The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Rating:
Summary: Generally captivating, albeit a little too long-winded
Review: "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" relates the story of two business partners aspiring to make money out of a comic enterprise, weaves into it the timeline of the advent of comics in America and injects into it moments of humour and melancholy. Using the historical background of the years of World War II, Nazi Germany and US in the Great Depression, Michael Chabon accentuates the reason for the rising popularity of comic books - readers want to escape from the harshness of reality into the realm of hope, fantasy and inspiration depicted by comic books. The example of the comic "The Escapist" mentioned in the novel sums it all up - The Escapist possesses the miraculous ability to free himself from any clutches and locks that he gets trapped in.

The book also touches on the themes of brotherhood (between Kavalier and Clay) and love (between Kavalier and Rosa Saks, and Clay and Rosa Saks), henceforth making it a delectable concoction of both hard facts and emotional appeal. "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is supposed to be, and should be, a highly interesting book packed with details, action and dialogues, bound by a fast-paced storyline. However, due to its length (six hundred over pages and small print on each page), my attention waned towards the last one third of the book. A pity, considering that the book has so much to tell.

Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Escape
Review: This 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning novel was a personal delight for me to read. I was an emerging reader in the 1940s. I can reflect back on the joys of reading the adventures of comic book heroes. This was a trip down memory lane for me and I relished every adventure of Joe Kavalier as they played out in the theater of my mind. I got caught up in his adventures much like I did as a youth, spending hours at reading without a break. Michael Chabon's use of language enriched every scene and the character development was superb. I found nothing in this work to regret.