The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

This is an intriguing mystery story written as a tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It is filled with strange and dramatic elements; a murder and a talking animal, a mute child and government intrigue. The protagonist is Sherlock Holmes himself, retired in old age and drawn out, in the summer of 1944, for one last investigation. And the protagonist is also a parrot, lately owned by a German Jew whose small son is the only family member to have escaped to Britain. The parrot recites strings of numbers. Over and over again. As a modern reader, you know exactly what those numbers are from the very beginning, and when we learn that the British government is seeking out the parrot because they think it knows the keys to the German naval cipher it is almost enough to make you despair. Doesn't anybody know what's going on, what's happening at that very moment in Buchanwald and dozens of other camps? It seems that nobody does, but Holmes, from the first, is intrigued by the numbers the parrot recites. We are reminded that this is the man who is fond of saying "When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." If anyone is capable of penetrating to the improbable truth of the concentration camps it would be Sherlock Holmes. But in the end even the greatest mind in the history of detection can't unravel this particular mystery. The cruelty involved is so large that even Holmes' jaded and cynical expectations are exceeded. The motivation is so incomprehensible that even his logic cannot deduce it. By the end he knows that something has gone undiscovered, but he cannot quite make the leap into madness needed to make the final prediction. I am not, in general, a subtle person, and I don't enjoy books that are as much subtext as story. It is a very rare book that can tell two stories: one within the plot and the other created by the reactions of the reader to the book. But in this case Michael Chabon has produced a subtle and worthwhile book that twists what I expected from a mystery story to produce rage and despair at things missed and deeds done.

Exquisite is the best word I can come up with to describe The Final Solution, in the sense of something whose reward is so much larger than its size- a gem, or one of those delicate hors d'oeuvres whose taste lingers so finely in your mouth you don't want to eat or drink for a while. It might be best to describe what The Final Solution is not. It isn't "Sherlockian" in the sense of an attempt to write another Conan Doyle story. It isn't a mystery in the sense that solving the "crime" is the focus of the story. Anyone looking for those will probably be disappointed. It is, however, a beautifully written, often melancholy or elegiac work, with a love of character and language and atmosphere. The story takes place in 1944. Holmes is a retired 89-year-old beekeeper, the war still drags on in horrific fashion, Hitler's greatest crimes are becoming known. In the midst of Holmes' solitary life drops a mute nine-year-old Jewish boy and his numbers-spouting parrot, both refugees from Germany. When a local man is killed and the parrot taken, Holmes is asked by the local police to assist. He does, but not for possibly great matters involved (the parrot's recitations might be codes, might be bank numbers, etc.) but to reunite the boy and his sole friend. Along the way we see Holmes' fabled mind at work, but also see the slow rebellion of his aging body. We begin to wonder too, with Holmes, if in this world of war and genocide if there remains a place for such order and reason as he symbolizes, if lines can still be traced through application of cause and effect, reason and sense. The book is just over a hundred pages long, so Chabon doesn't delve heavily into such things for pages and pages, but it is enough to cast a sort of sepia, sad light over the work as a whole. The language is beautiful throughout, and the characterization of Holmes sharply poignant and loving. It is a quick read in its brevity and relative simplicity of plot, but the tone and atmosphere slow you down a bit (in a good way) and the language and characterization make you want to linger even more. Highly recommended.

It takes an immense amount of either skill or arrogance to attempt a Sherlock Holmes "final case." And of the two, it seems that Pulitzer-winning Michael Chabon has the former. "The Final Solution" is a smaller, more intimate story about Holmes' waning years. The time is around World War II. An old man, once a famous detective, now sits on his porch and contemplates his beekeeping -- when he sees a young boy with a parrot walk nearby. The boy, Linus, is intelligent but mute; his parrot Bruno just rattles off numbers in German. The boy is placed with the local clergyman, Mr. Panicker, who is struggling with his faith, and his unhappy wife. Then Bruno goes missing and the lodger Mr. Shane is found dead. Since it's unlikely that the parrot killed him, the police zone in on the Panickers' ne'er-do-well son. Then they call on the elderly detective -- not just to solve the murder, but to find the parrot, which they believe is reciting secret German codes. "The Final Solution" is more a story about people than a mystery, although the whole subplot about the parrots is very intriguing. But Chabon focuses on the story of Holmes -- who is never specifically named -- as he ponders his twilight years, and the changes in the world around him. It's a bit saddening to read about the legendary Victorian detective in WW II, out of sync with the rest of the world. Chabon also changes his usual writing style. In most of this book, he adjusts his style to be more like Arthur Conan Doyle's -- much more erudite, intelligent and mellow. There's one chapter that is pure Chabon (from the POV of Bruno the parrot), but the rest of the time, it feels like a much older book than it is, complete with vicarages, WW II spies and relics of the nineteenth century. The old man is clearly Sherlock Holmes, even though Chabon never mentions him by name. Perhaps it's to keep from treading on literary holy ground. But he brings the right mixture of warmth and crabbiness to "the old man." He also gives depth to the supporting characters like Mr. Panicker (who is having a crisis of faith) and his wife (who has a crush on their lodger). Even Bruno gets well developed. While "Final Solution" isn't too great as a mystery, it's an excellent novel, and a poignant tale of Sherlock Holmes' final case. Definitely worth checking out.

Michael Chabon has used his wonderful command of the language to give us a peek into the life of Sherlock Holmes as he closes in on his final years. I really did not read this book expecting a "mystery" or a "who done it," something you could pretty well figure out by reading the inside flap of the cover. It was pretty much a no brainer to catch this fact before the first page was read. Whether or not this is great literature, I suppose it is a matter of taste. I quite often do not agree with others on what is great and what is not. Rather, I approached this work from the point of view of reading something which was simply a pleasure to read, something that was "different" and this one certainly was. I loved the author's usage of our language, his syntax, and yes, I must admit, by reading this book I did indeed increase my vocabulary. (Of course, living here in the Ozark Mountains, and having a rather narrow view of the world at large, it was not difficult to do, i.e. increase my vocabulary). I was very pleasantly surprised at the author's ability to so well describe "old age," per se. Being about there myself, i.e. into my dotage, the author pretty well hit the mark. It was rather amazing to find a author so young that could describe the results of aging so well. I am afraid I must disagree with another reviewer who happened to agree with Publisher's Weekly in that they had hit the mark. After quite a few years of reading their reviews, Publisher's Weekly, I have found very, very few times that I have agreed with them, and certainly this was one of those times. This work takes only a couple of settings to finish and it is well worth the time. Recommend it highly.

Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, A Story of Detection is an exquisite book. Chabon, who reexamined the golden age of comics in the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay, takes up the detective novel. Final Solution is set in the Sussex Downs, in Southern England in the summer of 1944. The Allies have just invaded Normandy but the war is far from over. An 89-year old man, retired to a life of quiet bee-keeping, sits looking out his window and spies a young boy strolling along some railroad tracks with a large gray parrot on his shoulder. The old man deduces that the young boy is about to do himself in and drags himself out of his chair and makes his way to the boy. The boy, Linus Steinman, turns out to be a young Jewish-German refugee, recently escaped from the horrors of occupied and resettled in England by a refugee agency. He is mute and generally uncommunicative. The only sounds emanating from the direction of the boy come from the extraordinarily loquacious parrot who comes out with an apparently never-ending stream of numbers, spoken in flawless German. It is the talking parrot and the meaning of the random numbers that form the heart of the mystery of the Final Solution. Chabon then introduces us to the rest of his cast of characters. The mute Linus lives in a small boarding house owned by the Reverend and Mrs. Panicker. Mr. Panicker, of Malayan origin, seems to have lost his faith and seems merely to be treading water. Mrs. Panicker seems unloved and unwanted except for the meal she provides her boarders, until the mysterious Mr. Shane intervenes in an argument between Mrs. Panicker and her ne'er do well son. Mr. Shane, despite claiming to be in the dairy equipment business seems far more intriguing than his occupation suggests. The parrot incites interest and speculation on all concerned. What do those numbers mean? Speculation and the possibility of untold wealth at the end of the random number mystery invariably lead to the murder of one of the characters. Additionally, the mysterious parrot has been stolen. Of course, the bumbling local constabulary immediately focuses on the wrong party. Into the breech steps the old man. It turns out the 89 year old bee-keeper was once a world famous detective. Still smoking a pipe and still mocking constables, the old man goes about seeking a solution to the crime. Chabon does not provide the name of this old man but it seems clear that he could be none other than the great Sherlock Holmes. Readers of Sherlock Holmes know that Holmes retired to Sussex Downs to spend his remaining years as a bee keeper. The title of the book, Final Solution, provides another clue. Although clearly relevant to the as yet undiscovered horrors of the Holocaust implicit in Linus profound silence, it also calls to mind A.C. Doyle's The Final Problem, the famous Holmes tale where Holmes was thought to have died after falling at the Reichenbach Falls. Although short, only 131 pages, Chabon has investe