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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay 117

Posted by timothy from the animated-prose dept.
Frank Krasicki writes "The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay has already won numerous prizes for literature including the Nobel prize for fiction in 2001. As imposing as that may sound, this is an entirely accessible and enjoyable read." It's also set in the world of comics; read on for the rest of Krasicki's review to find out why he considers it an "entirely pleasant and entertaining book." Update: 03/07 16:39 GMT by T : That's Pulitzer prize, not Nobel.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
author Michael Chabon
pages 636 pages
publisher Picador USA (paperback edition)
rating Excellent
reviewer Frank Krasicki
ISBN 0312282990
summary A convincing historical fiction of the Golden Age of Comics

As someone who grew up reading comics during the Silver Age of Comics (approximately 1958 - 1970 or so), I was fortunate to own, read, and come to love the comics from the Golden Age (approximately 1939 - 1949 or so). Michael Chabon's novel spans the years from 1939 through the mid-fifties and comic books are the thematic motif he uses as a vehicle to explore that time and that jaw-dropping social innocence. Anyone who has even a passing interest in comic books and their origin will enjoy this book. In it, Chabon creates a convincing parallel universe that includes a historical facsimile of what the Golden Age of Comic books may have been like.

This is a book that explores the very big ideas of human transformation, Jewish mysticism, and the subtle variations on the concept of escape, all sugar-coated in rich layers of wishful but impossible remembrance.

The setting of the book is a mythical New York City. Chabon revisits The Empire State Building - home of Empire comics, the General Motors pavilion of the World's Fair (1939), and a Naval base in Antarctica.

Our first hero, Samuel Louis Klayman (Clay) may as well be the skinny boy we all remember from the body building ads that illustrated a bully kicking sand into the boy's face as the ad exclaimed, "Tired of being picked on?". Clay is described as, "seventeen when the adventures began: big-mouthed, perhaps not quite as quick on his feet as he liked to imagine, and tending to be, like many optimists, a little excitable. He was not in any conventional way, handsome.", "He slouched, and wore clothes badly; he always looked as though he had just been jumped for his lunch money.", and "...an omnivorous reader...". Clay is an inventory clerk at Empire Novelties Incorporated Company who occasionally gets, "to do an illustration" for an ad.

Josef Kavalier, on the other hand, is Clay's cousin who, in 1939, escapes from German occupied Prague via Asia, Japan, and finally San Francisco to Brooklyn, NY. Josef arrives believing that Sam is a commercial artist who can get him a job doing the same thing.

Joe is older than Sam. He is nearly nineteen and his hobby is stage magic and it is learned from Bernard Kornblum, "an 'eastern Jew, bone-thin, with a bushy red-beard". It is Kornblum who smuggles Josef Kavalier out of Prague along with the clay body of a giant-sized, androgynous Golem disguised as a cadaver. The Golem's casket is Joe's first significant escape. The character of Josef Kavalier will remind older readers of Jerzy Kozinski, author of The Painted Bird whose late night television appearances in the 1960's recounted his own talent for hiding from the authorities.

Once Sammy discovers Joe's ability to draw, he announces, "... I'll tell you what. I'm going to do better than just get you a job drawing the Gravmonica Friction-Powered Mouth Organ, all right? I'm going to get us into the big money." From here on forward, the young men team up to become Kavalier and Clay. The analogy to Golden Age comic's masters such as Simon and Kirby, Siegel and Shuster, and others is unmistakable and, in the hands of Chabon becomes a transcendent metafiction that is replete with real and manufactured historical acknowledgments that will have many readers rubbing their chins in admiration of the precision of Chabon's clever inventions.

Kavalier and Clay create a comic book character called The Escapist. Their comic quickly rivals the economic success of Superman and Captain Marvel. In the hands of Kavalier and Clay The Escapist becomes a vehicle through which Joe Kavalier expresses his hatred of Hitler and all things Nazi. Chabon uses The Escapist comic book as a vehicle to meticulously describe the historical development most comic book heroes explored from the early forties until the Congressional hearings that challenged the influence of comics on children and eventually, temporarily, censored the industry.

Concurrent to describing the evolution of The Escapist from comic book sensation to radio show and product merchandising windfall, Chabon traces Kavalier and Clay as their lives are woven by their venture.

The third, main character is Rosa Saks who is first a model for Joe Kavalier, then lover, and eventually a romance comic book creator. In a perfectly plausible subplot, she first engages Joe Kavalier to underwrite the cost of helping Jewish children escape from occupied territories on a ship called the Ark of Miriam in an effort to save his own brother Thomas.

Rosa also becomes the inspiration for The Luna Moth, a female superhero comic book that expanded the number of titles Kavalier and Clay created. "Luna Moth was a creature of the night, of the Other Worlds, of mystic regions where evil worked by means of spells and curses instead of bullets, torpedoes, or shells. Luna fought in the wonderworld against specters and demons, and defended all us unsuspecting dreamers against attack from the dark realms of sleep." Rosa falls in love with Joe as his art blossoms in The Luna Moth. A footnote informs us that, "Thirty years later" The Weird Worlds of the Luna Moth "quickly became a head-shop bestseller".

Sam Clay, on the other hand, discovers his homosexual preference. Through Sam Clay, Chabon explores the social mores of that time and masterfully examines the topic as a third rail subject pertaining to the comics industry.

Further adventures and life complications evolve these characters - too many to describe without spoiling the fun of reading. This is an entirely pleasant and entertaining book that is nothing more or less than a light, leisurely read assuming you have an interest in the general topic or historical period.

I will add that, like the comics of that time, there is nothing heavy about the reading despite the introduction and resolution of a remarkable pastiche of sublime themes and subplots. These are all handled with a genuine love and thorough understanding of the subject matter.

In an Author's Note, Chabon closes with this remark, "Finally, I want to acknowledge the deep debt I owe in this and everything else I've ever written to the work of the late Jack Kirby, the King of Comics." The book is a wonderful tribute.

Michael Chabon's website is: http://www.michaelchabon.com/ and well worth a visit.

You can purchase The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

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  • Nobel prize? No! Pulitzer prize? Yes! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Vepxistqaosani ( 205827 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:16AM (#5458748) Homepage
    Just a correction ...

  • Pulitzer Prize (Score:4, Informative)

    by sjanich ( 431789 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:17AM (#5458754)
    The book won the Pulitzer. The Nobel Proze is generally given for a body of lifetime work.

    http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2001/fiction/works/
    • Sort of. The Nobel prize is technically supposed to go for one, recent work, but in practice it goes mainly for a lifetime of output. Which is why you get a lot of writers who get the Nobel for their later, weaker works.

  • Reviews? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by govtcheez ( 524087 ) <govtcheez03@hotmail.com> on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:18AM (#5458764) Homepage
    When was the last time /. posted a review thatwas anything but glowingly positive? Everytime something goes up, it's either "Excellent" or "9/10"? Where are warnings: "Avoid this like the plague"? Reviews shouldn't just be "This was very very very good and everyone should read it"...
    • HAHA!

      This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where homer is the food critic, he says he loves everything and gives everything about 9 thumbs up. Everyone gets really fat.

      I wonder if everyone of /.'s readers are actually buying books, and their bookshelves are overflowing :)

      But a serious warning here, the critic police are going to come to you and warn you not to like everything, so you will have to be really snooty and hate everything good like movie critics, and your daughters will stop writing the reviews for you.
    • On principle, I'll agree with you, but in this particular case, "Kavalier and Clay" is a wonderful book. Chabon also wrote "Wonder Boys" and "Summerland" a kids book that's got to be the best thing in that genre I've read since Gaiman's "Coraline"
      • I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the above review (after all, they don't just heave Nobel Prizes at anyone) - I was just making a statement about the general quality of reviews here, so I think we're pretty much in agreement.

    • Re:Reviews? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:30AM (#5458880)
      why shouldn't they be positive? You already know that most of what is posted on here is complete and utter advertising...

      People know that this is a free forum where shit-tons of people are going to see it.

      We haven't seen the likes of "Katz", who would fucking destroy most movie reviews and glorify others that were utter shit and "we" complained. Now, we have mostly positive reviews and "we" complain.

      Are you fuckers ever happy?
    • The last less-than-glowingly-positive review I read here was a month ago, for "What Should I Do With My Life" by Po Bronson. Mr. Evans judged the book as "good and bad," and he faulted it for failing to include as many ordinary people as you might reasonably expect from the thousands of interviews with "ordinary people" that Mr. Bronson said he conducted. (From the review: "Very few were geeks, or even grunt-level office 9-to-5'ers," and "once I noticed all the med school and law degrees and sold-her-third-startup, I couldn't not notice them anymore ... I'm nothing like these people.") Mr. Evans finally gave the book an overall rating of "not perfect but worthwhile." This kind of language hardly counts as glowingly positive!
    • Probably because it's not worth the effort to publish negative results. If you hated a book, or even just disliked it, you just ignore it. It'll be lost in the vast morass of other books out there.

      The exception will be books like Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, where the book has such high visibility that the Slashdot community will want to hear either way, good or bad. And it got a mixed-to-negative review, as I recall.

      This isn't a book-review site, so it won't be comprehensive. To make it so, we'd have 20 times as many articles as we do now, most of them with so-so or negative reviews.

      • That's not what I'm looking for. I'd just like to see something more than "This book redefined my life and I occasionally just throw it at people I meet, so they may experience it as well". I know this isn't a book review site, but if they offer reviews, is it too much to ask to occasionally have one review that says "Ewwww"?
        • /me throws a bone

          Conqueror's Heritage by Timothy Zahn. Boring, predictable plot, didn't do anything new. Avoid.

          There. That's the only book I've read in recent memory that I didn't like. And I read a /LOT/.

    • They're at the Association of C & C++ Users (Score:5, Informative)

      by MichaelCrawford ( 610140 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:40AM (#5458968) Homepage Journal
      One of the nice things about the Association of C and C++ Users [accu.org] book reviews section [accu.org] is that they actively seek out bad technical books to review in order to warn people against them.

      If you're thinking of buying a technical book, it's well worth your while to check out its ACCU review just in case it turns out to be a stinker.

      Here's an example of a "not recommended" review [accu.org].

      here's a "highly recommended" review [accu.org].

      I don't expect that the ACCU will be reviewing works of fiction, but they do reviews on quite a wide variety of subjects [accu.org] and not just C and C++.

      The ACCU has some great mailing lists too. If you program in C, C++, C# or Java, you really should join.

    • Where are warnings: "Avoid this like the plague"?

      IIRC, they've occasionally shown up on Slashdot.

      Reviews shouldn't just be "This was very very very good and everyone should read it"...

      There's over a million books in print. If you really want to go through reviews of all the lousy books out there, it'll take a long time. Why bother writing a mediocre review for "Learn C in 32 Days" when it will just get them to pick up "C in a Month"; write a review for "The C Programming Language" by K&R, so they know what to pick up.
    • Where are warnings: "Avoid this like the plague"? Reviews shouldn't just be "This was very very very good and everyone should read it"...

      That's only if you review everything, which Slashdot patently does not. I definitely expect Game magazines to rate more games as stinkers than perfect 10's, but then they are supposed to cover every game out there. Personally, I'd rather only read reviews about good things I hadn't heard of, unless it was something that was hyped beyond belief and then flopped (Episode I, maybe ;)

      Anyway, I will admit that some of the reviews are of substantially lower quality than this one, but then I have yet to receive an invoice from Slashdot, so I'm not complaining.

      --

      Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
      or the Son of God hanging bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemnded, but bought with blood.

    • Re:Reviews? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Apreche ( 239272 )
      Well, there are a bunch of reasons for this. First, slashdot receives all of its reviews from same place it gets its stories. People write them because they feel like it. People are not likely to spend the time and effort to write a review of a book that sucked. Likely if a book sucked they aren't going to even finish reading it.

      The second thing is that Slashdot needs money. If they post a negative review, not so many people are going to click that "buy the book" link at the bottom of the review. If they post a positive review they are likely to score some green.

      Lastly, writing quality. These aren't pulitzer prize winning people writing the reviews. They are pulitzer prize winning books. Which means the quality of writing, while it may be quite good at times, it isn't super amazing besto. I myself am an ok writer. I tend to get As in my liberal arts classes, and I'm a CS major. And occasionally I'll write a review of something, usually software. And I know that if I didn't like what I'm reviewing the quality of my writing is far less than the quality when I write a positive review. I don't know why. It might have something to do with all the insults, like "This piece of crap was a totally shitty piece of crap." So assuming that people of average writing ability submit an equal number of positive and negative reviews, and that slashdot posted the ones of highest literary quality, chances are that more positive reviews would get posted than negative.

      With all these factors combined you are (captain planet) bound to get very few negative reviews on front page slashdot.
    • I think it makes a lot of sense to have primarily positive reviews. Eighty kazillion books come out every week, and most of them I've never heard of. If someone writes a review of a book I've never heard of and tells me not to buy it--what have I gained? Is it really worth the trouble for a volunteer to write a review for that book? The only time I can think of that being worthwhile is if a widely-anticipated book or revision turned out to be a real dog. Say, if Programming Perl, 4th ed. was lousy because it was written by CowboyNeal instead of Larry Wall.

      On the other hand, I appreciate having my attention called to a *good* book which I would otherwise have been unaware of, as positive reviews tend to do.
    • Slashdot doesn't request books for review, it selectively chooses books that it wants to review.

      A restaurant critic (here in the hyper-critical world of NY restaurants and foodies) was accused of only giving good reviews, and she said she gave bad reviews when places were very popular and expensive and people might need to be warned away (since they may only serve 100 dinners a night), but otherwise it was far more pleasant and a better policy to tell people where they should go.

      I like this philosophy. If a book is very expensive or popularly reviewed as "good," a warning from a Slashdot reviewer might be a good thing.
    • I cannot speak for anyone else but this is the first thing I've submitted to Slashdot and I'm grateful they included it.

      It is a glowing review because the work deserves it.
      However, it is a long book. Had I not enjoyed it, I would not have been able to write a critical review because I wouldn't have wasted my time.

      The reason I submitted it is because so many of us grew up reading science fiction and comics. This book is the motherlode of where much of the technical imagination springs from - especially when it comes to games, heroes, and archetypes.

      Finally, this is an older book that I didn't get around to reading because of my schedule. Again, I'm grateful that slashdot links it because usually only brand new stuff gets consideration and this book slipped under my reading radar for quite a while.

      cheers,
      - krasicki

  • Entertaining, and readable.

  • Books win Pulitzers, *authors* win Nobel Prizes (Score:4, Informative)

    by Richard Mills ( 17522 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:21AM (#5458790)
    Just so you know, the Pulitzer is awarded to an author for an individual work that author has done. The Nobel prize for literature is awarded to an author to recognize his achievements over a long career.
    • In my opinion, looking back at previous winners of the Pulitzer for fiction, it's not a very prestigious award. It's more of a driver for the commercial side of publishing (sort of like a grammy is to the music industry). The Nobel prize, on the other hand, is a real mark of distinction.
  • And not just because of the subject matter. Chabon is an amazing writer and I often found myself re-reading passages just because they were so beautifully written.

  • Michael Chabon (Score:5, Informative)

    by wadam ( 563519 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:24AM (#5458821) Homepage
    I have a copy of Kavalier and Clay on my shelf, waiting to be read as soon as the semester is over. I read his Mysteries of Pittsburgh some time ago, though, and I must say that he is one of the most comelling novelists whose work I've had the pleasure to read. Mysteries was a book with a plot and characters so ordinary that it was all extrordinary. The characters were smart and compelling, and all so sympathetic that I was rooting for both ends of the very bizare love triangle that was the center of the book. There really are not enough good things that I can say either about Chabon or the book. I fully recommend that anyone interested in him pick up Mysteries of Pittsburgh too.

    Wadam.
    http://wadam.blogspot.com

  • Great Book... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by djang ( 587578 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:27AM (#5458851)
    I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone, especially if you have ever had an interest in comics. Chabon is a very talented author, and this is his best work (so far). I have heard rumors that he will be writing the screenplay for the next Spiderman movie as well... which would be a very, very good thing.

    • Re:Great Book... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anne_Nonymous ( 313852 )
      Link [thespidermanmovie.com]

      >> "The sequel is being written by Michael Chabon. He is currently on a bookstore tour for his latest novel, Summerland. Chabon is writing for a familiar actor. Spiderman star Tobey Maguire appeared in Wonder Boys, which was based on a Chabon book. From ComicsContinium: "I think he's wonderful," Chabon said of Maguire"

  • Indeed a terrific book, but... (Score:3, Informative)

    by jht ( 5006 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:28AM (#5458857) Homepage Journal
    I'd say this probably isn't the timeliest of book reviews, however well-written it is (the review is very good, the book, outstanding). This book was first published in the fall of 2000, and fiction has a relatively short shelf life. Most of the people who would be interested in this book have probably already read it.

    His other two "major" novels, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys were also first-rate. His current effort is for younger readers, it's called Summerland. It's on my "to read" list.
    • I disagree. Good fiction has a very long shelf life. And this particular book may not have been on the radar of many /.ers when it was first released, so it's entirely possible that this book may actually be new to many -- even at this late date. How many /.ers do you think are avid consumers of literary fiction? Some, certainly, but I'd bet they are in the minority.

      Plus the topic of the book (war, good vs. evil, etc.) is very timely.

    • Just so happens I finished this book yesterday. Timely indeed.

  • Subscribers now see stories posted on Slashdot from The Mysterious Past! These stories are recognizable by the familiar green title bar and the addition of a time stamp set several years after the publication the item being reviewed. Subscribers will be able to avoid the rush and read the links long after everyone else.

    (Okay, I kid, I kid. K&K is a wonderful book and it's nice to see it getting some love on Slashdot, but the late timing of the review *does* strike me as a bit odd...)

  • I read it about 6 months ago, and even though I really don't read comics, it was an awesome book. I'd reccomend it to anyone who can remember being as infatuated with comics as I was a long time ago.

    Then angain, I'd reccomned it to everyone!

  • Best book I've read in recent years (Score:3, Interesting)

    by weierophinney ( 410749 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:30AM (#5458882)
    I read this shortly after it arrived in paperback. I'd never read Michael Chabon before (although I'd been intrigued by the movie rendition of his book Wonder Boys), but the cover caught my eye.

    It's an epic tale, with characters who engaged my interest far beyond my completion of the novel - I even named the computers on my network after them (I'm such a geek).

    You don't need to be interested in comics to enjoy the story (I've recommended it to several people, including my wife, who have all enjoyed it). You've got youth, mystery, sex (of all sorts), death, middle age, innocence, corruption, politics, and more; there's something in it for just about anybody.

    My only complaint is that it's so well written, you don't want to put it down, but the length of the book precludes reading it one sitting.

  • Must be a really slow day for submissions when Taco et al are reduced to posting their neice and nephew's homework.

    But it is nice to see that the stilted literary touch and high quality editing runs in the family

    • Re:This article reads like a 9th grade book report (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sys49152 ( 100346 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @11:58AM (#5459109)
      Agreed. Kavalier and Clay works on many, many levels. The world of comic books is used as a brillaint allegorical device to advance the true nature of the work.

      Fundamentally, both of the main characters are incomplete and ineffectual alone, but together they form a perfect whole. The task of both Kavalier and Clay is to become complete indviduals. At it's simplest, Kavalier the artist and Clay the writer, join to create a complete work, The Escapist.

      Further, is the recurring theme of the Golem (a man mad of clay). Kavalier, uses the Golem to escape Nazi occupied Eastern Europe. But then continues to use the man of Clay (note the capital C) to succeed in America.

      Clay, on the other hand, is only able to assert himself and use his natural brialliance when joined with the talented, worldly, and handsome Kavalier. Whenever, this bond is loosened Clay is simply buffeted around by events.

      Finally, we must look at the primary comic book character they created, The Escapist. An amalgam of the two men; The Escapist blends the skills (magic) of Kavalier, and the desires (Escapism) of Clay.

      This complex novel of growth is mirrored by the world of comic books, from the original juvenalia of the early 30's to the complex (some thought dangerous) works of the 50's.

      When war sunders the partnership, both men wallow. Clay in suburbia and Kavalier in the Antartic and later New York. Finally, there is an explosive moment of growth. Clay acknowledges his homosexuality, rejects his dependence on others, (vindicates himself and the comic book industry), and pursues a career in Hollywood. Kavalier, returns to the woman he loves (who ultimately "completes him" (sorry)). And the Golem is undone.

      This book is enjoyable at the surface in showing the golden age of comic books (even Stan Lee makes an appearance) and WWII America, but it's a disservice to the author and yourself to not look deeper. I have made only the slightest scratch (possibly wrong) in this complex work. Enjoy.
  • I think this review delved to much on the plot of the book and not enough on the thoughts the reviewer had about the book. Or it was lost in the babble that I just read. Frankly I didn't understand half of it.
  • Book review for book that came out 2 years ago?

    Huh?
  • during prime screwing off from work time?

    I do believe this story has elicited the largest collective SlashYawn of all time...
  • I just finished this book. I was an avid comic collector in high school, even worked at a comic book store (one of very few women who were into that whole scene). The style of writing, the plot, the themes, all resonated with me because they were familiar - they were "comic-bookish". The book possesses a momentum of its own, it propels itself forward in the same fits and starts as a comic book, jumping along from frame to frame, with the odd pause for a 2 page ad spread. The story is just as detailed as Frank Miller's Batman was, while possessing the dynamic movement that you'd see by McFarlane's Spiderman. Great character development.
    Highly recommended. Nice change from the angst-ridden navel-gazing pulp we see featured by Oprah. One of the best books I've read in the last few years.
    • Not only a fellow female slashdot member but another female who used to work in a comic book store? Your on my friend list, sister! You sold me. I guess I'll have to read this book.
      • Wow, there is another... this is amazing. In all my years I've never heard of another... ;-) Welcome to the neighbourhood, see ya around...

  • Easy read? (Score:2, Informative)

    by BobRoss ( 63028 )
    I will add that, like the comics of that time, there is nothing heavy about the reading despite the introduction and resolution of a remarkable pastiche of sublime themes and subplots.

    While I enjoyed the book immensely, I certainly would not call it an easy read. My advice on this one is to keep a good dictionary nearby while you read.

    I like to think that I have a fairly large vocabulary, but reading this book humbled me.
    • If this humbled you perhaps you should stick to our good friend Dr. Seuss

    • re: easy read? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by IndependentVik ( 582582 )
      People are likely to make fun of you, because this is /. and admitting anything close to a weakness (esp. an intellectual weakness) will bring the trolls out in force. I'm sure these same people have never even read the book.

      I read it shortly after it came out, mostly on the strength of an interview with Chabon that I happened across on the radio. The author struck me as an amazingly brilliant, but more importantly, interesting man. I remember he mentioned Superman, and how he was created by Jewish Americans (like the protagonists in his book). It was interesting hearing his take on Superman as being akin to a Jewish immigrant; he even has the name 'Clark Kent' as a way of fitting in, to have as WASPy a name as he could. No alien-sounding "Kal-El", no sir. Anyway, polished off K&C within about a week, but it was certainly not an easy read. I kept my collegiate dictionary handy, and I used it quite often.

      I've noticed that young, intelligent men (women seem not to do this so much) often write "to impress". The writing is too self-conscious, too "look at me, ain't I brilliant?" Somebody else mentioned David Foster Wallace, and while a lot of English geeks will no doubt hate me (and think me an idiot) for saying this, I think his writing suffers from this attitude. It's a fine line to walk, I'll admit. Chabon doesn't fall into this trap, I don't think, but at times he seemed perilously close.

      I recommend the book highly. I think a lot of folks here would get a lot out if it, as its extremely rich and can be enjoyed on many different levels. There was a very insightful post earlier dissecting the work, so I'll just let that one stand, as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do a better job.
      • I agree that Chabon comes close at times to falling into the trap, yet just when you are ready to condemn him as a show-off, you come across a turn of phase that just blows you away. Some of the passages in this book are beautiful, and the characters truly come alive.

        I have also read Wonder Boys, and it is quite different from K&C. It's also a much easier read, but I didn't like it as much.

        I can't wait to read Summertime. I'm interested to see how he writes for a younger audience.

  • good stuff/bad stuff (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bmj ( 230572 )

    I read the book soon after it came out (and it's been out for awhile), and I thought the first half of it was excellent. Chabon's style and tone reminded me of Kerouac's The Town and the City (one of my favorites). But...I thought the second half (beginning with the scenes in Antarctica IIRC) slowed down considerably, and I actually struggled to finish the book.

    I've got a soft spot for Chabon, as he went to school in my hometown, and his first book is set in the 'burgh.

  • I read this book about 2 years ago, after it had already won the PULITZER prize.

    It's not bad. Has it's moments. Pretty post-modern so if you like Pinchot or David Foster Wallace, you might like it.

    There's got to be something more timely though. Try coming up with a book I haven't already read.

  • Michael Chabon (Author) is writing the script for Spiderman 2. He is also adapting Kavalier and Clay for the screen.

    Oh, and this book deserves any amount of praise heaped on it. The writing is amazing, and characters are dynamic and fully-developed. Literally, my only regret about this book (well, okay, you have to push yourself through the VERY beginning) is that it wasn't longer.
  • This book is an incredible emotional adventure. I'm not a woman, but this book had me crying like one. One minute I'd be crying tears of joy and the next tears of sorrow. Chabon is a fantastic writer.
  • I'm reading the book now after having read and very much enjoyed The Wonder Boys.

    I thought this was a much tougher read, and even though I'm into comics I'm having trouble getting into it. I don't blame the book for this, but maybe my schedule... Chabon has some great moments that will have you laughing outloud and at the same time really making your brain work for the laugh.

  • An excellent review of a wonderful book (Score:3, Interesting)

    by snopes ( 27370 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @12:48PM (#5459632) Journal
    How nice to read a well written book review for once.

    However, I'd like to highlight something I think was treated rather lightly. This book, though fiction, provides an amazing look at societal mores of the period. It crosses back and forth over so many cultures, classes, and cliques. It is colorful and thought provoking.

    Also, if you do allow yourself to ponder the issues presented and not just focus on the fun easy read that it can be, be prepared for the very sad life of Kavalier. A young Jewish refuge of WWII forced to abandon his family in Europe. It is Chabon's masterfully touching portrayal of this man without falling into the easy (cheap) over dramatization of war victims (WWII victims in particular) that earned him the Pulitzer. It is an amazing study of a horrifying situation which so many people find themselves in as a result of war.

  • Chabon creates an entire world (Score:3, Informative)

    by furry_marmot ( 515771 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @01:07PM (#5459873) Homepage
    I read this book a few months ago. I actually picked it up at an airport bookstore almost two years ago, attracted to the faux-worn artwork and the faux comic book back cover, but didn't open it until recently. It wasn't what I expected. I thought it started a little slow, but I soon realized it has a very deliberate and well-timed pace. I was quickly drawn into the story and what I want to say here is that Chabon's sheer absolute knowledge of the times, the neighborhoods, the buildings, the people, the clothing, eastern Europe, languages -- and oh yeah, comic books, helps to create an entire world. The story is light, even when it gets a little deep. I felt as if I was entering another world and was repeatedly surprised at how complete it felt.

    Check it out!

  • it seems a little odd that a book about comic books gains greater mainstream acceptance than a comic book itself. and that is doubly odd considering the standard of writing in comics today.
    but then accusing literary critics of prejudice is akin to accusing a bum of homelessness.

  • My Chabon Anecdote (Score:2, Interesting)

    by sgt_sloth ( 638201 )
    I went to a Michael Chabon booksigning [laurelpta.com] last year and must say that, in addition to being a terrrific writer, he's a very sweet guy. Working as a novelist is an inherently isolating experience, and so I was heartened to learn that this youngish man (I guess he's in his mid-30's now) has 4 children already. Not that there's anything noble about having a large family in and of itself, but I take it as a good sign that someone with lots of kids can't be too selfish and wrapped up in themselves (which is unfortunately the case with most writers).

    Towards the end of the event he told us an anecdote about losing a child to miscarriage, and how in the aftermath of that misfortune he was lying in bed with his youngest son, stroking his hair and painfully aware of how precious he was. His son, completely unaware of his father's tenderness just then, looked up at him and said: I smell STINKY. Stinky's up your nose!!

  • A Dissenting Voice (Score:3, Interesting)

    by delirium_9 ( 26055 ) on Friday March 07, 2003 @01:55PM (#5460438) Homepage
    It seems that the whole Slashdot crowd (or at least those that read the book) love it. Which is fine, but perhaps there are more people like myself who didn't find the book to be all that.

    I read the book because it was being discussed on Plastic and I needed a book to read (I always need a book to read). Being a fairly big comic book geek helped as well.

    That being said, I didn't find the book very good at all. Maybe it was because I was reading it in the middle of a David Foster Wallace binge (now there's an author), but the characters didn't seem interesting enough. Sure Joseph was cool, but he was too out there, too remote. Sammy's homosexuality also seemed forced. I have no objection to including a gay character, but it could have been handled better (like Apollo and The Midnighter's were in The Authority), it just seemed to cliched.

    For a book that dealt with a lot of emotional issues and relationships I found the book to be flat.

    But that could just be me.
    • You know what? You touch on an interesting point, which is similar to how Wonder Boys was written. In both of them they deal with fairly serious topics (the breakup of a marriage, world war 2 [quite different amongst themselves]) and in both books Chabon definately seperates the reader from the emotions of the situation. Its almost like he purposefully does it to keep the focus on the story being told not the emotions wrapped up with it... interesting... i didn't even think about it til i read your post.

  • First section (Score:4, Insightful)

    by uncadonna ( 85026 ) <`mtobis' `at' `gmail.com'> on Friday March 07, 2003 @02:36PM (#5460863) Homepage Journal
    I also loved this book, but I have to disagree with those who found the beginning slow going. Maybe it's because it touches on me directly (my parents were Czechoslovak Jews who have pretty amazing stories of their own of surviving the same time and place), and maybe it's because I'm fascinated (as Norbert Weiner was) with Golem stories as precursors of robot stories, but I thought the first part was by far the best, and was waiting in vain for the book's reality to blur again into magical fantasy later in the book. The first part was oddly different from the rest, but I thought it was utterly wonderful. It also raises the question of whether the Golem stories are the mystical Judaism precursors of the Superman-type stories, too. If you find superhero comics worth thinking about, this is hardly beside the point.
  • Here: http://www.michaelchabon.com/radiocover.GIF and: http://www.michaelchabon.com/stamp.GIF ...from Michael Chabon's site.
  • Hahahahah. Yeah. I think the Nobel Prize for fiction went to those cold fusion guys...

  • This is a great book (Score:2, Informative)

    by Oink ( 33510 )
    I read this book almost 2 years ago now. I had actually forgotten about it. But now that I remember, I can recall a bit of how it really made me smile at points.

    It's an excellent read, although it seemed a little light to me. Not exactly like reading a Tolstoy novel. It was much more simplistic in its language. But overall, I don't regret for a second the $20 I plunked down for the hardcover.

    Go read it!

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