{"id":52861,"date":"2026-06-19T19:26:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T02:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=52861"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T18:21:12","slug":"the-yiddish-policemens-union-by-michael-chabon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2026\/06\/19\/the-yiddish-policemens-union-by-michael-chabon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yiddish Policemen&#8217;s Union by Michael Chabon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Book 25 of 2026: <a href=\"https:\/\/app.thestorygraph.com\/books\/f21184f8-2155-4827-99b2-9766a89b9cad\"><cite>The Yiddish Policemen&#8217;s Union<\/cite><\/a> by Michael Chabon. 2008 Hugo Best Novel winner.<\/p>\n<p>\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f: Hard-boiled noir detective fiction set in an alternate present where Sitka, Alaska is home to resettled Jews after Israel failed to become its own nation after WWII. In addition to being a fun and incredibly well-written noir, the Alaskan setting is great. I grew up in Alaska, and though I pretty much stayed in Anchorage and have only been to Sitka once on a cruise long after I\u2019d moved south, Chabon\u2019s descriptions of Alaskan locales, weather, and people feel oh so familiar. At least the secular bits; as a lapsed Episcopalian, I can\u2019t speak to the Jewishness of it all. Excellent book.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_6251.jpeg\" alt=\"Me holding The Yiddish Policemen&#39;s Union.\" title=\"IMG_6251.jpeg\" border=\"0\" width=\"749\" height=\"562\" \/><span hidden class=\"__iawmlf-post-loop-links\" data-iawmlf-links=\"[{&quot;id&quot;:17350,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/app.thestorygraph.com\\\/books\\\/f21184f8-2155-4827-99b2-9766a89b9cad&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]\"><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Book 25 of 2026: \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f: In addition to being a fun and incredibly well-written noir, the Alaskan setting is great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036,2049],"tags":[3313,3463],"class_list":["post-52861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-photos","tag-hugobestnovel","tag-michael-chabon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52872,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52861\/revisions\/52872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}