very first pages, when the character whose voice we hear, Lace, is “Stunned golden inside with the dream and the crave and the new of that boy.” While some have criticized her use of vernacular, obsessing over noun suffixes, her language immediately absorbs you into the mountain lives of the novel’s main characters, a family of six trying to maintain their life and livelihood while their surroundings are being destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.
The book’s chapters switch points of view, allowing us to see ever-deeply into the minds of these people suffering the same loss differently together. The perspectives of different characters, mainly Lace, the mother, and the three of her four children, Bant Carey, and Dane, are woven together in a somewhat irregular manner – sometimes connecting clearly through space, time and relationships, and other times branching away from the rest of the characters and the timeframe of the coal mining, like when Lace recollects the time before the children were born, or when we hear from Avery about the tragedy he survived in Buffalo Creek decades earlier. Nevertheless, the narrative always makes its way back to a unified core. The book takes on the structure of a braided river: intertwined, just loosely in some parts, while completely whole in others.
Still, despite the diverse weaving, one theme persists: the hold and the power and the subsistence of the land. Bant, a fifteen-year-old girl and perhaps the novel’s most touching and perceptive character, constantly retreated to “Those places where if you sat quiet, the space dropped away between you and the land”, her grandmother’s voice perpetually in her head, reminding her to appreciate and respect the land. Lace insisted,
“…you’d have to come up in these hills to understand what I meant. Grow up shouldered in them, them forever around your ribs, your hips, how they hold you, sit astraddle, giving you always, for good or for bad, the sense of being held. It had something to do with that hold.”
Another character, Mogey, who only receives one chapter all his own, sums up his connection to the land:
“So when I’d first walk into the woods, I’d say to myself, ‘Look here what God’s give us.’ Bust just about as fast as I could have that thought, this second one would come from deeper: ‘This is God.’ And then, from under that thought, from deeper yet, another thought would come, saying, ‘I go here. This is where I go.’ And last of all, the most certain thought, but also the most dangerous: ‘This is me. This, all this, is me.’”
The heartbreaking tale does have its light-hearted moments, mostly fulfilled by Corey, a rambunctious ten-year-old constantly seeking attention and adventure, thrilled by the treasures the flood has delivered into the creek that runs through the hollow, and his six-year-old brother Tommy who follows him like a shadow. Corey tells himself, “Be patient. Like the time they found the baby possum, and it didn’t want much to do with them at first, either. Then finally it let them pet it. Then, true. It died. Well, just be patient.”
While the switching of characters and context can be frustrating at times, having to shift focus at the author’s whim and often abruptly at the most thrilling parts, we ultimately bond with them irreversibly. The plot picks up near the end, with a shocking and unexpected climax, giving the rest of the story an added resonance. But what we are left with at the tale’s close is not the plot or even the individual characters that we have come to respect and admire. We are left with the shock and disgust that the devastation these characters face is not fiction but reality, the overwhelming desire to know more, to do something, and the awareness that “what we’re doing to this land is not only murder. It is suicide.”
Buddy’s Blues
A Review of Coming Through Slaughter by Raina Lauren Fields
Ondaatje, Michael. Coming Through Slaughter.
Improvisation is one of jazz’ hallmarks, blending sources of music, chord progression, popular riffs and melodies, and on-the-spot, newly created melodies. Quite appropriately, Michael Ondaatje’s work of fiction, Coming Through Slaughter, explores the life of trumpeter Buddy Bolden through a combination of sources, including the rumors, legends, interviews, and conversations of oral history, as well as, lyrics and song lists, official reports, dialogue, and bits of imagined stream of consciousness. With these sources and accounts at play, the narrative can be confusing – Ondaatje uses multiple voices, often without clearly attributing those points of view. It’s not easy for the reader to distinguish between the true accounts and those that are invented.
Little is known about the actual life of Buddy Bolden, which perhaps makes him most intriguing to jazz aficionados and readers alike. The historical record is slim: one picture of him, taken with his band, no recordings, and the sole accounts of him playing are second-hand from musicians who even credit Bolden as one of jazz’s main predecessors: creating a new genre of music through the mixing of previous styles:
Thought I knew his blues before, and the hymns at funerals, but what he is playing now is real
strange and I listen careful for he’s playing something that sounds like both. I cannot make out the
tune and then I catch on. He’s mixing them up…that is the first time I ever heard hymns and blues
cooked up together.
There are more enigmatic things about Bolden. He simply appears in New Orleans, with a trumpet and no past. In Ondaatje's account, Bolden shows up at a parade, elicits a few melodic trumpet blasts every few blocks – an action that intrigues fans to legends for years. Ultimately a psychotic episode led Bolden to a mental institution where he spent the remainder of his life, a fact that further adds to this mystery. A musician at jazz’s very beginnings, Bolden suffers from the same hedonistic “jazz disease” that plagues future jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. A wild life, full of abuse: womanizing, drinking and drugging, fighting and arguing.
Ondaatje clearly seeks to recreate the jazz elements that occur throughout the novel include riffs. In this novel, they occur through certain repeated phrases, including the very poetic, “Passing wet chicory that lies in the field like the sky.” At the end of the book, we are introduced to the phrase for the last time, as we find that Bolden is one the way to East Louisiana State Mental Hospital, where he spends the rest of his life. Here, the riff, a once generative dance, reflects Bolden’s decent into madness. Language is one of Ondaatje’s strongest points. Through the fiction writer, Ondaatje is a poet at heart. Even at his crudest movements, where violence and sex are presented and intersect, his language is highly imagistic and revealing.
The last section of the book is held together by threads of history: interview, reports, imagined occurrences, and a surprising two-page, first person account: Bolden’s mind at work, or Michael Ondaatje’s?
Ondaatje, Michael. Coming Through Slaughter.
Improvisation is one of jazz’ hallmarks, blending sources of music, chord progression, popular riffs and melodies, and on-the-spot, newly created melodies. Quite appropriately, Michael Ondaatje’s work of fiction, Coming Through Slaughter, explores the life of trumpeter Buddy Bolden through a combination of sources, including the rumors, legends, interviews, and conversations of oral history, as well as, lyrics and song lists, official reports, dialogue, and bits of imagined stream of consciousness. With these sources and accounts at play, the narrative can be confusing – Ondaatje uses multiple voices, often without clearly attributing those points of view. It’s not easy for the reader to distinguish between the true accounts and those that are invented.
Little is known about the actual life of Buddy Bolden, which perhaps makes him most intriguing to jazz aficionados and readers alike. The historical record is slim: one picture of him, taken with his band, no recordings, and the sole accounts of him playing are second-hand from musicians who even credit Bolden as one of jazz’s main predecessors: creating a new genre of music through the mixing of previous styles:
Thought I knew his blues before, and the hymns at funerals, but what he is playing now is real
strange and I listen careful for he’s playing something that sounds like both. I cannot make out the
tune and then I catch on. He’s mixing them up…that is the first time I ever heard hymns and blues
cooked up together.
There are more enigmatic things about Bolden. He simply appears in New Orleans, with a trumpet and no past. In Ondaatje's account, Bolden shows up at a parade, elicits a few melodic trumpet blasts every few blocks – an action that intrigues fans to legends for years. Ultimately a psychotic episode led Bolden to a mental institution where he spent the remainder of his life, a fact that further adds to this mystery. A musician at jazz’s very beginnings, Bolden suffers from the same hedonistic “jazz disease” that plagues future jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. A wild life, full of abuse: womanizing, drinking and drugging, fighting and arguing.
Ondaatje clearly seeks to recreate the jazz elements that occur throughout the novel include riffs. In this novel, they occur through certain repeated phrases, including the very poetic, “Passing wet chicory that lies in the field like the sky.” At the end of the book, we are introduced to the phrase for the last time, as we find that Bolden is one the way to East Louisiana State Mental Hospital, where he spends the rest of his life. Here, the riff, a once generative dance, reflects Bolden’s decent into madness. Language is one of Ondaatje’s strongest points. Through the fiction writer, Ondaatje is a poet at heart. Even at his crudest movements, where violence and sex are presented and intersect, his language is highly imagistic and revealing.
The last section of the book is held together by threads of history: interview, reports, imagined occurrences, and a surprising two-page, first person account: Bolden’s mind at work, or Michael Ondaatje’s?
Two Stories
A Review of Brother, I’m Dying by Joseph DelGabbo
Danticat, Edwidge. Brother, I'm Dying. New York: Knopf, 2007. 288 pp., paper. $23.95
Edwidge Danticat’s memoir Brother, I’m Dying weaves together two stories of heart-wrenching impact on readers. Danticat’s career as a novelist draws on the experiences of Haitian men and women and hernew book tells a gripping parallel tale that emerges from her own real life experiences of Haiti.
Danticat’s memoir begins with a compelling revelation: “I found out I was pregnant the same day that my father’s rapid weight loss and chronic shortness of breath were positively diagnosed as end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.” Immediately the reader is invited into a complex narrative where life and death are interconnected. With her richly detailed flashbacks, Danticat skillfully avoids the monotony of a chronological biography while meditating on her youth. Because her parents immigrated to America, Danticat is looked after by her Uncle Joseph. Instantly, the reader senses the strong bond between her and Joseph, who is unlike his brother, and rejects the idea of leaving his country to start a new life. “Exile is not for everyone,” Joseph wisely states.
Danticat experiences a relatively happy childhood and is largely oblivious to the red tape that stalls her immigration to America. Eventually she is reacquainted with her parents in adolescence. Years later, when Uncle Joseph is forced to flee Haiti for political reasons, he is wrongfully taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security and dies while isolated from his family who work desperately to release him. Meanwhile, Danticat’s father is dying of illness as she juggles the emotions of losing her uncle and the discovery that she is pregnant. Her masterful storytelling blends all these elements to create a cohesive narrative that always keeps the reader turning the page to learn more of her intriguing history.
Danticat’s vivid eye for every detail blends perfectly with her flowing storytelling ability. She manages to tell of her father’s distain for the doctor’s office, “He too began dreading that gray dingy room, its stale and stuffy smells, its peeling beige paint and anti-smoking posters,” without losing the pacing narrative. With her imagery she transports us to her home country of Haiti, and the reader can picture the war-torn ravaged streets and hear the, “crisp and distinct: deep and resolute, breathy and jingly when he was angry, steely and muted when he was sad” sounds of her Uncle Joseph’s voice. Throughout the book, Danticat tells the reader of the constant changing political situation and that causes unrest in Haiti. These segment provide valuable historical background and give the audience a glimpse of troubles faced by Haiti's beleagured populace.
In chapters dealing with Uncle Joseph's detention, Danticat’s writing style becomes more documentary. She writes, “At 11:00 p.m., my uncle was given some chips and soda again. At 11:45 p.m., he signed a form saying his personal property was returned to him.” Throughout the pages dedicated to Joseph’s time in prison Danticat does an admirable job in documenting his grim future as he lays deathly ill in custody. Danticat manages to remain a reliable narrator during this time using methodical writing style and keeping her emotions in check. Despite the less intimate style, the memoir still reads smoothly and quickly as the audience is determined to discover Joseph’s fate. After only a matter of days, Joseph dies in custody.
Readers learn that this case was heavily publicized and Danticat's memoir reveals much about the current U.S. immigration policy and the racism Americans express toward foreigners. This criticism is not discussed in depth during the book, but Danticat takes the opportunity in her testimony to the U.S. Congress stating, “They are called detainees, but really they are prisoners. As family members we quickly learn that. But even prisoners deserve to be treated fairly, decently and humanely. This is what we consistently tell jailers of other countries. How about we practice some of it here ourselves?”
Danticat's measured tone is ultimately persuasive, informing readers of the need for change. In doing so, Danticat mixes an entertaining story with her thematic undertones masterfully, resulting in a powerful book that relates to today’s chaotic world.
Danticat, Edwidge. Brother, I'm Dying. New York: Knopf, 2007. 288 pp., paper. $23.95
Edwidge Danticat’s memoir Brother, I’m Dying weaves together two stories of heart-wrenching impact on readers. Danticat’s career as a novelist draws on the experiences of Haitian men and women and hernew book tells a gripping parallel tale that emerges from her own real life experiences of Haiti.
Danticat’s memoir begins with a compelling revelation: “I found out I was pregnant the same day that my father’s rapid weight loss and chronic shortness of breath were positively diagnosed as end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.” Immediately the reader is invited into a complex narrative where life and death are interconnected. With her richly detailed flashbacks, Danticat skillfully avoids the monotony of a chronological biography while meditating on her youth. Because her parents immigrated to America, Danticat is looked after by her Uncle Joseph. Instantly, the reader senses the strong bond between her and Joseph, who is unlike his brother, and rejects the idea of leaving his country to start a new life. “Exile is not for everyone,” Joseph wisely states.
Danticat experiences a relatively happy childhood and is largely oblivious to the red tape that stalls her immigration to America. Eventually she is reacquainted with her parents in adolescence. Years later, when Uncle Joseph is forced to flee Haiti for political reasons, he is wrongfully taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security and dies while isolated from his family who work desperately to release him. Meanwhile, Danticat’s father is dying of illness as she juggles the emotions of losing her uncle and the discovery that she is pregnant. Her masterful storytelling blends all these elements to create a cohesive narrative that always keeps the reader turning the page to learn more of her intriguing history.
Danticat’s vivid eye for every detail blends perfectly with her flowing storytelling ability. She manages to tell of her father’s distain for the doctor’s office, “He too began dreading that gray dingy room, its stale and stuffy smells, its peeling beige paint and anti-smoking posters,” without losing the pacing narrative. With her imagery she transports us to her home country of Haiti, and the reader can picture the war-torn ravaged streets and hear the, “crisp and distinct: deep and resolute, breathy and jingly when he was angry, steely and muted when he was sad” sounds of her Uncle Joseph’s voice. Throughout the book, Danticat tells the reader of the constant changing political situation and that causes unrest in Haiti. These segment provide valuable historical background and give the audience a glimpse of troubles faced by Haiti's beleagured populace.
In chapters dealing with Uncle Joseph's detention, Danticat’s writing style becomes more documentary. She writes, “At 11:00 p.m., my uncle was given some chips and soda again. At 11:45 p.m., he signed a form saying his personal property was returned to him.” Throughout the pages dedicated to Joseph’s time in prison Danticat does an admirable job in documenting his grim future as he lays deathly ill in custody. Danticat manages to remain a reliable narrator during this time using methodical writing style and keeping her emotions in check. Despite the less intimate style, the memoir still reads smoothly and quickly as the audience is determined to discover Joseph’s fate. After only a matter of days, Joseph dies in custody.
Readers learn that this case was heavily publicized and Danticat's memoir reveals much about the current U.S. immigration policy and the racism Americans express toward foreigners. This criticism is not discussed in depth during the book, but Danticat takes the opportunity in her testimony to the U.S. Congress stating, “They are called detainees, but really they are prisoners. As family members we quickly learn that. But even prisoners deserve to be treated fairly, decently and humanely. This is what we consistently tell jailers of other countries. How about we practice some of it here ourselves?”
Danticat's measured tone is ultimately persuasive, informing readers of the need for change. In doing so, Danticat mixes an entertaining story with her thematic undertones masterfully, resulting in a powerful book that relates to today’s chaotic world.
Friday, September 26, 2008
What is the What?
A review of Dave Eggers' What is the What by Matt Anderson
Eggers, Dave. What is the What. Vintage: New York, 2007. 560 pp., paper, $15.95.
When taking on the project, David Eggers embraced the incredible task of sifting through Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng’s many letters, emails, and interviews. This is a story the former refugee wants to send out to the world, to bring attention to the crimes being committed against the people of Sudan, but doesn’t yet have the proficiency to write. The process called for Eggers to create some stories based on Valentino’s voice, which has detracted from its authenticity for some critics (the title of the novel lightly veils its autobiographical nature). But to bring too much attention to that idea is to miss the point; that there are thousands more stories like this, only few of which survived to be told.
Although the book is heavy weighing in at 560 pages, Eggers’ fear of losing something important has left us to linger at different sections of the journey. That, though, is one of the book’s few shortcomings as much of the remaining story is told from the voice of a boy that has been forced to grow faster than his mind can handle, a voice Eggers said in an interview was unavoidable: “Valentino’s voice is so distinct and unforgettable that any other authorial voice would be pale by comparison.”
The novel balances past and present, giving Valentino the medium through which to tell his story, directing it to the people he encounters throughout the novel: the people who rob him at his home at the start of the book, TV Boy, neighbors, friends, members of the gym at which he works, only he’s not really speaking to them. Characters come and go along the journey, forcing Achak to face death early and often. “It was not interesting to us to hear of more violence and loss,” he says early on in his journey. This is the most unsettling fact about the situation in Sudan, that people are being killed senselessly by the Muslims, the Sudanese government, Ethiopians, basically anyone they come across. Others are being taken by nature: lack of water, lack of food, hungry animals, and more.
The events depicted in the book are often graphic and jarring in a way that forces us to recognize the horrors of the conflict. Children are recruited and killed. It is sometimes so catastrophic that some events seem almost unbelievable (like when his plane to America was scheduled to take off on 9/11). While that is true, one must remember in reading this book you are reading more than a novel or autobiography. You are reading an announcement to the world, one that desperately needs to be heard. We—readers and writers alike--are called to follow Achak’s advice: “I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words.”
Eggers, Dave. What is the What. Vintage: New York, 2007. 560 pp., paper, $15.95.
When taking on the project, David Eggers embraced the incredible task of sifting through Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng’s many letters, emails, and interviews. This is a story the former refugee wants to send out to the world, to bring attention to the crimes being committed against the people of Sudan, but doesn’t yet have the proficiency to write. The process called for Eggers to create some stories based on Valentino’s voice, which has detracted from its authenticity for some critics (the title of the novel lightly veils its autobiographical nature). But to bring too much attention to that idea is to miss the point; that there are thousands more stories like this, only few of which survived to be told.
Although the book is heavy weighing in at 560 pages, Eggers’ fear of losing something important has left us to linger at different sections of the journey. That, though, is one of the book’s few shortcomings as much of the remaining story is told from the voice of a boy that has been forced to grow faster than his mind can handle, a voice Eggers said in an interview was unavoidable: “Valentino’s voice is so distinct and unforgettable that any other authorial voice would be pale by comparison.”
The novel balances past and present, giving Valentino the medium through which to tell his story, directing it to the people he encounters throughout the novel: the people who rob him at his home at the start of the book, TV Boy, neighbors, friends, members of the gym at which he works, only he’s not really speaking to them. Characters come and go along the journey, forcing Achak to face death early and often. “It was not interesting to us to hear of more violence and loss,” he says early on in his journey. This is the most unsettling fact about the situation in Sudan, that people are being killed senselessly by the Muslims, the Sudanese government, Ethiopians, basically anyone they come across. Others are being taken by nature: lack of water, lack of food, hungry animals, and more.
The events depicted in the book are often graphic and jarring in a way that forces us to recognize the horrors of the conflict. Children are recruited and killed. It is sometimes so catastrophic that some events seem almost unbelievable (like when his plane to America was scheduled to take off on 9/11). While that is true, one must remember in reading this book you are reading more than a novel or autobiography. You are reading an announcement to the world, one that desperately needs to be heard. We—readers and writers alike--are called to follow Achak’s advice: “I am alive and you are alive so we must fill the air with our words.”
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
A review of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Courtney B. Carbone
The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins, 2007. 432 pp., $26.95
One of the newest efforts from the desk of Michael Chabon is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. This a detective-style novel takes into consideration what could have been one man’s life story had the United States allowed for the creation of a Jewish settlement in Alaska in response to the Second World War. Many members of this fictional community, Sitka, are up in arms about the prospect of the second displacement due to the implementation of an American policy of “Reversion.” Under the duress of a temporary and frustrating reality, the story sets out to secure the only thing that cannot be altered by time: the truth about the past.
Chabon’s stories often celebrate the underdog, in this particular case (literally, folks), the protagonist is Detective Meyerle Landsman, resident self-loathing drunk and broken divorcee of the Sitka Central Police Department. The tragic flaw that befalls him (besides his unfortunate placement in the Northwest corner of already-North America) is his ability to separate personal involvement from his investigative work. Landsman is just as rough around the edges as the paper pages of Harper Collins’ hardback in which he exists. This feature, however, makes him a realistic character, a likeable character, and ultimately a character worthy of redemption.
The novel reads like a classic 1940’s “Whodunit?” movie (fortunately for the Coen Brothers, the Oscar-award-winning directors chosen for its adaptation), playing heavily in the old-fashioned noir themes of gangsters, gun play, ad chiaroscuro (especially that of the struggling protagonist’s mind). The novel begins, as any good thriller, in a cheap hotel with an unusual murder case. Landsman, an extended-stay resident of this establishment, Hotel Zamenhof, accepts the case even though his only lead is a cardboard chessboard on the victim’s dresser. Chess, ironically, is his early childhood nemesis: the direct result of his father and uncle’s love of the game. Could the chessboard hold a clue to the identity of the murder? Though the pieces we set up in an interesting arrangement, Landsman seen that his answer will not be so plainly black and white. Landsman will need to search his soul if he ever wants to find the party guilty of this heinous crime.
One does not read the The Yiddish Policemen’s Unions as much as enter into the quirky and eclectic psyche of Chabon. His novel contains layer upon layer of rich, inventive detail and fluid description. The metaphors and allusions come in varying levels of subtlety, keeping the reader involved through the plot-driven exposition of paragraphs. The voice and style of the book have all of the characteristics of Chabon’s previously-prized novels, for example, his acclaimed-debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburg and Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Dialogue comes intermittently throughout the novel, and the reader welcomes it as a breath of fresh air, comic relief, and ultimately, a break in the bulk text that composes the remainder of the book. The characters have a flair for drama, wit, and sarcasm, “Please, Berko don’t start having respect for my judgment now,” Landsman asks of his partner, “Not after all this work I’ve put into undermining it.” The dialogue easily follows the humor and mood of the rest of the text, a tour de force of casual conversation.
The self-deprecating humor frees this cerebral novel from pretense and allows for a very realistic portrayal of characters. Just as the book is loaded with detail, so, too, is it stuffed with characters. Not to be an irrational naysayer, I understand the necessity of his dozens of character inclusions: you can’t write and effective suspenseful murder mystery with only one or two suspects. While, admittedly, the sheer amount of character may have been confusing at points, it does at least serve to make the book composite and realistic.
While some characters never really become much more than a name and an occupation (a positive, not a negative), there are two people of premiere importance in the life of Meyerle Landsman for better or for worse, respectively: Berko Shemets and Bina Gelbfish. Chabon assigns roles to these two characters as if he is the director of a low-level theater troupe. Berko is credited three times in the novel; the reader gets to know this massive, tufty-haired Alaskan in the context of Landsman’s willing best friend, rough-and-ready partner, and distanced cousin alike. Bina Gelbfish, likewise, takes her bows as razor-sharp ex-wife and interim department superior, two functions that low her to license of making Landsman’s life as easy or difficult as she sees fit.
The murder mystery unfolds just as quickly in fast-action sequences as those more slowly paced musings that wind through the clockwork of Landsman’s mind. Through a series of bullet exchanges, threats from ruthless thugs, and government conspiracies, the reader comes to learn the truth about the murder as well as Landsman’s true colors. In this way, the conflict and protagonist simultaneously find their long sought-after resolution (an actualized accomplishment, not merely a literary given). The final sentence of the novel could just as easily have been Chabon’s own invitation to the reader, spoken in the illustrious voice of Meyer Landsman himself, “I have a story for you.” In the opinion of this reviewer, he certainly does.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins, 2007. 432 pp., $26.95
One of the newest efforts from the desk of Michael Chabon is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. This a detective-style novel takes into consideration what could have been one man’s life story had the United States allowed for the creation of a Jewish settlement in Alaska in response to the Second World War. Many members of this fictional community, Sitka, are up in arms about the prospect of the second displacement due to the implementation of an American policy of “Reversion.” Under the duress of a temporary and frustrating reality, the story sets out to secure the only thing that cannot be altered by time: the truth about the past.
Chabon’s stories often celebrate the underdog, in this particular case (literally, folks), the protagonist is Detective Meyerle Landsman, resident self-loathing drunk and broken divorcee of the Sitka Central Police Department. The tragic flaw that befalls him (besides his unfortunate placement in the Northwest corner of already-North America) is his ability to separate personal involvement from his investigative work. Landsman is just as rough around the edges as the paper pages of Harper Collins’ hardback in which he exists. This feature, however, makes him a realistic character, a likeable character, and ultimately a character worthy of redemption.
The novel reads like a classic 1940’s “Whodunit?” movie (fortunately for the Coen Brothers, the Oscar-award-winning directors chosen for its adaptation), playing heavily in the old-fashioned noir themes of gangsters, gun play, ad chiaroscuro (especially that of the struggling protagonist’s mind). The novel begins, as any good thriller, in a cheap hotel with an unusual murder case. Landsman, an extended-stay resident of this establishment, Hotel Zamenhof, accepts the case even though his only lead is a cardboard chessboard on the victim’s dresser. Chess, ironically, is his early childhood nemesis: the direct result of his father and uncle’s love of the game. Could the chessboard hold a clue to the identity of the murder? Though the pieces we set up in an interesting arrangement, Landsman seen that his answer will not be so plainly black and white. Landsman will need to search his soul if he ever wants to find the party guilty of this heinous crime.
One does not read the The Yiddish Policemen’s Unions as much as enter into the quirky and eclectic psyche of Chabon. His novel contains layer upon layer of rich, inventive detail and fluid description. The metaphors and allusions come in varying levels of subtlety, keeping the reader involved through the plot-driven exposition of paragraphs. The voice and style of the book have all of the characteristics of Chabon’s previously-prized novels, for example, his acclaimed-debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburg and Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Dialogue comes intermittently throughout the novel, and the reader welcomes it as a breath of fresh air, comic relief, and ultimately, a break in the bulk text that composes the remainder of the book. The characters have a flair for drama, wit, and sarcasm, “Please, Berko don’t start having respect for my judgment now,” Landsman asks of his partner, “Not after all this work I’ve put into undermining it.” The dialogue easily follows the humor and mood of the rest of the text, a tour de force of casual conversation.
The self-deprecating humor frees this cerebral novel from pretense and allows for a very realistic portrayal of characters. Just as the book is loaded with detail, so, too, is it stuffed with characters. Not to be an irrational naysayer, I understand the necessity of his dozens of character inclusions: you can’t write and effective suspenseful murder mystery with only one or two suspects. While, admittedly, the sheer amount of character may have been confusing at points, it does at least serve to make the book composite and realistic.
While some characters never really become much more than a name and an occupation (a positive, not a negative), there are two people of premiere importance in the life of Meyerle Landsman for better or for worse, respectively: Berko Shemets and Bina Gelbfish. Chabon assigns roles to these two characters as if he is the director of a low-level theater troupe. Berko is credited three times in the novel; the reader gets to know this massive, tufty-haired Alaskan in the context of Landsman’s willing best friend, rough-and-ready partner, and distanced cousin alike. Bina Gelbfish, likewise, takes her bows as razor-sharp ex-wife and interim department superior, two functions that low her to license of making Landsman’s life as easy or difficult as she sees fit.
The murder mystery unfolds just as quickly in fast-action sequences as those more slowly paced musings that wind through the clockwork of Landsman’s mind. Through a series of bullet exchanges, threats from ruthless thugs, and government conspiracies, the reader comes to learn the truth about the murder as well as Landsman’s true colors. In this way, the conflict and protagonist simultaneously find their long sought-after resolution (an actualized accomplishment, not merely a literary given). The final sentence of the novel could just as easily have been Chabon’s own invitation to the reader, spoken in the illustrious voice of Meyer Landsman himself, “I have a story for you.” In the opinion of this reviewer, he certainly does.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Strange Times
A review of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel by Lorraine Cuddeback
The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins, 2007. 432 pp., $26.95
“Strange times to be a Jew,” echoes Michael Chabon throughout his new novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. The book – part-noir, part-historical re-imagination, part-redemption – portrays times that are both familiar and alien to the reader, as Chabon creates an alternate world in Sitka, Alaska. Chabon has taken a historical footnote and created a deeply detailed “what-if” scenario: what if Congress didn’t vote down the proposal to create a “temporary” safe-haven in Sitka for Jews during World War II?
Sixty years later, in contemporary times, Chabon’s Yiddish Sitka is a densely populated place, dark and urban, and, up until now, left to fend for itself. However, Sitka’s Jews are not permanent residents of the United States: the terms on which the settlement was first created stated that Sitka would revert back to Alaskan (re: United States’) control after sixty years, and time is up. From the outset, this fills the novel with tension: tension between Sitka’s Jews and Americans, between Sitka’s Jews and the indigenous Tlingits, even between religious sects of Jews within Sitka. The central character, police detective Meyer Landsman, isn’t doing too well himself; he’s a self-medicating alcoholic who spends long nights dwelling on his father’s suicide and missing his ex-wife. On top of all that, down the hall from Landsman in his crummy hotel, some poor shmuck just got himself murdered, and Landsman has to investigate.
From the outset, Chabon paints this world with details that transcend the simply cinematic into the jaw-dropping. Sitka is a place filled with “the work crews of young Jewesses in their blue headscarves, singing Negro spirituals with Yiddish lyrics that paraphrased Lincoln and Marx.” Sitka’s greatest invention is a type of Chinese superdonut that Chabon lovingly describes with no less than a half-dozen adjectives. And Sitka’s policemen are shammes whose headquarters “long housed a thriving colony of spores that, at a point in the remote past, spontaneously evolved the form and appearance of a love seat.”
The focus of the novel, at first, is not on the greater socio-political forces at work. At its core, Yiddish Policeman’s Union is a noir crime story, filled with the personal doom-and-gloom that denotes the genre. Grey is perhaps the most frequently used word in Chabon’s descriptions of Alaska, and one can’t help but wonder if he’s slyly referencing black and white films of the same type.
Landsman is certainly noir’s typical flawed underdog-with-an-acerbic-wit, and the reader travels with him as he investigates one last murder case before the Yiddish policeforce is disbanded. Only, he’s going against his supervisor’s direct orders. Only, his supervisor is now his ex-wife, Bina Gelbfish. Only, it seems the stiff down the hall is actually Mendel Shpilman, a wealthy rabbi-cum-crime lord’s only son and a prodigy to boot. Sitka expands along with Landsman’s investigation, as the story behind Shpilman’s last days becomes more complex, reveals deep layers of conspiracy and strategy, and heightens the personal stakes for Landsman.
Though written in the third-person, the reader’s only conduit into this world is Landsman. Chabon drops us into his Yiddish world with little by way of a narrator’s exposition. Instead, we learn bits and pieces through Landsman’s nostalgic tangents. For example, a first glimpse of Landsman’s partner and cousin, Berko Shemets, leads the reader to a lengthy memory of half-Tlinglet, half-Jewish Berko as a young teen coming to live with the Landsman family. We see Berko standing “five feet nine inches in his mukluhs that afternoon, thirteen years old and only an inch shorter than Landsman at eighteen...Now the kid was going to be sleeping in a bedroom that had once served Meyer and Naomi’s father as Klein bottle for the infinite loop of his insomnia.” For the readers who love total immersion, you’ll love swimming through Landsman’s mind. For readers who need background, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for the history Chabon gives between the lines.
As a leading man, Landsman is hard to like: an alcoholic or workaholic, he keeps a tenuous grip on his life. He is either crass or pathetic in extremes, and at first, it’s hard to understand just why Landsman pursues the Shpilman case against the advice – and direct command – of so many other seemingly saner people. Yet, the deeper Landsman falls into the murder case before him, the gladder you are that he is so stubborn. You become as caught up with the history of Mendel Shpilman, and by extension, the Sitka Jews, as Landsman is.
It helps that Landsman is given such a stellar supporting cast of characters. Mendel Shpilman, though dead when the novel begins, features in a number of flashbacks, and in each one he is oddly compelling, strangely charismatic, and above all very humanely flawed. Berko, his partner, is the quintessential good cop to Landsman’s renegade, but one who is fiercely loyal (he pulls out a replica-Tligit hammer to fend off the Sitka equivalent of mafia thugs in one scene) and can keep up with Landsman’s banter. Then there is Bina Gelbfish, the ex-wife-slash-supervisor, a woman we meet posed “holding a black umbrella and wearing a bright orange parka with a blazing dyed-green ruff of synthetic fur. Her right arm is raised, index finger extended toward the trash bins, like a painting of the angel Michael casting Adam and Eve from the Garden.” A half-dozen other bit characters, from the master craftsman of the fried donut with a cross-dressing mistress, to the monstrous mountain of Rebbe Shpilman, Mendel’s father, to a pilot who swears he can fly upside down, all give life and body to Chabon’s Sitka. His characters are often pulled from noir’s store of stock characters, but Chabon still writes each one with care and precision, and a good dose of humor.
It would have been easy for Chabon to let the tragedy of the Jewish Diaspora weigh down the novel. Instead, he uses a sharp wit in both descriptions and dialogue to keep the novel afloat and digestible for the reader. Interrogation dialogue is tense; you could hear it spoken in an old black-and-white movie with curls of cigarette smoke around the speakers. Chabon also lets loose with sarcasm – a gesture frequently colored by an odd compassion. At one point, a worried Bina tracks down Landsman’s hotel room after he missed a meeting. Despite the care and concern in the act, on entering, Bina asks: “How do you say ‘shit heap’ in Esperanto?” Or when responding to a detective’s inquiries on how he slept during his night in jail, Landsman says “The sheets had a touch more lavender water than I care for...Other than that, I really have no complaints.”
The novel’s story unfolds at a brisk pace – and the conclusion which comes is frustratingly brisker. The denouement here is anything but gentle; it’s a rapid-fire burst of resolutions which first uncover an evil mastermind, restore Landsman’s honor, reignite his relationships, and then finally, reveal the hand that killed Mendel Shpilman. For a world so thoroughly thought-out and carefully crafted, the reader is left wanting more – more interactions, more explanation, more justice. What will Landsman’s life be like after the Reversion? How will the world be affected by the conspiracy Landsman has uncovered?
But perhaps that is why readers both love and hate Chabon’s novels. The ability to draw a reader so deeply into an unfamiliar world that he or she is unwilling to leave is an undeniable talent. Chabon’s last pages leave us with a poignant message about the true meaning of salvation and redemptions. We are left with the unsettling realization that there are no normal times to be a Jew, a Gentile, or a human; there is only the strange, unfamiliar present.
Lorraine Cuddeback is an Interdisciplinary Writing/Theology major and Theatre minor. Last summer, she compiled and edited Prometheus's Torch in collaboration with The Learning Bank in West Baltimore. The book was recently published through Loyola's Apprentice House. Lorraine is honored to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa, as well as Pi Epsilon Pi (the honors society for writing), and has been published in Warnings, The Garland, and The Forum. After graduating, she will be joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in San Francisco.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel. Michael Chabon. HarperCollins, 2007. 432 pp., $26.95
“Strange times to be a Jew,” echoes Michael Chabon throughout his new novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. The book – part-noir, part-historical re-imagination, part-redemption – portrays times that are both familiar and alien to the reader, as Chabon creates an alternate world in Sitka, Alaska. Chabon has taken a historical footnote and created a deeply detailed “what-if” scenario: what if Congress didn’t vote down the proposal to create a “temporary” safe-haven in Sitka for Jews during World War II?
Sixty years later, in contemporary times, Chabon’s Yiddish Sitka is a densely populated place, dark and urban, and, up until now, left to fend for itself. However, Sitka’s Jews are not permanent residents of the United States: the terms on which the settlement was first created stated that Sitka would revert back to Alaskan (re: United States’) control after sixty years, and time is up. From the outset, this fills the novel with tension: tension between Sitka’s Jews and Americans, between Sitka’s Jews and the indigenous Tlingits, even between religious sects of Jews within Sitka. The central character, police detective Meyer Landsman, isn’t doing too well himself; he’s a self-medicating alcoholic who spends long nights dwelling on his father’s suicide and missing his ex-wife. On top of all that, down the hall from Landsman in his crummy hotel, some poor shmuck just got himself murdered, and Landsman has to investigate.
From the outset, Chabon paints this world with details that transcend the simply cinematic into the jaw-dropping. Sitka is a place filled with “the work crews of young Jewesses in their blue headscarves, singing Negro spirituals with Yiddish lyrics that paraphrased Lincoln and Marx.” Sitka’s greatest invention is a type of Chinese superdonut that Chabon lovingly describes with no less than a half-dozen adjectives. And Sitka’s policemen are shammes whose headquarters “long housed a thriving colony of spores that, at a point in the remote past, spontaneously evolved the form and appearance of a love seat.”
The focus of the novel, at first, is not on the greater socio-political forces at work. At its core, Yiddish Policeman’s Union is a noir crime story, filled with the personal doom-and-gloom that denotes the genre. Grey is perhaps the most frequently used word in Chabon’s descriptions of Alaska, and one can’t help but wonder if he’s slyly referencing black and white films of the same type.
Landsman is certainly noir’s typical flawed underdog-with-an-acerbic-wit, and the reader travels with him as he investigates one last murder case before the Yiddish policeforce is disbanded. Only, he’s going against his supervisor’s direct orders. Only, his supervisor is now his ex-wife, Bina Gelbfish. Only, it seems the stiff down the hall is actually Mendel Shpilman, a wealthy rabbi-cum-crime lord’s only son and a prodigy to boot. Sitka expands along with Landsman’s investigation, as the story behind Shpilman’s last days becomes more complex, reveals deep layers of conspiracy and strategy, and heightens the personal stakes for Landsman.
Though written in the third-person, the reader’s only conduit into this world is Landsman. Chabon drops us into his Yiddish world with little by way of a narrator’s exposition. Instead, we learn bits and pieces through Landsman’s nostalgic tangents. For example, a first glimpse of Landsman’s partner and cousin, Berko Shemets, leads the reader to a lengthy memory of half-Tlinglet, half-Jewish Berko as a young teen coming to live with the Landsman family. We see Berko standing “five feet nine inches in his mukluhs that afternoon, thirteen years old and only an inch shorter than Landsman at eighteen...Now the kid was going to be sleeping in a bedroom that had once served Meyer and Naomi’s father as Klein bottle for the infinite loop of his insomnia.” For the readers who love total immersion, you’ll love swimming through Landsman’s mind. For readers who need background, you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for the history Chabon gives between the lines.
As a leading man, Landsman is hard to like: an alcoholic or workaholic, he keeps a tenuous grip on his life. He is either crass or pathetic in extremes, and at first, it’s hard to understand just why Landsman pursues the Shpilman case against the advice – and direct command – of so many other seemingly saner people. Yet, the deeper Landsman falls into the murder case before him, the gladder you are that he is so stubborn. You become as caught up with the history of Mendel Shpilman, and by extension, the Sitka Jews, as Landsman is.
It helps that Landsman is given such a stellar supporting cast of characters. Mendel Shpilman, though dead when the novel begins, features in a number of flashbacks, and in each one he is oddly compelling, strangely charismatic, and above all very humanely flawed. Berko, his partner, is the quintessential good cop to Landsman’s renegade, but one who is fiercely loyal (he pulls out a replica-Tligit hammer to fend off the Sitka equivalent of mafia thugs in one scene) and can keep up with Landsman’s banter. Then there is Bina Gelbfish, the ex-wife-slash-supervisor, a woman we meet posed “holding a black umbrella and wearing a bright orange parka with a blazing dyed-green ruff of synthetic fur. Her right arm is raised, index finger extended toward the trash bins, like a painting of the angel Michael casting Adam and Eve from the Garden.” A half-dozen other bit characters, from the master craftsman of the fried donut with a cross-dressing mistress, to the monstrous mountain of Rebbe Shpilman, Mendel’s father, to a pilot who swears he can fly upside down, all give life and body to Chabon’s Sitka. His characters are often pulled from noir’s store of stock characters, but Chabon still writes each one with care and precision, and a good dose of humor.
It would have been easy for Chabon to let the tragedy of the Jewish Diaspora weigh down the novel. Instead, he uses a sharp wit in both descriptions and dialogue to keep the novel afloat and digestible for the reader. Interrogation dialogue is tense; you could hear it spoken in an old black-and-white movie with curls of cigarette smoke around the speakers. Chabon also lets loose with sarcasm – a gesture frequently colored by an odd compassion. At one point, a worried Bina tracks down Landsman’s hotel room after he missed a meeting. Despite the care and concern in the act, on entering, Bina asks: “How do you say ‘shit heap’ in Esperanto?” Or when responding to a detective’s inquiries on how he slept during his night in jail, Landsman says “The sheets had a touch more lavender water than I care for...Other than that, I really have no complaints.”
The novel’s story unfolds at a brisk pace – and the conclusion which comes is frustratingly brisker. The denouement here is anything but gentle; it’s a rapid-fire burst of resolutions which first uncover an evil mastermind, restore Landsman’s honor, reignite his relationships, and then finally, reveal the hand that killed Mendel Shpilman. For a world so thoroughly thought-out and carefully crafted, the reader is left wanting more – more interactions, more explanation, more justice. What will Landsman’s life be like after the Reversion? How will the world be affected by the conspiracy Landsman has uncovered?
But perhaps that is why readers both love and hate Chabon’s novels. The ability to draw a reader so deeply into an unfamiliar world that he or she is unwilling to leave is an undeniable talent. Chabon’s last pages leave us with a poignant message about the true meaning of salvation and redemptions. We are left with the unsettling realization that there are no normal times to be a Jew, a Gentile, or a human; there is only the strange, unfamiliar present.
Lorraine Cuddeback is an Interdisciplinary Writing/Theology major and Theatre minor. Last summer, she compiled and edited Prometheus's Torch in collaboration with The Learning Bank in West Baltimore. The book was recently published through Loyola's Apprentice House. Lorraine is honored to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa, as well as Pi Epsilon Pi (the honors society for writing), and has been published in Warnings, The Garland, and The Forum. After graduating, she will be joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in San Francisco.
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