5/14 Michael Chabon at Diesel Books
Posted by novoscene on May 14, 2008
Berkeley author Michael Chabon (that’s “shea as in Shea Stadium, bon as in Bon Jovi”), has had pretty much the ideal writer’s life right from the word go: First novel published while still in an MFA program, second novel turned into a film starring Kirk Douglas, critical acclaim all over the place, international bestsellers up the wazoo, Pulitzer Prize firmly in his back pocket, etc. etc. etc.
But the man has earned his praise. His writing is expansive and metaphorical, wordy without being pretentious. and just damned good reading. In his newest novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, the fledgling state of Israel has collapsed in 1948 and the Jewish refugees settled in The Federal District of Sitka. For sixty years the refugees and their descendants have lived in this temporary Federal haven but Sitka is soon going to revert back to Alaskan control. The novel’s hero, Homicide Detective Meyer Landsman, has too much on his plate to worry about the upcoming Reversion; his neighbor has just been found murdered and he’s in love with his new supervisor.
Chabon reads tonight just as the Policeman’s Union is released in paperback and the Coen Brothers start working on the film version.
Michael Chabon Reading
Free
7:30 p.m.
DIESEL, A Bookstore
5433 College Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618
510-653-9965
http://diesel.booksense.com
