North to Alaska with Michael Chabon

You've got to hand it to Michael Chabon -- he's one of the most inventive writers working today. I've just started on his latest, "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," which publisher Harper-Collins calls "At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption."

Hey, if I could handle just one of those, I'd be dancing in the streets. I'll see how he pulls it off, but the early signs look good. I've enjoyed Chabon's writing before, in "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," and most recently in the serialized adventure "Gentlemen of the Road," which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Chabon has a fecund, literary style, but he also has a sly and pervasive sense of humor -- I always appreciate it when serious fiction is rendered not quite so serious.

Which is why I bought this book. And because of the whodunit element, of course. I'll post my impressions when I'm finished.