The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

I enjoyed this amazing book from the first word to the last. Thank you, Michael Charon, for taking me with you on this incredible journey, one I will not soon, if ever, forget. 5 stars all the way!

It's been years since I've been as powerfully affected by a novel as I have been by Michael Chabon's Kavalier & Clay. Chabon is a virtuoso. The book is full of discrete vignettes, distinct and perfect as cut gemstones. Riveting, humorous, human, and thematically consistent and resonant - these scenes mesh and build and reflect with dazzling skill. When I first picked it up I couldn't understand - "Pulitzer Prize for a book about a couple of kids who write comic books?" Having read it - now I know. Chabon's amazing skill vividly illuminates New York city of the 30s and 40s and evokes the vanished world of immigrant Jews, the birth of comic books, the horror of the holocaust, as well as delineates the aching expanses of the human heart. Chabon's ability to situate you in place and time is astonishing - as his ability to make characters with depth and penetrating realism. Part of this incredible ability to project depth is his eye for detail. Just like "Moby Dick" teaches you tangentially about whaling and nineteenth century nautical technology this book schools you in such diverse subjects as Golems, Antarctic exploration, shortwave radio, magician's culture, locks, escape tricks, Prague, comic book culture & lore, surrealist art, New York geography and culture and the 1939 world's fair. It's larger than life - but feels incredibly real. But far more than detail - this book's heart is about the many different ways men love; from moving mountains to fulfill a promise, all the way to casual rape. We see men loving family, women, men, art, a dog, a son, men loving pieces of equipment (particularly one loving a radio and another an airplane), etc... We see the stupidity and the wisdom - all the human frailty; and incredible resiliency and strength. It's funny - while reading the focus seems more on the pain - but in the end it's the love and connection that breaks your heart. For all its tragic content, this book is incredibly light and hopeful - and funny. There are a bunch of laugh out loud interludes. This is a wise, human, funny and ultimately kind book. This is, indeed, a story about a couple of kids who create comic books in the late 30s - but it is far more. It is a story of the American dream; a whiz bang novel worthy of the moniker "Great American Novel". Art, fantasy, love, loss, redemption, and life interweave through this story in a distinctly American way that is beautiful, exhilerating, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting. This book makes me want to live - and more than any book in recent memory, this book makes want to write. I only wish I could write with this kind of verve and skill. I give this book my highest recommendation.

I was impressed by Kavalier and Clay - the book does as good a job describing deliriously happy teenage bravado as any I've read. The characters are gutsy and real and immediately likable. Their fearlessness and ambition mesh well with the clear good guys and bad guys the story touches on - the writing throughout has a little of the comic book high definition zing to it. It gets into more complicated territory as the story goes on and the world and characters loose innocense in large chunks. The black and white emotional high contrast Chabon imparts to his characters when young works less well when they are adults. There are some spectacular bits of romance, and a stirring look at the thrill of work in an newly emerging art form and industry. Generally the writing is fantastic, though I cringed at some of the more intrusive forshadowing. It's a book you want to read slowly, to get all the rich pleasure out of the characters; and also a book you want to read fast, to get as quickly as you can to the next step in the adventure. Nothing if not a fun, dynamic, gripping read.

Bottom Line First: Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Paperback, Picador edition) is one of the best books I have read in years. That statement and the 5 stars insure that many review readers will never see this review. Then again the mere fact that it is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel will keep some folks from considering it. Their loss. Chabon has grasped what it is about the comic book and the pre-World War II era when the industry emblazoned its men in tights into the culture of America. The publishers tended to be a shady bunch and the artists and writers were as obscure as any collection of the nerdy, edge of society types drawn from American depression families and European political refugees. One may reasonably argue that the comic book and Jazz are coequal American Art forms. Chabon gets this notion and enrobes it in a complex, human and magical story. The Amazing Adventures is relatively discrete in it use of language, violence and sex, but the more sensitive reader may want to consider that all of these topics, plus politics are part of the story telling. At whatever risk there are two major thoughts that will come back and drive this novel: Concentrate on what you are escaping toward, not what you are escaping from. And The Escapist cannot not fly. Author Michael Chabon anchors the history of the comic book in a few concepts. The progenitor of Superman, the first of the super heroes in another creature of imagination, created by an earlier generation of preyed upon Jews, The Golem. Following this argument he personifies the history of this entertainment cum art form in the persons of American hustler and writer Sammy Clay and his cousin Jewish refugee artist Joe Kavalier. Sammy is just another New York Jew with a story that will be told in small reveals. He is like many Americans looking for that one break that will place him and his family beyond material want. Sammy has a complex history including training as an escape artist, magician and the first family member to escape from Hitler. Escape will be a word that will be a key to his life. Early in the book they create their super hero the Escapist. A costumed avenger with the special mission to “perform amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains.” They will create more characters and in so doing tell the story of much of the rise of the comic industry. About half way into the book this plot line wears thin. This is when the Chabon magic happens. All of publishing stops being important. The entire plot shift to the adventure of living. Cavalier, Clay and Rosa Saks the female character… Major point: Rosa is not just the love interest or the common inspiration. She is a third figure, but a character in her own right who demands respect for her role not just as an inspiration to the main two, but as a person with her heroics and weaknesses. Rosa makes her own sacrifices and mistakes. She is second fiddle in the strictest sense, but she is a lot more. Returning to the second half of the book. Chabon presents us with the Amazing adventures of living. There is a war to be won, but it is a personal war, not one of big battles and hand to hand fighting. There is a small technical error that has a German firing a .45 instead of a Lugar, but never mind. Mostly the heroic adventures are about raising a family, continuing after success and money and coming to terms with the guilt of surviving. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is filled with asides, and deliberate diversions from the main plot. Non-issues inserted just to make you the more ready for the plot to resume. Chabon makes these techniques work. He is doing with literature what the magicians and serial comic book writers do to build suspense and fill out the panels. The magic is in the author’s ability to do in the narrative what he admires in his characters.

In 1938, young Joe Kavalier escapes Nazi-controlled Prague and arrives at his cousin Sam Klayman's doorstep in New York City. Joe's family has sacrificed everything to get him to safety and he struggles with frustration and guilt—he is safe, while they are not. Sammy recognizes his moody cousin's artistic talent and, desperate to get in on the ground floor of the new "comics books" craze, enlists his help in creating their own Superman-inspired hero. Thus commences the captivating tale of two fictional pioneers of the "Golden Age" of American comics. Chabon's masterful storytelling blends truth and fiction to form an often hilarious, often poignant epic that spans decades. The characters of Sammy, Joe and Rosa are marvelously realized, and like life itself, the writing style shifts seamlessly from hilarious to tragic to magical. Tongue-in-cheek "footnotes" lend the authority of a history text. Ultimately, the story drives home the theme that true heroism lies not in the exploits of superhumanly talented individuals but in quiet acts of self-sacrifice. This is a wildly entertaining, beautifully executed, and thought-provoking work.

This story begins in 1939 in New York City. Sammy Klayman lives as an only child to a single mother, and one day his cousin from Europe - Joe Kavalier shows up at their doorstop after escaping his war torn country. He is alone and scared, and Sammy does not like that this kid is not a member of his household. Quickly, though, Sammy discovers that Joe can draw. Sammy starts to share his love of comic books, and soon he and Joe are working together making their own comic book series. They come up with their hero - the Escapist - based on Joe's past of being able to escape like Houdini. Their comics soon become extremely popular. They have their own series, their own toys, their own radio show. Joe stashes all of the money he makes away so that one day he can bring his entire family to America. Tragedy strikes, and Joe runs away. For 11 years, Sammy and Joe's girl - Rosa - search for him to no avail. It isn't until Rosa's son, Thomas, starts to disappear into New York City, skipping school, to visit a mysterious man at a local magic shop. Soon Joe is back in their lives and everything changes for he and Sammy. This book was.....okay. First of all - it was way too long. Very wordy. I found myself skimming sometimes just because there wasn't a lot of dialogue and too much explanation. It is a writing style - I get it - it just isn't for me. Second of all - I did not like Joe. His character was frustrating and extreme. There was a fairly good size chunk of this book during the part that Joe is absent that I felt could have been eliminated all together. Or at least shortened. It completely derailed the story, and didn't fit. The beginning, though, and the ending, when Sammy and Joe were together - was entertaining. Sammy is a witty character and had some great lines. He kept the story afloat and moving forward, unlike Joe's character. This book is definitely for folks who love comic books. They talk quite a bit about the comic book greats throughout this book and mix true history into the story of these fictional writers. My husband - who is a total nerd for these types of stories - is going to read it next so I will be anxious to hear his take on it.

Michael Chabon's novel is a moving story set mostly in the 1940s, which captures what life was like in the world of comic books, magic show, escape artists, and the daily complex lives of amazing characters. Chabon is a gifted storyteller who draws on the rich social history of mid-century New York City and war zones of the Second World War. Chabon captures the magic of the places and people he writes about. He incorporates many of the daily realities of the business of publishing comic books and how important they were to so many. Many of the legendary comic book artists of this era are also woven into the fictional world he has created for our enjoyment and delight. What a wonderful novel!

Full disclosure- this book is LONG. If you do better with paper vs. kindle over the long run, keep that in mind when tackling this tome. The writing is good - the author paints his picture well and the characters continue to evolve throughout the story. The second half of the book is more fluid, with fewer "interruptions" as the author stays on point, whereas the first part of the book he is easily distracted by back story and filler. Quite often interesting, but more often a moment of "wait, what?" and a subsequent interruption if the flow of the story. Quite often I was surprised to find there was MORE to read as we had come to an "ending", but the book manage to continue to pick up and be interesting. A good walk through of history - especially American culture and how it evolved - our tolerances and lack thereof, through out the years. If you are in the market for a long read and have the time to commit, it has some very nice - not overly done - writing in it, and characters that you wind up caring for and about as they find themselves over the years.