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 596 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!

Dictionary required....

I can see why this novel won a P. Prize......well written, concise in explanation - maybe too much information for my taste. Subject matter: enjoyable and worth reading. It is not often a dictionary is needed when reading, but this time I marked twelve pages in thirty. A heavy tome with good qualities, but I would not read it again.

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