The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
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Book Reviews of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Book Review: Don't Fear the Comic Book Theme: This Is One Amazing Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Story Overview
After several attempts at writing my own summary of the book, I decided to go with the description on the back of the book so that I can just jump into telling you what I thought about it. So here it is:
Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories and art for the latest novelty to hit America--the comic book. Drawing on their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. With exhilarating style and grace, Michael Chabon tells an unforgettable story about American romance and possibility.
My Thoughts
There is so much I want to tell you about this amazing book that I barely know where to begin. So let's start with what was initially the biggest stumbling block for me: comic books. I knew before I read this that it dealt extensively with comic books. Chabon has admitted to being a "fanboy" of the form, and my initial reluctance to tackle this 636-page book was mostly because I've never been a comic book reader and it seemed like a subject that might not hold my interest. If you have similar reservations, put them aside now.
Chabon is such a gifted writer and the comic book theme is interwoven so skillfully into the narrative that you'll be utterly involved and absorbed in this book. In fact, Chabon does such a brilliant job evoking the pleasures and value of comic books that I found myself wanting to explore the form. (When I discovered that Chabon collaborated with various artists to create a series of Escapist comic books, I was thrilled. I found myself wishing for an Escapist comic to read as I was going along, and now I can get my dream realized. I suspect I shall be one of the few women in their 40s asking for an Escapist comic for their birthdays this year!)
The fact that Chabon uses the theme of escape in both the fictional comic book that Kavalier and Clay create and in the novel itself is pure genius. Everyone in this book is escaping something--whether it is the Escapist bursting out of heavy chains, Sammy trying to evade his sexual orientation, Rosa seeking a path out of domesticity, or Joe trying to sever the ties that bind him to Prague. I'm not a big fan of analyzing books; I tend to read for my own enjoyment and entertainment. But when a writer can so perfectly integrate a theme throughout a book, I find that it adds an additional layer of richness to the reading experience. I think every reader can relate to the concept of escape. We've all tried to escape from something in our own lives--be it a stifling home life, unrealistic expectations, a love affair gone bad, a political climate that oppressed us--so who among us couldn't relate to characters who struggle mightily to escape their own demons, choices and environments?
Excerpt: The night he offered her the chance to draw "a comic book for dollies," Rosa felt Sammy had handed her a golden key, a skeleton key to her self, a way out of the tedium of her existence as a housewife and a mother, first in Midwood and now here in Bloomtown, soi-distant Capital of the American Dream.
It is also easy to escape into Chabon's writing. When I was reading the book, I took notes for myself as I read. One note read: "It is like Chabon has every word in the English language at his fingertips ready for use." My first exposure to Chabon's talent with words was when I read his collection of essays Manhood for Amateurs earlier this year. I was blown away by his writing in that book, and it was this (more than anything) that encouraged me to get over my fear of the comic book theme to read this book. And I wasn't disappointed.
Chabon's writing is an amazing thing. He has a gift for putting words together in a way that is surprising, playful and utterly satisfying. I sometimes talk about candy bar books and how they go down so easily but make you a little sick afterward. Reading a book by Michael Chabon is like sitting down for a gourmet feast that satisfies your soul. Yet, at the same time, his writing isn't fussy and inaccessible. So, let me rephrase that: Reading a book by Michael Chabon is like sitting down for a gourmet feast of comfort foods ... like eating the best macaroni and cheese you ever had in your life and finding out afterwards it tasted so good because the chef used black truffle oil in it.
There's a blurb on the back of my copy from New York magazine that reads: "I'm not sure what the exact definition of a 'great American novel' is, but I'm pretty sure that Michael Chabon's sprawling, idiosyncratic, and wrenching new book is one." I have to say that I agree with this assessment. The book manages to incorporate the history of comic books, World War II, the immigrant experience, the "love that dare not speak its name," the power and value of art, and the feel of New York City and its growing suburbs yet wraps it all around the involving story of two cousins and the woman who binds them together. At its center, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is about love, and the warm, beating heart of this book is what ultimately makes this such a satisfying read.
My Final Recommendation
Don't let the comic book theme fool you, this is an accessible, satisfying, sprawling novel that will reward you with its brilliant use of the English language and a story that will simultaneously break and warm your heart. The theme of escape is interwoven brilliantly throughout the novel and makes for a rich, multi layered read. One of the closest contenders for the Great American Novel (Modern) that I've read.
Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Summary: 4 Stars
Josef Kavalier is a young Jewish refuge, dislocated to America thanks to the encroaching viciousness of the Nazi regime in his home country of czechoslovakia. Sammy Klayman is his cousin, a dreamer, a thinker, a boy who lives more in the world of his imagination than he does in the city of New York, his home. Kavalier meets Clay one quiet night, when the refuge arrives in New York scared, lonely and desperately missing his parents and brother, Thomas. They share a bed and form a friendship, sensing a kinship of souls that will soon reveal itself as a complex, compassionate and loving relationship that extends from their work into their personal lives.
While the book does chronicle the adventures of Kavalier & Clay as they struggle from being lowly workers at a novelty store, to creators of some of the most popular comic book heroes during WWII, the true hero of the novel is Josef Kavalier, Joe. We are 'inside' his head through most of the chapters, it is for him that we have the most compassion because of his immigration, his Jewish heritage - which Sammy does share, but his religious beliefs are certainly secondary - and his almost obsessive love for his lost brother Tommy, and his young love, Rosa Saks.
Josef is an interesting character. He studied under a magician, an escapist, for a time whilst in Europe, learning the tricks of the trade: Card tricks, picking locks, escaping. Through a number of - unfortunate - story telling contrivances, he is forced, again and again, to draw upon these skills. More positively, the first very comic character that the two create - The Escapist - is based upon the skills Josef has learned. This is a satisfying use of his background, I felt, rather than the sloppy device of yet another lock to pick or person to steal from.
Apart from this, though, is his love from his brother. For the better part of the novel, he is driven to succeed, purely so that he can save up enough money to get his brother out of Europe, and into the safety of America. When he is enjoying life - such as when he falls in love - he rails at himself, arguing that he should not experience fun, laughter, happiness, until Tommy is in America, and not a second before. When he does fall in love with Rosa Saks - the inspiration for Luna Moth, another famous creation of Kavalier and Clay - he is torn between his duty to his family, and the first flowerings of his love. To watch this is a fascinating experience, and possibly one of the highlights of the novel.
Another highlight is the way the story is told. While Josef is the focus, the narrative is able to step back from him and observe other characters in varied situations. The narrator, while never too personalised, is an omniscient, declarative chronicler. He mentions events in the future to further reinforce the current situation. He speaks of Kavalier and Clay with reverence, and when he is 'merely' discussing the actual people behind the team, he is no less respectful. As stated above, I did not feel that the language was this amazing: '...sentences so cozy they'll wrap you up and kiss you goodnight', but they were enjoyable. There is a never a sense of over achieving, or trying too hard, or anything like that. No, the prose is confident of its limits and its abilities, and works within that. Throughout the novel, I felt that Chabon was aware of what he could and could not do, and I felt confident in where he would take me and how he would get me there. This is as much a strength as the floweriest of prose, I believe.
Apart from Josef, there is Sammy, the other member of the great comic team. He is not in the spotlight very often, but nor would he want to be. Sammy, like the boy helpers he loves to create for his superheroes, is content as a sidekick. Another theme of the novel is him coming to terms with his homosexuality, and this is played out in a delicate enough manner right until the very end, when crudity takes over. Sammy is not a homosexual character, he is a character who happens to be a homosexual, and that, in my opinion, is the best way to handle him. Take away his sexuality - which is developed naturally, especially considering the difficulties imposed upon a young gay man in the 40s - and he is as deep and vibrant as any other. For a very long time, he is the ideas man of the two, the pusher, the confidence man, the kid who wants to be a man atop the mountain. Without Clay, Kavalier would never have extended his art into comics; he probably would have languished, sad and alone, never drawing for anyone but himself.
After the partnership of Kavalier & Clay crumbles, unfortunately so to does the story. We jump years, introducing new characters never fully developed, speeding through plots and ideas, dropping some and ignoring others. An interesting side story about comics as a negative medium is picked up, but then used in probably the most crude display of plot advancement I have ever seen, then dropped. Based on the quality of the rest of the novel, this was unforgiveable. The fact that it set in motion the ending was worse.
But, a few grave misgivings aside, this novel was very enjoyable. There is a lot of comic book history, a raft of interesting characters, and Chabon, I think, captures the way a young Jewish refuge would feel as he enters the vast world of American opportunity.
Book Review: Fantasy in the Real World
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was a kid, I used to daydream about fame. I pictured myself ascending great heights of wealth and popularity by doing something at once meaningful and unbelievably cool. I guess many people indulged such fantasies, and like most such people, my fantasies haven't come true - yet. "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is about a couple of youngsters who bring their dreams to fruition. Drat the both of `em.
Now, I don't mean to insult anyone or cast doubts on anyone's generosity of spirit, but we all know how most of us would feel if some friend went out and did everything we've ever dreamed of doing; on some level we'd pray to see them fall and break all their metaphorical bones, right? (If you don't believe me, you're going to have to explain why all those scandalous Hollywood trials draw bigger ratings than the Presidential debates.) This novel gives us a chance to react in a more charitable manner - Michael Chabon has found a way to narrate the success of Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier while maintaining our sympathy for them, even when they occasionally do incredibly stupid things.
The story of this novel is pretty simple. Sam Clay, the son of Eastern European immigrants and a classic Depression-era hustler, meets his cousin Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Prague with professional training in both painting and Houdiniesque escape, and the two of them go into the comic book business. Their primary character is the Escapist, eventually an anti-Nazi hero, and when they find themselves involved in various ways with an intriguing young woman named Rosa Saks, they produce an adventure series featuring her as a mystical figure named Luna Moth. Eventually, issues internal and external drive them apart for a while and the comic book disappears. Do they reconcile? Do they regain their success? What about Rosa? Tune in to our next exciting episode!
Books like these often depend for their impact not so much on the story per se, but on the details surrounding the story. It's a delicate balancing act, because if the author attends too much to the story, you're left wondering what's so special about these characters that they deserve a book of their own. On the other hand, if there's too much outside detail about the Depression, or life in New York, or World War II, you're left wondering why the author wrote a novel rather than a history book. Well, this is only Chabon's third novel and his first historical piece that I know of, but he nevertheless gets this balance just right. It's times like these that I want to get down on my knees and thank God that there are still a few writers out there willing to do their bloody homework.
Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with those very brief modern novels with little detail or dialogue and no ending to speak of - the ones that seem to have emerged from the author's dream diary. I like Paul Auster and Nicholson Baker just fine, and what's more, "Kavalier & Clay" doesn't have a neat, clean ending any more than "Gravity's Rainbow" does. However, it's a very satisfying thing in the 21st Century to open a big book and read about fictional characters who encounter Turkish baths full of immigrants, tobacco rationing, miniature radios you order from the back of comic books, Al Smith, the growth of suburbia, and the House Un-American Activities Committee. I don't mind jumping into some post-modernist's head, but it's nice when an author decides to plant his characters in the world I know, too. Or at least the world that gave rise to the world I know.
That's especially true when said characters seem like people I might actually meet. Sam and Joe, and Rosa too, have to manage businesses, deal with relationships and children, and try real hard to be decent to one another when they all have good reason to spend their lives crying their eyes out about the bad breaks they've had. If I knew them in real life, I'd be happy to take care of them; I'd think they were well worth my time, and I'd know that they'd also be happy to take care of me. I like these people, by golly.
Notice I haven't said much about the comic book characters. This is because they don't really enter into the novel very much, despite the jacket blurb implying that this is in truth the story of Joe and Sam the comic artists. It's more like the story of Joe and Sam the men, and how they sometimes translate the problems of daily life into comic-book adventures to make them more palatable. (The title of the novel makes this clear enough, I'd say - we'd all find daily life more endurable if we could think of it as an amazing adventure.) The comic stories described in the novel are quite good; they seem very authentic for the time and are accompanied by scholarly footnotes to make them seem more real. Indeed, this novel has actually inspired a real Escapist comic book (sixty-odd years late, but never mind). "Kavalier & Clay," however, is not a comic book - it's an excellent novel about two men who sometimes wish they lived in a comic book, but eventually realize that the real world is more than good enough to sustain them, especially if they help each other at the right time. For something this long, I prefer it this way.
Benshlomo says, There's a time for comics and a time for reality - the trick is knowing which is which.
Book Review: The Real Wonder Boys
Summary: 5 Stars
"A faster read than a Grisham book. More powerful than an Oprah pick. Able to win Pulitzer Prizes in a single bound edition. Look! Up on the bookshelf! It's pulp fiction! It's serious literature! It's `The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'! Yes it's `The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', written by a strange visitor from Pittsburgh who came to the literary world with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', a book that can change the course of mighty literary trends, bend public discourse in its bare hands, and which, disguised as Michael Chabon's latest novel, a mild-mannered bestseller for a great metropolitan readership, fights a never-ending battle for Truth! Justice! and the American Way!"Pretty cheesy, that. But good cheese, no? Actually, the above is just a thinly veiled attempt to usher you into the world of super-hero comic books that Michael Chabon has created for this book. It is a world of convenient coincidences, of nick-of-time rescues, of unbelievable happenstance, and hyper-romanticism. It's a world whose characters are drawn in two tones (black or white), where good and evil combat in epic struggles, and little boys pay ten cents an issue to read about it. It's an entirely made up world, embracing its own fictionality, but one that the reader can easily get lost in. Chabon has written a book that takes the conventions of the comic book and exploits them. If you encounter a situation here that tests the boundaries of reality, try reading it as if spread over six cheerily drawn panels. It'll make much more sense that way.
The reason for this technique, if I may be so bold as to articulate it, is quite simple: Escapism. Joe Kavalier at one point lists the reasons why he loves his comic books: "for their inferior color separation, their poorly trimmed paper stock, their ads for air rifles and dance courses and acne creams..." But most importantly, for this young man newly escaped from occupied Prague, for the way they allowed young boys to escape from reality and dream their dreams. It's a pretty moving message. Joe and his cousin Sammy Clay (nee Clayman) create a comic book superhero to exploit this theme, named appropriately enough "The Escapist". It's popularity ends up rivaling Superman and Batman. I'm not going to tell you what Sammy is escaping from, for that would ruin one of the book's best and most tastefully portrayed surprises.
However, all is not painted in comic book artificiality. In fact, much of the book's sub-text is quite poignant and real. I mean, the book's title, which looks very comic-esque, is actually quite ironic. The boys' adventures aren't really that amazing together (it's run-of-the-mill, everyday stuff, except for a huge joint success). Joe has some topsy-turvy times himself, and Sammy's are more internal and domestic than anything. Even their names are ironic. Joe is certainly not cavalier about the cause he finds himself obsessed with. Sammy's clay (his "fundamental nature or spirit") remains hidden for the majority of the book, only drawn out against his will. Chabon only uses the comic book template as an easy entry point into this world. After that, he creates some complex human situations. And the book is set in and around a very real New York City, during its golden era. Not only are the city's alleyways and seedy apartments and subways represented, but so are some of its most famous landmarks. It's no coincidence that the Empire State Building stands tall and proud on the cover of the book's first paperback edition. It plays a major role in many of the boys' "adventures". As does the recent World's Fair, in a minor but crucial way.
The knock here is that Chabon's prose is a little too purple, a little too flowery, with a vocabulary that may stymie the majority of his readers. Frankly, I've read prose infinitely more difficult. Chabon, by comparison, is actually quite an easy, straightforward read. And for a 600+ page book with little in the way of narrative thrust, it's quite a page-turner. He has a sly little sense of humour, littering the text with some very silly, sarcastic moments (e.g., a brainstorming session almost ends with Kavalier & Clay's super hero being called `The Mandrill', with his "multicolored wonder ass that he used to bedazzle opponents"). But for the most part the book has a very somber tone. Before you begin, though, do yourself a favour and read up on the legend of the Golem (and not just in the Tolkien sense of the world). It'll help you to better understand many of the book's themes.
Chabon has done a wonderful job mixing a lot of research on comic book history (and I mean a lot), with a fake comic book history (perfectly believable in this context), with a story about two young men trying to live the American Dream. Don't be afraid by the book's heft; it's an exciting read, filled with suspense and cliffhanger endings, just like a real comic would be.
Book Review: Amazing Indeed!
Summary: 5 Stars
I find my faith in the novelistic prowess of Michael Chabon well-rewarded. Chabon's 2000 novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is indeed an amazing novel that shows a great deal of intelligence, wit, and skill. Immediately chronicling 15 years in the lives of Samuel Klayman and Josef Kavalier from 1939 to the mid 50's , Chabon indirectly brings the reader in contact with the cultural histories of America and Jewish Eastern Europe, embodying national and cultural struggles for freedom in the lives of two ambitious young men. This is a tremendously honest novel, and is at times full of the comedy and tragedy of seemingly ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The novel begins in October 1939, when teenager Samuel Klayman's sleep is disturbed by the entrance into his Brooklyn bed of a cousin, Josef Kavalier, just a couple years older, who has just arrived from Prague, Czechoslovakia. Sammy is obsessed with story and with the enrapturing capacities of the burgeoning form of the comic book. Raised largely by his mother, Sammy also has a kind of vacant father complex, and searches throughout the novel for a way to cope with or replace his missing father. Josef was raised by two prominent Czech doctors, allowing him access to indulge his interests, from magic to artistry. When the Nazis occupation of Czechoslovakia begins putting pressure on the resident Jewish population, his family sells off the majority of their possessions to fund his visa for America. Upon Josef's arrival in Brooklyn, Sammy finds in his cousin the potential, between his own storytelling and Josef's artistic genius, to make their way in the wide open comic book marketplace - and to create a hero to hang their highly individual hopes and dreams on.
There is so much of interest in "Kavalier and Clay," it's hard to know where to start. On the novel's first page, though, Clay tells us that the driving tropes of the novel, the comic book and the superhero, are about "transformation" and "metamorphosis" - the very heart of the reason we read novels in the first place. The comic book provides a multifaceted outlet for transformation for both of our protagonists, from very simple to the most psychologically complex. Since at least 1719, with Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," novel characters have seen name changes as a vehicle for social and economic assimilation and ambition. Within the first few chapters of Chabon's novel, the possibility of a career in comics and the hope of joining mainstream America (coming from a Jewish tradition), sees the protagonists become Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier. The novel traces the ways that Sam and Joe attempt to define their new identities both with and against their individual and cultural pasts. For both of these boys, in their late teens, this means coming to grips with sexuality and economic, personal, and social responsibility. For Joe in particular, around whom the novel centers, his rebirth into an American, literary, and artistic identity hinges on his anger against the Nazis and his efforts to redeem his birth family from the genocidal theatre of Eastern Europe.
The hero they together create, an "American golem," as the novel has it, is awash in another complex set of thematic elements. One could spend hours unpacking his very names, 'Tom Mayflower' and his alter ego, 'The Escapist'. The themes of magic and freedom from tyranny inform the birth of this fictional hero; a background of fascination with carnivals (for Sam) and magic, especially Harry Houdini (for Joe), along with the sufferings of Czech Jews at the hands of the Nazis forms a web of social and political determinants for The Escapist. For Joe particularly, the comic book form and the key-carrying hero come to symbolize and enact one young man's desparate desire to save his own family from the clutches of the 20th century's most evil regime. Chabon suggests beautifully throughout his novel that the convergence of the rise of the comic book and the brutality of World War II create a unique historical moment in which identity politics merge with the strictly political and young male culture becomes a site where anything seems possible.
The rich historical fiction of Chabon's "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" could be talked about endlessly - I've not even touched some of the great minor characters, like Rosa Saks, Longman Harkoo, Bernard Kornblum, and Tommy Clay, not to mention special 'guest stars' like Salvador Dali, Stan Lee, and the legendary Golem of Prague. The detail that Chabon uses for situations and scenery is highly evocative and magical itself. The comic book motif had me, during most of the novel, reading the action and dialogue into comic book panels, a great effect of Chabon's style and ability. This is a book I cannot recommend highly enough.