The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Michael Chabon

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Michael Chabon | The Amazing Adventures of Kalier and Clay

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The Amazing Advent...

	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon Picador, 2001 - 656 pages average customer review:based on 594 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Rise of Men in Tights and Capes

1930's New York: Bread lines, thirty percent unemployment rate, labor unrest, a city still trying to assimilate a large influx of refugees from Europe (though that river has now been slowed to a trickle by new immigration limits), a great city with hopes for the future as shown by the World's Fair, but overhung with depression and despair - what better time for the rise of the pure escapist literature of the pulp magazines and comic books? Where Batman, The Shadow, and yes, Superman! can drape a veil over everyday concerns, and allow the reader to wallow for a time in a world where things go right, where evils are summarily defeated, and where, disguised as the superhero sidekick, the reader can imagine himself playing a role.

Into this world Chabon injects Sammy Clay and his cousin Joe Kavalier, one raised in New York, the other in Prague, two young men with both artistic and literary ability, who conceive of a new idea for a superhero, the Escapist, a man whom no locks, cuffs, or iron bars can hold. An idea at the right time and place, and leading to a fantastically successful publication, though Sammy and Joe only get to see a small part of that success. As time moves on and WWII intervenes, we watch these two men develop and change, each in their own way fighting for the American Dream.

Chabon's theme is inextricably intertwined with the dreams and actions of these two men, and the road they travel is not without a large number of bumps, upheavals, disappointments, obsessions, loves, hates, and ironies. These characters are sharply drawn, their reactions to world and local events makes good sense for the type of people they are. While Chabon's prose occasionally rises to the level of some purpleness (and might make some people reach for a dictionary), it does an excellent job of making this world come alive. Clearly Chabon did his homework in digging out the history of the comic book, and his injection of his own creation into this world fits so seamlessly that it is difficult to separate the real names and history from his fictional ones.

Perhaps the best thing about this book (for me, anyway), were the times when Chabon details some of the actual story lines for these comic books, as they capture the spirit and heart of what this new medium of comic books was all about.

This may not be the greatest book ever written, but it presents a solid case for the usefulness of `escape' that I don't believe I've seen elsewhere, makes you live and see that period of our history, peoples it with some very real, if somewhat unconventional, characters, while not avoiding the darker aspects of human nature and the sometimes horrendous actions of humans against humans. And in doing all this, it is easy to see why it took the Pulitzer Prize.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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The Amazing Adventures of Kalier and Clay

A well written, and exciting nostalgic adventure from the golden era of comic books, and days of World War 2. Well paced and seemed much shorter than the 600 + pages.

What can I add of value beside my vote?

A brilliant novel that overreaches and succeeds. Ambitious, rich, and HUGE in all the important and good ways.

A must read!

How can you eat one more thing?

When I someone give a book a rave review, I'm usually skeptical. It's pretty rare that I find someone whose opinion so closely mirrors my own that I can take what they say without a grain of salt.

So I had my skeptic's hat on when I began reading Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, my first book by this now well-known author. I scratch my head now at my own naivete.

It is near impossible to cite the many qualities that make this novel a feast, but surely they must include: a character who is an escape artist, lock-picker magician, Nazi's in Prague, the Golem, comic books, wacky New York literati, torrid love affairs, mid-20th Century gay angst, Antartica, and redemption.

Is that enough? There's more but I can't possibly add to this list without confusing you, dear reader, even more than you must be. A quick plot synopsis: Josef Kavalier, a Czech Jew from a respected Prague family, manages to escape Nazi occupation immediately before WWII and comes to America. Moving in with his aunt and a similarly-aged first cousin, "Joe" struggles with being American, raising money to get his family out of Europe, his art as a comic book illustrator, love, tragedy and a long climb out of the abyss.

Chabon's writing style is dense, complex and wonderful to read. I was amazed that some of his sentences went on nearly a half page, but I was not lost by the time I reached the period. He doesn't use his mastery at writing to confound or impress, but to tell a story that is as complex and multi-layered as his use of language.

There are some plot areas that seem throw-away, for instance, the Golem of Prague, and at times I wondered if Chabon wasn't trying to make the story more complex than it ought to be. Thinking back now, I wonder if Chabon didn't practice what one of the sub-thematic characters (Harry Houdini) would have called misdirection. We were waiting for something to happen in one part of the plot while something else was developing and taking over the story.

At the end of the novel, I closed the book and said fervently, to myself of course, "Damn, that was good."

I often read books more than once, particularly if I'm certain I've missed nuances that the first or second reading didn't impart. I'm quite certain this book will be back on my nightstand again.

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A worthy candidate for "Great American Novel"

I'm not an avid reader of comic books, but this novel is simply wonderful. Spanning more than two decades around WWII, this book traces the friendship/partnership of two Jewish cousins in NYC as they launch their famous comic book character The Escapist. The story goes from Prague to Brooklyn to Antarctica, weaving together the lives of the two cousins Sammy Clay and Joe Kavalier, and their friend/muse Rosa Saks (Luna Moth). Chabon's writing is brilliant: the way he develops his characters and unfolds their stories (not always in chronological order -- he saves some surprises for his readers) is a pleasure to read. When thinking of candidates for the title of "Great American Novel," this one falls right up there with To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

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