A Novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
About as good as it gets,
By Kevin Davies "Godzilla" (Moorestown, NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Paperback)
As I read through this book, I kept wondering if I my lifelong love of comic books was simply adding another level to my enjoyment of it, or if it was actually the main reason I was appreciating it. Would someone who hadn't grown up obsessing over superhero exploits past and present still find this novel such a joy? Or would they simply wonder why the author kept muddling his narrative with all of this talk about silly stories of grown men in their underwear? The "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction" blurb on the cover reassured me to some extent, but if I had a nickel for every award-winning book or movie that I think is terrible I would be a very rich man.
However, when all is said and done, I think this story really speaks to something that anyone can relate to. You might connect a little more strongly to the main characters if you are a comic book fan, but you might connect even stronger if you are Jewish, or any minority, or a dreamer, or someone who has been in war or been close to someone who was in war, or if you lived in New York, or any of a hundred other types of people. The story focuses on two young Jewish boys, one a born-and-bred New Yorker, and the other, his cousin, a refugee from Prague. They become quick friends and find their fortune in the creation of a comic book character called The Escapist during the comic book boom that followed the debut of Superman in the late 30s. But to say that the book is about comic books or about superheroes would be ridiculous. It's about the lives of these two men and the routes that they end up taking through them as World War II, along with any number of other events, comes about. It touches on the disenfranchisement felt by immigrants, the difficulty of being a homosexual during that period, the beginnings of suburbia, and the wonder of childhood, in addition to being something of a history lesson on the creation and publication of superhero comics. Chabon is simply a masterful writer. Whenever he begins to build the characters up and give them a hope of real happiness, the reader can tell that something terrible is around the corner. But the true measure of his expertise comes from the fact that you can't help but get excited for them. You know a catastrophe is looming, yet the desire to see them succeed and be happy, and the hope that it is possible, simply won't allow you to remain totally cynical. The other thing I feel the need to point out is that Chabon's use of language is a joy to read. His descriptions and the way everything is structured are English at its best. He could write a novel about American Idol and I'd probably find it a pleasurable read. So, to wrap it up, you owe it to yourself to read this book no matter who you are. I have nothing bad to say about it. I haven't read a book this good in so long I think I had forgotten that they existed. I almost hesitated to praise the book so heavily because I was concerned that I might have raised expectations too much, but, honestly, I feel confident that the book can take it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Starts Slow, Speeds Up, and Ends Smoothly -- Like an Airplane Flight [P' 2001],
By Miami Bob "Resurgent Reading" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Paperback)
American tales following the coming of age, or just about out of teenage -hood, which continue through the almost golden years of the protagonist make great reading: Sister Carrie; An American Tragedy ; Gone With the Wind; The Magnificent Ambersons; and Ethan Frome are a few of the old year wonders. This book - a 21st century novel, joins recent novels following the vintage formula of the previously mentioned books: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Waoand Let the Great World Spinare a few that come to mind.
At the beginning, I thought the concept of fleeing slavic Jewish cousin living with cousins in New York would become a predominantly English tale about Yiddish-speaking people. It is not. Instead, this is much like Sister Carrie where a person confronted with great odds somehow perseveres and becomes a recognizable artistic talent in a large urban area and ultimately on a national level. Like any American immigrant, this one is used by business men who earn fortunes from his talents. And, although he is used, he lives a much more comfortable life than nearly all of his peers. But, instead of the carpet-bagging characters being of the "other side" who abuse all those like him for personal or prejudiced reasons, the abusers are fellow Jewish people who show more interest in earning a buck from their religious mate's sweat - all to ignore the events in Poland and elsewhere in Europe, which provide a great side story to this novel predominantly venued in New York. Other strong topics are approached in this novel which many others would avoid. And, the brave writer's attack on tough topics may contain the strongest portions of this novel. Soft underscores of homosexuality and McCarthyism-like Kefauver hearings are greatly implemented, but as subtones to the brilliantly colored main story. Pulitzer Prize judges embraced this novel with fanfare. So has the public. Although long, this is a great novel - especially for the long vacation on the beach.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was skeptical. It was perfect. Now we are in love.,
This review is from: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Paperback)
I was a skeptic at first. The writing is more baroque than I favor and liberal with words like "selvage," "faience," and "flense," as if Chabon is hellbent on driving the reader to the dictionary. Still, I can't dispute this Pulitzer.
It's magnificent. *kisses fingers* If Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes magic realism, I'd say Chabon writes magic history. Most of the story could be real -- Houdini DID deeply impress the consciousness of the 1930's and 40's, Superman DID fight Nazis, comic book creators DID get ripped off by their publishers, and Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, and Judge Learned Hand DID inhabit this time and space. Chabon's magic is as minute as St. Eulalia's miracle, just a light snow that covered her martyred body. A lost letter, a broken stove, a voice on the radio. Josef Kavalier is 19 years old, the son of two doctors in Prague. They are the sort of family that has a governess. They are the sort of Jews trapped in Prague in 1939, except for Josef. With lockpicks, card tricks, and two years of art school, Josef lands in New York and meets his Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay. Josef in Prague was a juvenile half-failure, but Joe in New York is a superhero haunted by a dark past. It's impossible not to fall in love with Joe's fevered genius and broken English. Though Joe steals the show, it's really sidekick Sammy who creates the Escapist. Polio has left Sammy with pipe-cleaner legs, so Tom Mayflower is an ordinary boy with a crutch until the day he becomes the Escapist. Joe's life is lit by the single need to rescue his family, so the Escapist battles the Nazis with all the power that Joe doesn't have. Comics thread in and out of the story, as do art and history, because this is partly a book about comic books and partly a book that is a comic book (the inverse of a graphic novel, if you will) about small-time superheroes Kavalier and Clay.
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