Sunday January 23, 2005 The Final Solution
|
My wife Lynea and I have both just finished this thin novel by Michael Chabon that we got out of the library. The title is a word play with multiple meanings. The Nazi program of genocide during World War 2 and this new last detective work of Sherlock Holmes, where we are to surmise that Sherlock Holmes didn't plunge to his death for the first time at Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem, but is in fact alive at the age of 89 and keeping bees in a village in Suffolk, England. He keeps to himself and is more interested in the honey from his bees then in putting his masterly investigative skills to use for solving crimes. |
This story has all the usual aspects of a typical Sherlock Holmes story. The local constabulary are not able to solve the crime so they reluctantly involve Holmes, who is initially not interested but is eventually persuaded to help out. He then proceeds to amaze everybody with his powers of induction. On being told that there has been a murder and a parrot is missing, Sherlock Holmes is immediately able to respond with
"Yes of course. An Arican gray. Belonging perhaps to a boy. Aged about nine years. A German national -- of Jewish origin, I'd wager and incapable of speech."
Lynea worked out who the murderer was. I didn't. It helps if you know German. It was an enjoyable read but I did get a tad frustrated with Chabon's long run-on sentences. I wanted to take them apart and rearrange them to make them easier to understand. Although perhaps this is just the kind of writing that won him a Pulitzer for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
( Jan 23 2005, 01:03:13 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
![[ Registered ]](http://www.diarist.net/registry/button.gif ){kind=small}
