Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Book...is it the Great American Novel?
Review: I have read this book four times now, every couple months or so, and it still floors me every time. The breath and scope is astonishing...From Prague, to NYC, to Antartica!! Tackles so many themes so successfully. A pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Read in Years
Review: For me, literature is best when I can connect with characters that seem real. Joe and Sammy are conflicted, contradictory, flawed, and ultimately, heroic. In the end, the novel is about heroism, not the tabloid heroism that always comes across as cliche and trite - the real heroism that it takes to live fully. I can't think of a book that I would recommend more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Introducing E. Pluribus Hewnham, the Scientific American
Review: I'll admit it. I picked this book up not because of Michael Chabon's rising literary reputation, or because of the Pulitzer Prize tag on the front cover. Instead, I read it because it was about comics. Not that I'm what you'd term a comics fanatic. I read "Superman" and "Batman" as a kid, know all the theme songs to the Marvel Superheroes, and own "The Essential Silver Surfer". But neither is "Kavalier & Clay" just about comics. It's about the American invention of the art form -- in a 1930s New York I've learned about so often (from Ebbets Field, to the Empire State Building, to the World's Fair) that I'm surprised to find I wasn't actually there to remember it. And it's also about the Golem of Prague, and the Holocaust survivor's guilt, and about the futility of war -- not just in a "Saving Private Ryan Sense", but in a surreal 50-page detour to the lone American outpost at the South Pole. If the whole of 20th century American heartbreak isn't contained in this book's 600-plus pages, I'd be surprised. I've read "Kavalier & Clay" twice now. The first time, I read it to follow the plot. The second time, I focussed on two additional elements. One, the book's real superhero. Not "The Escapist", not "The Four Freedoms" -- although their adventures are so carefully detailed, you'll almost think Chabon came up with the ideas when he was 8 and had been sitting on them ever since. This book's real superhero is protagonist Josef Kavalier: an amateur escape artist from Nazi-occupied Prague, all of 19, who escapes to America in mythical company. His ultimate fate follows twists surely more bizarre than the Red Kryptonite or the identity of the New Herald of Galactus. Kavalier is a great literary invention, and it's surprising that he doesn't actually take literal flight on the final page. Second, the satire. Can you believe, the first time around I didn't pick up on the apocryphal reference to the "future massive grounds of New York University's Levine School of Applied Meteorology"? Even the footnotes bear careful attention. Chabon claims to have found, in 1993, a long-lost volume of '30s pulp adventure (a book entitled, promisingly, "Racy Attorney #23") -- at an IKEA in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as a prop for the floor model of a "Hjorp" wall unit. Of course! Orson Welles and Salvador Dali show up briefly, not how you'd expect them. There's a Gabby Hartnett reference so obscure that Hartnett's survivors probably wouldn't even get it. The most chilling word of the book is also found in a footnote. It's the word "lost". The book ends, breathlessly, in 1954. Long Island's suburbs have been carved out of the potato fields of Islip. Senator Kefauver has come to town, the Klaymans of Brooklyn have become Clays, and a priceless lifetime collection of comic books is about to meet an uncertain fate. Each of these alone would be a poignant reminder of innocence lost, but Chabon hits us with it all at once. "Kavalier & Clay" may have bitten off a little more than it could chew (reportedly the screenplay has already gone through 8 drafts), but take your time, and don't miss a page.
Rating: 
Summary: Adventurous novel!
Review: Although the first 100 pages of this book were a bit tedious to read, once you get more involved the rest of the story flies by. This book has everything- history, fiction, and the harsh reality of life that the two main characters face. Each character has a unique story that forms a connection with the reader. After the climax of the book (the end of part 4, around page 420) the book seems to go downhill. All the dreams and goals each character has seems to die. The story did not end on happy note yet it did end on more of a realistic note. Overall this book contained a lot of excitment.
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared to be AMAZED by this literary accomplishment!
Review: The "golden key" to Michael Chabon's amazing feat of creativity is Houdini-esque Escapism - beginning with an escape from death and ending with an escape toward future fulfillment! This the story of two comic book geniuses - Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay - whose lives in many ways both mirrored and were redeemed by their superhero comic book creations. From Joe's astonishing adventures to Sammy's incredible feats of self-sacrifice, this is the story of 2 real-life superheroes whose search for redemption is both poignant and inspiring! When you pick up this book, be prepared to engross yourself totally in a magnificent tale of two men told in well-written, grandiose prose. I can definitely see why it won the Pulitzer Prize - it is truly unique!
Rating:
Summary: excellent story- wonderful read!
Review: I bought this to read during a long flight home and nearly fininshed it in a day. Hard to put down, it was so good. Also hard to give up when the book was over!
Rating:
Summary: Great fun with serious undertones
Review: Chabon's novel is a marvelous mix of seemingly diverse literary elements. He throws in comic books, pulp novels, Kafka (Joseph K. being an obvious reference!), American mythology, Jewish mythology along with vivid characters, well written scenes and really imaginative plotting. My only qualm was that the story seemed to peter out rather than come to a natural end in the final pages. But the journey to those final moments is a wonderful fantasia on the American dream.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you have to call a book a great American novel . .
Review: The phrase, "the great American novel" is cliched, and I don't even believe in saying that a book is "the" great American novel. But occasionally a book is good enough that I feel I need to call it "A" great American novel because it paints a picture of a place, a cultural moment, and struggles in the U.S. in a way that changes the way you can see U.S. culture and history. This is one of those books. I'm not a big comic book reader, but he seduced me with the characters' love of comics, and masterfully touched on such themes as the relationship between art and political resistance, the holocaust, romantic love, homophobia, and friendship through a book about comics. This book is masterful. It is well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: COUSINS MAKING COMIC BOOKS
Review: Set against the backdrop of WWII, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY focuses on two Jewish cousins living in New York City while trying to make a name for themselves in the emerging comic book industry. Fantasy often transcends reality as Michael Chabon craves out this impressive tale of hope and survival in uncertain times. Josef Kavalier is the cousin that interested me the most while reading this book. Living in Prague during the beginning of the war, he was the only member of his family to escape Europe before the claw of the Third Reich suffocated every Jew in reach. Reaching his aunt's house in New York City, Josef and his American cousin Sam decide to create their own comic book featuring The Escapist battling enemies of current times (i.e. Hitler and his Nazi thugs). But even while The Escapist gained in popularity and made Kavalier and Clay famous, Joe's main attention focused on rescuing his family from Eastern Europe and bringing them to New York City. Although the plot of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY was admirable, I found Chabon's prose to be so convoluted in places that it hindered any further enjoyment. I almost felt that Chabon was trying too hard to impress upon the reader the mix of fantasy and reality. Regardless, I believe THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY is worth your time and effort.
Rating:
Summary: Heroes, Comic and Real
Review: This Pulitzer Prize winner is set in pre-WWII New York City, at the dawn of the golden era of comic books. Two Jewish cousins, one a rather lonely schoolboy, the other a refugee from pre-war Prague, form an inspired partnership and create the "Escapist", a hero who fights Nazis in a time when Americans were struggling not to be drawn into the war while the President was covertly pushing the country into it. As someone not familiar with the comic book genre, I enjoyed the inside look at the business, how the characters were created, how women and sex were introduced into the mix, how community leaders objected to the corrupting influence of comics on youth--ironic given what kids are exposed to today! I found the story of Kavalier's attempts to get his brother out of Prague in advance of the slaughter moving without overwhelming this fascinating, funny, touching story. My only beef is that at 650 pages it is too long, and like many other recent American literary novels, it could have used a good editor. Think "Staggering Genius" by Eggars, "The Corrections" by Frazen, "Little Friend" by Tartt. The best and brightest of our young novelists seem compelled to show off their literary skills with multiple story lines, numerous characters, and loads of intricate background description. Kavalier's war experiences are a case in point--a story set within a story, they are a literary tour de force--incredible, imaginative, and shocking--but completely unrelated to what goes before and after. Whatever happened to the good, clean, 350 page, "couldn't put it down" novel? Having said that "Kavalier and Clay" is one of the better ones--you'll enjoy it!
|
