<P> Reviews were generally positive . The review aggregator Metacritic reported the book had an average score of 75 out of 100, based on 17 reviews . Library Journal called it "bloody brilliant" and Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times that the novel "builds upon the achievement of Kavalier & Clay...a gripping murder mystery (with) one of the most appealing detective heroes to come along since Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe ." The novel debuted at #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list on May 20, 2007, remaining on the list for 6 weeks . </P> <P> Producer Scott Rudin purchased the film rights to The Yiddish Policemen's Union in 2002, based on a one - and - a-half page proposal . In February 2008, Rudin told The Guardian that a film adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen's Union was in pre-production, to be written and directed by the Coen brothers . The Coen brothers were to begin working on the adaptation for Columbia Pictures after they completed filming of A Serious Man . Chabon stated that the Coens are "among (his) favorite living moviemakers (...) What's more, I think they are perfectly suited to this material in every way, from its genre (s) to its tone to its content ." </P> <P> In the fall of 2012, however, Chabon told Mother Jones that "the Coen brothers wrote a draft of a script and then they seemed to move on," and that the film rights had "lapsed back to me ." </P> <P> The book's original cover art by Will Staehle features an amalgam of styles (like the novel itself), drawing on classic pulp detective novel, Jewish imagery, and art from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, especially that of the Tlingit and Haida peoples . </P>

Themes in the yiddish policemen's union sparknotes