Reading

[anef]

I'm about halfway through The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.  It's very entertaining, although I'm finding the slang a bit impenetrable.  What on earth is a shtarker, a shammes, a shomer or a patzer?  I'm just letting it roll over me.  And it's a detective story, which I love.  A police procedural, set in the (alternate-world) Jewish enclave of Sitka, In Alaska.

I was going to say "and the man can write", a muscular prose stuffed with engaging metaphors.  And then I came across "Landsman careens to his feet".  What?  No way!  It would have been implausible if the author had written "careers to his feet" as the guy has just been shot and is lying face down (prone) in the snow.  "Staggers", or "lurches" or "climbs" would work. But careens - aargh!  And then, a few pages later "Sometime in the middle of the night, Goldy careers into the room."  Better.  OK, put the first one down to crap editing, which I guess is the lot of even Pulitzer prize winners these days.

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm dying to read that. I heart Michael Chabon. I don't know what these mean either incidentally though they do all sound quite familiar and I might recognise them if read out aloud -- it's not in p/back yet is it?
You must come over here for a weekend now it's all sunny and nice - maybe arrange at Eastercon?

[anef.livejournal.com]

Well, a shomer is apparently a chap who sits overnight with a deceased person.

I don't think it's out in paperback though I borrowed the copy I'm reading from that valuable resource, the local public library (I have one on my road, just for me, so it's no hardship).

See you at Eastercon.

[bluehairsue.livejournal.com]

Woh! (I now have a mental image of a man lying in the snow on his side, scraping barnacles off his feet...