3 books to read if you loved Yiddish for Pirates
It's tough to compare Gary Barwin's Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Yiddish for Pirates to, well, anything really. It's a high-seas adventure, a linguistic tour de force and a cheerfully scathing riff on the Inquisition. (Also, there's a parrot.) But if you're devoid of great reads after Yiddish for Pirates, these three novels may swash your buckle.
The Man Who Saved Henry Morgan by Robert Hough
What it's about: A young con man is deported from London, England to Port Royal, Jamaica, where his talents attract the attention of a ship's captain who's being paid by the British government to raid Spanish settlements. Adventure ensues.
Set in: The Caribbean, 1660s.
Let's get political: The real-life story of Welsh pirate-turned-Jamaican-governor Henry Morgan (of Captain Morgan rum fame) figures heavily in the novel.
If your favourite thing about Yiddish for Pirates was: Revelling in rich descriptions of life and death on pirate ships, jungles and colonial towns, without losing sight of the fact that a lot of it was really gross and inhumane.
From the book: "After six hours of drunken paddling, we came around a shoal heavy with trees and vines and then entered the tiny bay connecting the river to the ocean. The singing stopped, the paddling stopped, bottles were dropped from loose grips.
Just like I'd reckoned, the bloody boats were gone."
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
What it's about: A young, nerdy, overweight Dominican-American boy struggles to find love and acceptance, despite the fact that his family has struggled for generations under a fukú curse that dooms them to failure.
Set in: New Jersey, 1980s.
Let's get political: Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo plays a key role in Oscar's family's story.
If your favourite thing about Yiddish for Pirates was: Relishing the vivid, profanely wise, multi-lingual voice of a narrator who can't keep his opinions to himself.
Bonus points: Barwin hand-picked this selection for you — the author told CBC Books that the energy and "immense vitality" of Oscar Wao's Dominican Spanish storytelling style was an inspiration for Yiddish for Pirates' storytelling style.
Additional bonus points: How about the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?
From the book: "You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto. Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest."
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
What it's about: It's a sci-fi detective story set against a backdrop of mobs, murders and messiahs. Need we say more?
Set in: An alternative-reality version of the present day, in a Jewish metropolis in Alaska.
Let's get political: The book posits a future where Israel was destroyed in 1948. Earlier, the U.S. created a settlement for Jews fleeing the Holocaust (based on the real-life Slattery Report of 1940).
If your favourite thing about Yiddish for Pirates was: Finding Yiddish humour in extremely unexpected places.
Bonus points: The Yiddish Policemen's Union won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for science fiction, making it part of an elite club that includes Neil Gaiman's American Gods and William Gibson's Neuromancer.
From the book: "While he waits for the beat latke to show, Landsman knocks on doors. Most of the occupants of the Zamenhof are out for the night, in body or mind, and for all that he gets out of the rest of them, he might as well be knocking on doors at the Hirshkovits School for the Deaf. They are a twitchy, half-addled, rank, and cranky bunch of yids, but... none of them strikes Landsman as the type to jam a large-caliber handgun against the base of a man's skull and kill him in stone-cold blood."