The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 5 April 2010
by Michael Chabon
There is a mystical quality to this short, erudite and entertaining novel. Its protagonist goes unnamed, though there are enough clues for us to discern that it may be the retired and aged Sherlock Holmes, keeping bees in his dotage as World War 2 goes on about him. He is seated in his cottage, enjoying a pipe, when he notices a small boy walking along a nearby electrified railroad track, carrying an African gray parrot on his shoulder and preparing to pee on the third rail. Thus, the old man meets the young mute boy. The parrot, too is quiet, but it is soon known to us that the bird often repeats long strings of numbers that might carry some significant meaning. Enough of the other characters seem to think there is meaning in them that the parrot earns the attention of the intelligence community and, perhaps, the enemy's desire to retrieve it. The boy, a Jewish refugee from Europe's death trains to the camps, is somber and quiet. He stays at a boarding house nearby, with an African vicar, his boorish son and long suffering wife, a trader in cow milking equipment, and a librarian. One of them ends up dead, the bird vanishes, and a local inspector asks the old man for his assistance in the case. Of course, the man who may be Holmes has already discerned much of the underlying mystery here. The writing is extremely coy, but it is intricate, witty and literary. There are enough clues for the reader, but they aren't thrown at us. One or two, though, will be sufficient to help us detect the murderer. The real mystery is the meaning of the numbers, but the real importance to the boy of the bird's recital doesn't become clear until the very end. The old man enjoys the hunt, one last time, and demurs the gratitude of the nation. He'd rather see the boy happy to have his parrot returned. Chabon is a profoundly good story-teller. This would appear to be a light mystery tale, but in its short pages, there are vast implications at work. It is an engaging and moving mystery, though more than just a genre piece.
Also by Chabon: [The Mysteries of Pittsburgh]