The Merry Misandrist reviews Michael Chabon's "Summerland"

             It took me a long time to read this book because I really hated it. I loved Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" because it had a truly original premise. It was an alternate history where after WWII the Jewish state in Israel was established in a remote part of Alaska instead of the Middle East. Some problems in this history remain similar to our own (there are fights between Jewish settlers and Alaskan Inuit populations over land) and obvious differences (boy it's cold!). I love the book but the climax was unfortunately complicated and a little difficult to understand. "Summerland" has the same problems. It's too complicated in the way Chabon mashed up various mythologies and adventures and tries to make it all about baseball. He aims for a baseball-themed Neil Gaimon sort of story and instead gets a mess where any sort of forward momentum in the story gets held up by yet another game of baseball. Baseball is dull enough to watch but it's even more dull to read about. Even more annoying is that Chabon draws a lot on Native American mythology but the only Native American character, a truly interesting, touch, and competent young girl named Jennifer Rideout, has to step aside and let a very uninteresting and weak white boy named Ethan Feld save the day. it's the Hermione problem. "But Hermione is the better wizard! Why is it always Harry Potter saving the day?" Plus here again the climax is too complicated for me to understand, but the world is saved in a way that is supposed to be both mythic and cute. I guess. I didn't understand it. Ugh. Go read "Anansi Boys" instead.