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anefI'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.
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.
