ChengChen WangWangথেকেMeninting, Batu Layar, West Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesien
Michael Chabon is always a pleasure to read. This novel concerns perhaps the last mystery of Sherlock Holmes. Well into his decrepit 90's, Holmes limps about on the trail of a stolen parrot that recites a series of numbers. What could these numbers mean? What do they have to do with a mute refugee Jewish boy who owned the parrot? The novel sort of proceeds in answer to these questions, but with Chabon, the conflict is almost beside the point. One reads Chabon for the beauty of his prose, if for nothing else.