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Yesterday I finished reading Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I didn't realize until I had finished that there's a glossary in the back of the book.
To quote Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer "Gee, you know that information...really would have been more useful to me yesterday." (or when I first began reading the book...)
Then again, there were so many unknown Jewish words used in this book, it might have taken me a good deal longer to finish it because of all the flipping back and forth from the text to the glossary while I read the book.
There are a lot of religions about which I know little. The Jewish faith is one of them. But Chabon's story focuses on someone I think we can all identify with, a down-on-his-luck policeman living in Alaska investigating a murder. He deals with powerful Jewish organizations, the system, and his ex-wife. It's a mystery with all the twists and turns expected in the genre and I never figured out who did it until I read the last chapter.
My last semester in grad school the author came and spoke to the English department. As a speaker her was very entertaining. I still remember his story about raising "nerd children," and how his kids were fans of Dr. Who before the David Tennant days--quite impressive.
The author signed the two books I bought, and I finally got around to finishing one of them. Maybe for the next book, I check first to see if there's a glossary in the back of the book.
