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Summary: A story and characters that have stayed with me.
Review: I read this book in a book club about a year ago and I still feel that it is one of my favorite novels. The story and the characters were so real to me that parts of their lives have become incorporated into mine and into my working memory. Every one that I know who has read this book has loved it. It is simply a great novel and one that is worth reading for a change.
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Summary: Brilliant
Review: Chabon is the next John Irving. The worlds he creates are as real as the one we live in.
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Summary: And I hate comic books...
Review: If someone had told me this book revolved around two guys writing a comic book, I'd have said thanks but no thanks. But I decided to read it anyway based on other Chabon novels I'd read. It's nothing like them. There's a lot going on under the surface of this one - While you're being entertained, there's kind of a sinister subtext that evolves. A well-written and surprising book, in my opinion.
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Summary: One more voice in the cacophony.
Review: I haven't read the hundreds of reviews that follow, but I can say fairly confidently that there isn't much I can say that hasn't been said already, and better. But I loved this book so passionately I wanted to note it. Comic books are a deceptively complex subject and cultural phenomenon, not a lightweight subject, as has been complained below; indeed, anyone who read this novel with any degree of attention should know better. Regardless, they are just the backdrop and the props for what the story is actually about, Sammy and Joe. It's not structurally perfect in an Anna Karenina way, and sometimes it seems Chabon goes out of his way to make a point that's not all that important (Antarctica, for instance), but this doesn't noticeably mar the beauty of the story or the prose. Hilariously funny and deeply moving, it immediately and deeply engaged my emotions and intellect.
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Summary: A flawed masterpiece?
Review: I did enjoy this book, but I certainly agree with the previous reviewer that this story was far too long for what it is. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. I literally found this story of their friendship an exhausting and somewhat pretentious read. The subject matter of comic strips isn't terribly sophisticated so why have such a weighty tome devoted so intricately to such a 'light weight' subject. I enjoyed the character of Sammy, and his efforts to hide his sexuality and I found that the terrible plight of so many gay men living during the WW2 to be very illuminating and ultimately quite heartbreaking, particularly when he felt he had to live as a "straight" person. This book is just begging to be made into a movie ' it has all the clichéd ingredients: love, anger, redemption, and betrayal. And it's not surprising that the story is being adapted for the screen. I had a real problem with Joe's section in Antarctica; it was like reading a separate novel, and I thought that this could easily have been cut in half. I also thought that the final section where Joe is hiding out in the Empire State Building to be kind of silly, and beyond the realms of possibility. There are many sections where Chabon's writing is absolutely gorgeous ' full of the most astounding detail of events, people, places and mythology. I can see why he won the Pulitzer. I just wish that it could have been edited a bit more effectively. Michael
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Summary: One of my favorites of all time
Review: A colossal story -- Chabon is a master and this is a novel for the ages. Simply stated: I never, ever wanted it to end.
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Summary: Fascinating
Review: I took one look at this book and knew I had to read it. It was a little different than I thought it would be, but I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Joe Kavalier and Sammy Klayman are cousins. Sammy is just a bored adolescent when Joe, a refugee who took magic lessons, comes to live with him and his mother. Together they get the idea to sell their own comic books and create 'The Escapist', who becomes a major hit. The book talks about the comic book but really centers on the two boys' journey of self discovery over the years. It's another hit by Michael Chabon.
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Summary: Amazing book
Review: This book is incredible. I think everyone should read it. Really an amazing story, about comics, Jews, love, sexuality, everything. Do yourself a favor and read this one.
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Summary: This makes 372 reviews
Review: ... Any book that inspires this many people to add to a mob of reviews that probably will never be read, should be read. Or at least peeked into at the book store. Chabon did a great job. He must have really loved writing this book. There is enough detail in it that you could spend forever picking through it for his foreshadowing, humorous references, etc. yet the plot moves well enough that you could read straight through the thing without stopping to analyze much. I like it. There's some truly beautiful writing in it, too, when he catches moments such as a fleeting emotion or a quick visual.
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Summary: Splendid Evocation of Comic Books, and NYC in the 40's, etc.
Review: Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" may be his best novel; it is a splendid excursion through New York City's cultural and commercial life during the 1950's and 1950's. It is also his literary homage to the golden age of comic books. Although some may find his tale too disjointed, Chabon manages to pull off a mesmerizing rollercoaster of a ride as we follow the intertwining fates and fortunes of Joe Kavalier, his cousin Sammy Clay (nee Klayman) and his lover Rosa. It is a spellbinding tale that transports us from the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied Prague at the eve of World War Two to New York City, and then, a brief excursion to Antarctica towards the end of World War Two, before resuming a relentless, if improbable, chain of events in early 1950's New York City. in Joe Kavalier, Chabon has provided one of the most complex, intriguing characters in Jewish-American fiction, and, I suspect, among the most endearing. His tragic odyssey at the eve of World War Two easily brought tears to my eyes. I'm not sure whether this was Chabon's intent, but Joe comes across as the most well-developed, sympathetic character in the novel. All of this is told through Chabon's splendid, often lyrical, prose. I'm not sure whether this is truly one of the finest American novels in recent decades, but I am not surprised that it did earn a Pulitzer Prize.
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