JOSHUAJENKINSis unremarkable

Michael Chabon attacks again with (what I assume is) his latest work The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I haven't read one of his books since last year when I read The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay.

Just like last time, this book took me a considerable amount of time to wade through. I think you could get through an entire encyclopedia before getting through one of his books. His verbosity used to bother me, but I've come to terms with it and I think the pictures he paints with words really are effective and worth the effort.

The premise of the book is very interesting, shortly after World War II the Jewish people were granted a temporary plot of land called Sitka in SE Alaska in lieu of a Jewish Israeli state. Sixty years later, in 2007, Sitka is just months from "reversion" which is when the land is officially slated to go back to American control.

The story follows detectives Landsman and Shemets through a mysterious death which ultimately uncovers a good deal in both their personal lives and paints a better picture of the world around them.

My one qualm with the story is the heavy use of Yiddish words. While there's a short list of words in the back to reference it's frustrating to flip back and forth to figure out what the hell is going on.

It's a good book, read it. The paper is awesome and cover rocks. For real.

••

I know no one really reads the posts I write about books, but I spend a good deal of time reading so I figure I might as well put my thoughts down somewhere so that at the very least I can reference them. I have a favor to ask on this one, though.

Read this book.

Aldous Huxley does with Brave New World what 1984 couldn't do. He presents a utopian/dystopian future which is not only somewhat believable, but actually feasible. Not so much the mechanics of the future world in terms of flying cars and things like that, but more the way that he presents a conceivable way that an elite upper class could control lower classes.

I don't necessarily think the things in the book are going to happen, at least I sincerely hope they don't, but it is certainly a good exercise in thinking about the future and your part in shaping that future.

Alright this is getting a little too after-school-special. Go pick up this book (it's a classic so it's cheap, you can probably even download it somewhere) and give it a read. Tell me that you read it, we will talk about it.

••

I'll be honest, I bought this book entirely because it didn't have a terrible cover and it has the word "fuck" in the title. The amusement ends there, though.

This is yet another terrible book about a twenty-something dipshit that lives in New York, hates everyone, goes through a hard patch, and ultimately finds himself. These books are a dime a dozen and I'm completely sick of the of the cookie cutter storyline.

I'm sure the story is meaningful and significant to the author (I don't even know who wrote the book and I'm too lazy to look it up) but beyond that it's just a weak collection of events that ultimately add up to a boring story. On top of the regurgitated story-line the writing is luke-warm at best. I honestly couldn't figure out when the character was being sarcastic or sincere in the middle of, apparently, significant events.

Save yourself twelve bucks or just buy anything else in the book store.

••

It's hard to say anything about this book and not feel like a failure at writing. It's a damn good book and unbelievably well written.

The story is quick but sharp. It focuses entirely on the struggle of a father and his young son in a post-apocalyptic world. The disaster that apparently ended the world, the father's name, and the son's name is never disclosed, yet it remains personal. The father's struggle to provide for himself and his son years after after the frozen world has produced any fresh food. The way the boy grows in a world everyone he meets can be assumed to want him dead.

Essentially a story examining human nature in the time of crisis, The Road is very real and very powerful. Definitely not the kind of book I normally read but would absolutely recommend this to anyone. Carry a dictionary, McCarthy's vocabulary is daunting at best.

••