This is the tale of two cousins, a cadre of superheroes, a war, and sacrifice. In 1939, young Joseph Kavalier employed his Houdini-inspired escape talents to smuggle himself out of Prague and into the United States. His cousin in Brooklyn, Sammy Clay, loves comic books and is awed by Joseph's natural artistic talents. Together the two young Jewish men toil to create the Escapist and Luna Moth, among others, while Joe dreams of saving his family from the devastation of Europe under Hitler. The beautiful Rosa Saks captures his heart, even as Sammy takes a very different path. Then on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, everything changes.

My feelings on this are mixed. It's beautifully written and captures the spirit of the time period. Joe, Sammy, Rosa, and the rest of the wide cast are alive and vibrant. I can see why Chabon won the Pulitzer for this work. However, sometimes he went into exhaustive detail. In the middle of a scene it will dive into a three page history of the comic book, or a particular setting that never returned. Sometimes the perspective changes were dizzying as well, diving into characters we only see for a few pages. It felt as though the author had so much good material, he had to make sure all of it made it into the finished product. Yes, it was interesting stuff, but an info dump is still an info dump and it detracted from the flow of the story. It's worth reading, but not keeping. ( )

Darrerament l’atzar m’està portant a enfrontar-me amb grans llibres. “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”, de Michael Chabon, és una gesta literària, un triomf de la lletra sobre els sentits i un assalt a la percepció en tots els fronts i en tota regla. La prosa de’n Michael Chabon és exhuberant i intuïtiva, capaç de trobar metàfores sorprenents i exactes i imatges espontànies i naturals. Balancejant-se continuament a la fina línia que separa el virtuosisme de l’artificiositat, en Chabon ha escrit una novel·la ambiciosa que aconsegueix capturar l’efecte del pas del temps en l’evolució d’uns personatges plens de vida i interesants. És un exemple d’argument ben planificat i ben dosificat, explicat en tercera persona, en un estil lliure indirecte potent i tirant al barroquisme i un colorisme pulp que alterna amb uns diàlegs vivaços deliciosos que només a un tram promitjada la novel·la perd una mica de gas, per recuperar-lo sense problemes més endavant.Gran novel·la. Extremadament satisfactòria. Sovint exagero, però passarà a formar part de la història de la literatura. ( )

Just. Gorgeous. In. Every. Way. ( )

Joe Kavalier escapes Poland as the Nazis invade. He arrives in the US and partners with his cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic book heroes. In this expansive novel, the boys become men, finding and losing loves, struggling with the harsh realities of the war, and ultimately coming to terms with themselves.

This was not a fast read for me. Chabon's pace is measured as he creates the world about which he writes. (I found this true of the last Chabon book that I read - [Summerland] - as well.) But I never considered not continuing the journey with him. I felt like I came to know Joe and Sammy, and I trusted Chabon to tell me their story. Even when the plot twists might have led me to question other authors, Chabon managed to pull them off.

I was also impressed with Chabon's ability to weave so many threads together seamlessly. Other authors might hope to write a book about one of the subjects covered here - the comic book era, World War II, young loves, lost loves - but Chabon writes a book that is about all of these things. And he does it in a way that seems natural, almost easy. I highly recommend this book. ( )

I couldn't get into this book, and abandoned it.