The Book-a-Week Project, Week 11

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection
Michael Chabon

The Final Solution is a compact and satisfying detective novella composed with writing so deft that it initially appears effortless. Sometimes it requires rereading passages to discover how meticulously each word is placed.

Some writers make me want to write. Some writers force me to realize how hopeless is that fantasy. Michael Chabon is among the latter.

Another writer whose prose has that effect on me is Joe Coomer. His Southern heritage is obvious from the first page, as he begins to set his novels’ slow, lingering pace. He spends so much time swirling each moment around in his glass that in some cases (Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God) it becomes boring. Mostly his examination and reexamination effectively shines the writing to a point that it’s worth the wait. Most likely, you’ll find that after the first fifty pages, you’ll lose your impatience. Apologizing to Dogs is the perfect example of that. Follow with The Loop, then A Flatland Fable.

I’m still behind in my reading, but since I’m the only one who reads this, I’m the only one to whom I need apologize. And I refuse your apology, sir. Stay the course and all will right itself in time, I say. Perhaps read a collection of short stories titled The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot, I say. What ho, I say.