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Here's my Goodreads review--more a riff/comment, which is probably fine, since many including ([profile] miriam1978  and [personal profile] ladybird97 recently raved about it. I'm just glad I can finally start reading Opium Season!
***
What, you didn't read? A shonde.

This was a truly enjoyable book on so many levels: noir, alternate history, crazy klezmer riff on the Jewish experience. Did I mention it's funny? The central conceit is that instead of Israel, the Jews found/were loaned a homeland in Alaska--for 60 years. But now Sitka is about to Revert to the United States, and its yiddishkeit society to be scattered again. Against this background, Chabon sets a compelling murder mystery.

Chabon demonstrated his interest in these themes in his essay Say It In Yiddish which appeared about six years ago. Check it out..
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I read this book a couple of months ago, and it's definitely my fave stand-alone book of the year (HP7 being in a separate catagory for series). Like the work of Dave Eggers (yep, I'm uncool enough to admit to liking him), this was the kind of subway reading that had me hoping for an unexplained 20-minute delay in service. 

Review )

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January 2009

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