Michael Chabon sure knows how to pick his influences.
Chabon, who developed his love of comic books into the 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning epic novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier &Clay,” turns to the classic genre of the English detective story in his novella “The Final Solution: A Story of Detection.”
Originally published in The Paris Review, “The Final Solution” is a deftly written account of a mute Jewish boy, his talkative parrot, and an elderly detective-turned-beekeeper who has a striking resemblance to a famous literary character known to hang out with a sidekick named Watson.
Set in the English countryside during World War II, the story begins when the 89-year-old detective spots the boy walking on a railroad track with the parrot perched on his shoulder. The boy, unbeknownst to the old man, is a refugee from Nazi Germany. (The book’s title refers to the Nazis’ term for the last stage of the Holocaust, when they built death camps for the mass killing of Jews.) The parrot speaks only in strings of German numbers.
“Here was a puzzle to kindle old appetites and energies,” the old man thinks.
And, this being a detective story, there is more to come. The boy lives in a nearby boarding house run by a local clergyman and his wife. When another resident is murdered, Bruno the parrot disappears and the clergyman’s son is suspected.
Of course, the detective realizes the solution to the case lies with the parrot – and the numbers he recites, numbers that could be the key to a code valued by many.
The fun comes in watching how Chabon, one of the most gifted and playful of writers, works within the legend of Sherlock Holmes. He makes references to past cases, invokes much of the detective’s singular physical appearance and relishes in devising ways for him to show off his deductive skills. He also humanizes the detective, showing how he copes when his formidable, logical mind shows signs of deterioration, however slight, from aging.
And, like many of Holmes’ adventures, while the detective is working with and helping the police, he is concerned with the matter on a much more personal level. He wants to return the parrot to the boy.
Chabon is clearly having fun in “The Final Solution,” his first book for adults since winning the Pulitzer – he wrote the children’s book “Summerland” in the interim. And when such a talented writer is having a blast, it’s tough not to enjoy it right along with him.
With five wonderful illustrations by Jay Ryan accompanying the prose, this novella is a fine way to pass the time until Chabon’s next novel comes along.
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