Books that ask (and answer), "What if?"

I'm sorry not to add to the discussion of Rebecca, but my mind is on a book I put down last evening - One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus. I thought it might go well with our theme of books about (or by) women, but I was disappointed. The premise relates to a 1854 incident in which the chief of the Cheyenne requested that the U.S. government give 1,000 white women as brides for his warriors in exchange for peace. It never happened, except in this author's imagination. It's an interesting premise, but not as realized here. Even though it comes highly recommended on the back cover, I found the characters to be contrived (one representative for each ethnic or social group), their dialects clumsy, and the writing without the feel of a journal. I put it down unfinished.

Another book of this type is Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union. It asks, what if the United States had given a portion of Alaska to Jews fleeing the Holocaust? Instead of Palestine, they would have a homeland in Sitka for 50 years, after which they would have to assimilate elsewhere. The book takes up just as the 50 years are up, just as the main-character detective is drawn into a murder case that ties together the region's history, politics, society, culture, and angst. Fully conceived and executed. Entertaining, suspenseful, warm, humorous, compelling . . . everything a good book should be. Obviously, the better of the two, IMHO.