The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
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Book Reviews of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Book Review: The amazing writing of the amazing Adventures
Summary: 5 Stars
What could be a more apt metaphor for the experience of Jewish survival in World War II then the escape artist? This novel is about 2 early comic book artists at the onset of the war who create the hero the Escapist among other great allegorical comic-book figures such as the Luna Moth. One of the pair, Josef Kavalier had escaped from Czechoslovakia having overcome comic-book-level complications and is forever scarred by the loss of the rest of his family and friends, in particular his brother Thomas. Thomas' escape from the Nazi's on the other hand was cut short at the last moment when his ship is sunk by a U-boat at the shores of America. This causes Josef to join the army but his experience of war turns out to be strangely life affirming though nonetheless difficult. Josef becomes psychologically stuck and unable to return to his normal life after the war; to his friends and lover he just disappears with no trace.
But this book is not a downer; it cannot be as it is infused with such a creative and playful spirit. Josef's son Tommy, born while Josef was off at war, without knowing about his real father, is also fascinated by comic-books and magic. How Tommy helps his father finally return from the war, in a hyper-plot worthy of a extraordinary comic book, is the crux of the story. Though this novel has elements of the comic book it also has depth, rhythmic writing, imagery, smoldering sexuality and sophisticated, complicated feeling. The other main characters i.e. the other comic-book artist Sam Clay (the man who is strong and loyal enough to not escape) and Josef's love Rosa are marvelously realized.
Here are just a couple of excerpts:
(Tommy in the city) He heard men swearing and singing opera. On a sunny day, his peripheral vision would be spangled with the light winking off the chrome headlights ..., the buckles on ladies shoes, ... the bulldog ornaments on the hoods of irate moving vans. This was Gotham City, Empire City, Metropolis. Its skies and rooftops were alive with men in capes and costumes on the lookout for wrongdoers ...
Tommy had his shoes off, his eye patch on, and half a pack of Black Jack in his mouth.
(children watching a superhero about to jump) The slow, dull, dark submarine of their lives in which they were the human cargo had abruptly surfaced. Their blood was filled with a kind of crippling nitogen of wonder
Book Review: What were the Pulitzer committee thinking?
Summary: 2 Stars
Charles Dickens, in his great novel "Little Dorritt," has a wonderful, satirical creation called the Circumlocution Office, whose slogan is: How not to do it.
How indeed? In choosing this novel, one wonders also what went through the minds not only of the committee at Columbia University, but Random House, the original publishers. Random House! Besides the tedium, the Longueurs, there were many inaccuracies that managed to slip through. For example: the author alleges that, in 1941, the contents of a character's pockets included subway tokens. This is patently not true. For at this time, subway fare was only a nickel (I was seven at the time, so I remember). Tokens for admittance came in later when fares were increased. Like many foods at the Horn & Hardardt Automat cafeterias, it was the princely sum of a nickel.
Call it a hobby, but I have a penchant or a predeliction (Michael Chabon, being a specialist of arcane, esoteric vocabulary, please take note of the redundancy, deliberate on my part) for reading Pulitzer prizewinners (as well, I might add, Booker prizewinners). Humboldt's Gift; Stories of John Cheever; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; A Confederacy of Dunces; Ironweed; Lonesome Dove; The Mambo Kings; A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain; The Shipping News; The Stone Diaries; The Edge of Sadness; To Kill a Mockingbird; Advise and Consent; Guard of Honor; even Gone with the Wind; and so on. Am I indulging in the same thing I'm accusing Chabon of? Perhaps.
Be that as it may, you can imagine my utter chagrin when I added "Kavalier & Clay" to the august list above. These, to be sure, are longueurs, in much the same or similar ways that Chabon wears us out and tries our patience in seemingly endless lists he resorts to, dragging out the narrative; we used to get similar admonitions from our teachers to avoid padding. He spins a pretty good yarn; but he has to go and spoil it by inflating it with excess verbal regurgitation. As you will note, although I enjoyed the permutations of the plot, I am not one of the five-star fans who provide the kind of adulation many have ooed and ahhed over. Gosh wow.
Yet as many of your commentors have already noted on the site, the author's prose would be considerably enhanced by the judicious addition of an editor's red (or blue) pencil. Point well taken. I would like add my humble opinion to those already quoted.
Book Review: Maybe not the "Great American Novel" but it sure comes close
Summary: 5 Stars
Another reviewer on this site refers to this book as a recent attempt at the "Great American Novel" (in a good way) and he is right on the mark. This novel is part history lesson, part love story, and part little guy makes good. Samuel Klayman and Josef Kavalier, are Jewish cousins who first meet when Josef moves in with Sam and his mother after escaping from Nazi-occupied Prague. Joe, a magician and escape artist, has managed to be smuggled out of Poland in a most surprising and interesting way. Soon, they are working together in the fledgling comics industry and manage to strike gold when they create the Escapist, a sort of super escape artist.The story leads us through their lives as they ride out the golden age of comics and Josef goes off to war, leaving behind the woman he loves who, unbeknownst to him, is pregnant with his child. The war changes Josef and when he fails to return, Sam presses on, trying to continually make a living in an industry that was almost squeezed out of existence in the 1950s. Sam also must deal with issues of his homosexuality, as he maintains an appearance of a straight, married man, while facing potential scrutiny from McCarthy area politics.
Throughout the book, historical figures and events are intertwined in the lives of Sam and Josef so seamlessly that one could easily believe they were actually living, breathing people who existed at that time. I am a huge fan of novels that successfully interweave historical fact with fictional characters, and Chabon succeeds like few others have in this task.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg on this great, often humorous novel that in many ways is Chabon's thank you to the comics of his youth (take a look at some of the individuals he credits for inspiration in this book).
On a side note, I have read that The Escapist and, possibly, the character of Josef, are based somewhat on Jim Steranko, a comic book legend who actually was a performing escape artist before working in comics. Steranko was also the inspiration for Jack Kirby?'s (and if you do not know who Kirby is, you probably have never picked up a comic book) Mr. Miracle, a character who came on the comic scene in the seventies and was known as the ?"Super Escape Artist."
Sure this book is rather lengthy, but every page is entertaining and its well worth the trip to its somewhat bittersweet, but happy, ending. I cannot recommend this book more highly.
Book Review: A book alive and rich with magic
Summary: 5 Stars
This is truly an amazing book. In my mind, I can separate good books into two general categories: books that I enjoy because the plot and dialogue is intriguing and fun, like a mystery or thriller; then there are books that are rich in characters and there lives, people whose lives aren't very exciting but who are created so completely by the author that they become real, and their simple lives take on interest for me as a reader simply because they have become as real as a family member or friend. Then even the most trivial and unexciting events in their lives become important as they're filtered through the eyes of the characters themselves.Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning novel fits nicely into both categories. It has all the elements of a plot driven adventure that make me stay up until all hours of the night fighting sleep, getting into that deadly cyclic pattern of promising to stop at the end of a chapter but secretly knowing that the chapter end will only give me more energy to fight sleep for longer if only I can find out what happens next. At the same time though Kavalier & Clay is about real people. Characters so real that if you met them the day after finishing the book and found out that small print at the beginning of the book about characters being the product of the author's imagination had been false, the only thing that you would find surprising would be that Chabon had been able to put them down on paper so authentically. You care about the people in this book despite of or even sometimes because of their flaws. And it's not merely Sam and Joe and Rosa and Tommy (the biggest characters in the book) that command so much love and understanding, Chabon has the ability to put a real person into the slot filled by any character, even an extra. In the briefest description of a German geologist I could see his whole life standing in front of me.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It may help to keep a dictionary on hand when reading, because even though the book is written in a very straightforward and fairly easily accessible language. Chabon's large vocabulary does show through and there are most certainly words you'll want to look up. (Emphasis here though is on "want to.") The only other warning I would give to someone thinking of reading this book is that they should be aware that they might not be capable of reading it as quickly as they would like.
Book Review: Start spreading the news...
Summary: 4 Stars
"...Kavalier and Clay" is a sprawling novel that merrily weaves its way through the early 20th century and across the globe from Prague to New York to Antarctica and back to New York (which is after all, the center of the known universe...). It follows the lives and careers of the eponymous heroes as they make their way through life, love, hate and men in tight costumes with young impressionable side kicks. I found the characters remarkably sympathetic and incredibly well -developed, and the storytelling itself enchanting and gripping - it's a cliché, but I really couldn't put this book down! The book is also brilliantly researched, at times reads like a history lesson on the American attitude to the "crisis in Europe". It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it's absorbing, it's thought provoking and it's educational. I think readers of all ages will get something from it and I'd highly recommend it to anyone.That said, I did have a few issues with the way it was written. The writer develops a habit early on of dropping bit of information about the future direction of the novel into the text. While this makes the book compelling, it also comes across as being gratuitous and unnecessary - like something you'd expect from a TV show just before the commercial break. Once or twice would be excusable, but Chabon peppers the book with these "accidental slips" or cliffhangers or what have you. Yes it makes you want to read on, but it made me develop a certain resentment toward the writer for taking advantage of my curiosity- it's not a TV station, I wasn't going to touch that dial...
The other main failings of the book revolve around the characters that Chabon isn't - the gay jew and the sexy artistic female character are nowhere near as well written or believable as the pugilistic and headstrong artist who wants to change the world and wears his heart on his sleeve. The homosexual encounters in the book (as another reviewer noted) are particularly poorly written, almost glossed over, and as such don't fit with the rest of the work's meticulous attention to intimate detail. I'd also say that Rosa's love for Joe is similarly poorly dealt with.
However, having vented these quibbles I feel I can rest, and once again reiterate my admiration of this book and whole-heartedly entreat those who haven't read it to do so without hesitation!