Yiddish-speaking cops and gay teenage superheroes, ahoy!
Started hitting up the library again, realizing that OMG, there are like, all these books I can read... for free! Shocking!


The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon

I've wanted to read this one for a while now, because the premise is just so damn good. (In short: Jewish homeland is created in Alaska. Everyone speaks Yiddish. The land is going to revert back to the United States soon. Everything goes to shit. Yay!) The story itself pretty interesting, not too predictable, and it's a story that could only be told in this particular setting, proving that it's not just a gimmick. In a way, it was the only way things could go. What I found interesting is how I found myself thinking at different points, "this makes a decent case for a Jewish homeland" and later, "god, what a bunch of assholes." I've been joking that you could replace "Sitka" with "Brooklyn" and it wouldn't be entirely far off - except for the cold, that is. You do have that awkward struggle between the sacred and the secular, and Chabon was smart enough to not make the main character religious (instead he's jaded), which made for better audience accessibility (and a more noir story). Speaking of accessibility, Chabon did a decent job of explaining a bunch of really arcane things, though he didn't explain everything and I found myself consulting Wikipedia quite a few times.

I really enjoyed this one, and the ending gave you everything you needed, and it was an ending, unlike the end of Kavalier and Clay, which was both an ending and a beginning, making me want more. This time I left satisfied.

Hero
by Perry Moore

(There's nothing these two books have in common except that both are speculative fiction and I happened to pick them both up at the library at the same time.)

You might remember this book from this entry back in September where I ran into the author at Midtown Comics and we had a short, short conversation about gay heroes and his list, and he told me to read his book. So I kept it in mind, figuring I'd get around to it eventually. It seemed like it would at least be a fun, light read. And I like superheroes and have been interested in how different people choose to write them.

I'm a little mixed about this book. I think it definitely hit all the bases it meant to hit - it's a solid novel about a gay teen superhero, just like the cover jacket says. You can't say the book failed at addressing any of these points, because it did, as well as you expect a YA novel to hit them. (There's even cursing, which I wasn't sure you could do in a YA book. But that's not for me to decide.) And I enjoyed the story a lot, and not just the superhero part. I think this might be the first book I've read that really addresses teenage/young adult homosexuality (not that I haven't read books with gay characters, or even gay teenage characters, but they're really just kinda there). So it got me to thinking, which I'm sure was part of Mr. Moore's intention.

What gets me about the book was that it didn't really go any deeper. It hit the bases it had to, along with a few other things (Thom's father is a disgraced hero, and his mother disappeared years ago), but there was a lot of context beyond that. I don't know much about the world he lives in - there are superheroes who are thinly veiled analogues of DC heroes, but at the same time Thom is aware of the Legion of Super-Heroes as a comic. There's a team of superheroes called the League, but we don't really know much about the organization, not even public information, which is as much as Thom would definitely know. But it goes beyond that - the other characters have histories/problems which are brought up but solved (for now, anyway) with a minimum of fuss.

And while I know this was done to make the main character more identifiable to every kid who might read the book - it's somewhat unsettling to not know what he looks like. Race, ethnic background - if they were there, I missed them entirely. While race can be dividing (especially in spec fic), it's also an important part of a person's identity and I felt that the characters were missing... texture.

The book is apparently the first in a series, which explains why again, the ending is more of a beginning. It's an origin story. And that's exciting, though I miss the days when people could write YA novels without worrying about if it can become a franchise.

(The only reason this review is longer is because I finished the book two nights ago and thus it's fresher in my mind. Plus, criticisms take up more space.)


Next up: An Ordinary Spy