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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060763404
ISBN number: 006076340X
Label: Fourth Estate
Manufacturer: Fourth Estate
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 144
Printing Date: November 01, 2004
Publishing house: Fourth Estate
Release Date: November 09, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 226414
Studio: Fourth Estate
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Product Description:
In the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, prose magician Michael Chabon conjured up the golden age of comic books -- intertwining history, legend, and storytelling verve. In The Final Solution, he has condensed his boundless vision to craft a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that reimagines the classic nineteenth-century detective story.
In deep retirement in the English country-side, an eighty-nine-year-old man, vaguely recollected by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany with his sole companion: an African gray parrot. What is the meaning of the mysterious strings of German numbers the bird spews out -- a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts perhaps? Or something more sinister? Is the solution to this last case -- the real explanation of the mysterious boy and his parrot -- beyond even the reach of the once-famed sleuth?
Subtle revelations lead the reader to a wrenching resolution. This brilliant homage, which won the 2004 Aga Khan Prize for fiction, is the work of a master storyteller at the height of his powers.
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Rated by buyers 
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I love Michael Chabon's life and work. Working at the creative fringe of multiple genres, and succeeding at most of them. I can think of few contemporary authors who would write a new Sherlock Holmes mystery with Holmes as a crotchety 89-year-old beekeeper. It's a delightful concept.
But that doesn't mean that the book is equally delightful. The writing is fine, and certainly consistent with Chabon's work elsewhere. The images of an aging Holmes are memorable. But the mystery is pedestrian, and the ah-hah moment of its solution lacks the thrill that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have evoked. It is a worthy read, but falls short of truly emulating the best of Doyle and of Holmes.
Rated by buyers 
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This is "exquisite," as several other reviewers have said. It is skillfully done, it is clever. It is deliberately old fashioned.
But I think a reader needs to ask: why write such a book? If this is entertaining, then so is the whimsy and cuteness in "Murder, She Wrote" or the delicate fake nostalgia in Merchant and Ivory films.
Late in his life, someone asked Ezra Pound to write a preface to his very first book of poems, published when he was young. The early book was called "A lume spento" -- the poems were pretentious, precious, and old fashioned. Pound knew it, can said they were "stale cream puffs." I know that Chabon writes in several different styles, but I am not going to read any of his other books. Why? Because if he thinks something this artificial and concocted is entertaining, then I do not trust his taste. He can't possibly be a writer for the twenty-first century.
Rated by buyers -
The Final Solution: A Detective Story is a delightful tale in a classic mystery style. Whether you're a mystery fan in general or a Michael Chabon fan in particular, the book is a pleasure. I confess to being both a mystery and a Chabon fan. Generally, I read mysteries. I discovered Chabon through the Yiddish Policeman's Union (an all-time favorite of mine, though you need a Yiddish dictionary on hand to get through it), and then I read backward through The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Wonderboys and Mysteries of Pittsburgh. I am a complete Chabon addict now. I think I would read anything he's written. The Final Solution is an unusual, poignant story surrounding a little boy displaced during World War II. I won't spoil the surprise by giving away details. The characters are interesting and well-drawn, including one of the most memorable detectives ever. Chabon's prose is magical as ever.
Rated by buyers 
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Who better than Michael Chabon to pay homage to Sherlock Holmes? Chabon has perfect pitch for literary style, obviously loves the mystery genre, and is playful enough (just look at his Yiddish Policemen's Union for his sheer joy in invention). The idea of an aged Holmes solving a mystery connected with the Holocaust only adds anticipation. And Chabon brilliantly conveys the sights and sounds of wartime England.
But sadly, this book delivers little that was promised. The mystery is ultimately uninteresting, as is its solution. Characters seem to come and go, and the only ones Chabon seems to care about are "the old man" and the parrot.
This is neither a successful literary novel nor a successful murder mystery.
Rated by buyers 
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An aged and decrepit detective takes on the case of a silent refugee child and his missing parrot. Who is the detective? Who is the boy? What is the meaning of the parrot's numerical chatter? Why should we concern ourselves with such picayune events, and what relation do they have to WWII, which forms the novel's backdrop?
This slender, beautifully-written book keeps you guessing until the devastating end.
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