The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

This story begins in 1939 in New York City. Sammy Klayman lives as an only child to a single mother, and one day his cousin from Europe - Joe Kavalier shows up at their doorstop after escaping his war torn country. He is alone and scared, and Sammy does not like that this kid is not a member of his household. Quickly, though, Sammy discovers that Joe can draw. Sammy starts to share his love of comic books, and soon he and Joe are working together making their own comic book series. They come up with their hero - the Escapist - based on Joe's past of being able to escape like Houdini. Their comics soon become extremely popular. They have their own series, their own toys, their own radio show. Joe stashes all of the money he makes away so that one day he can bring his entire family to America.



Tragedy strikes, and Joe runs away. For 11 years, Sammy and Joe's girl - Rosa - search for him to no avail. It isn't until Rosa's son, Thomas, starts to disappear into New York City, skipping school, to visit a mysterious man at a local magic shop. Soon Joe is back in their lives and everything changes for he and Sammy.



This book was.....okay. First of all - it was way too long. Very wordy. I found myself skimming sometimes just because there wasn't a lot of dialogue and too much explanation. It is a writing style - I get it - it just isn't for me. Second of all - I did not like Joe. His character was frustrating and extreme. There was a fairly good size chunk of this book during the part that Joe is absent that I felt could have been eliminated all together. Or at least shortened. It completely derailed the story, and didn't fit. The beginning, though, and the ending, when Sammy and Joe were together - was entertaining. Sammy is a witty character and had some great lines. He kept the story afloat and moving forward, unlike Joe's character.



This book is definitely for folks who love comic books. They talk quite a bit about the comic book greats throughout this book and mix true history into the story of these fictional writers. My husband - who is a total nerd for these types of stories - is going to read it next so I will be anxious to hear his take on it. ( )

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I had read this long ago, but enjoyed returning to it. It's a great story of two young Jewish cousins in New York during the second world war, who break into comics and become super-successful very quickly. But one of them is gay, and the other is struggling to bring his family to America from Nazi-occupied Europe. The detail is beautiful - Al Smith and the late Stan Lee get walk-on roles; the comics of Kavalier and Clay are slotted neatly into the real history of the Golden Age. The story is told with sympathy and humour, slipping into epic mode at the moments of tragedy. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction back in 2001, and deservedly so. ( )

This is an amazing epic spanning decades of time and multiple lives. Kavalier and Clay are comic book writers who break into the industry at the very beginnings of Superman. The book is a ready-made classic because it has bits of many genres: romance, sci-fi, heroic tales, fiction, war, and drama. This is a book you can easily lose yourself in. Go dive in. ( )

This novel was released in 2001, then subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize. I admired Chabon's previous books and I began to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay a few years ago after reading Wonder Boys (I absolutely LOVED Wonder Boys). But I had to put Kavalier & Clay down at the time because, mostly, I didn't have the necessary attention span for it. There is a density and intricacy to Chabon's sentences that require a certain amount of reader fortitude; a distracted mind will not find comfort in his prose. This time around, I found this novel to be a very enjoyable read and a marvelous book. It certainly deserves the praise and accolades it has received.

Here's this novel's brief description: Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America - the comic book. Drawing on their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men.

If you are familiar with this era of the Comic Book Golden Age (1930s – 50s), then some of this story will seem a little familiar. Kavalier and Clay serendipitously propose and create a comic book hero called The Escapist for a disinterested businessman. He agrees to publish their comic book after learning of the popularity of Superman and the like and has them sign a boilerplate contract where their creation belongs to his company. This was commonplace at the time as a business practice. But when their creation becomes immensely popular, the creators are left out of the bulk of the wealth, having signed the ownership over to the company; many comic book creators during that time suffered the same fate, like Superman's creators Siegel and Shuster. Kavalier and Clay did make some nice dough as paid employees, but the owner received most of the fortune (millions of dollars). This part of the novel was meticulously told and Chabon's discussions with comic book legends Will Eisner, Stan Lee, and Gil Kane (as revealed in the novel's Author's Notes) bore great literary fruit.

After finishing this book, one of the more interesting aspects of the novel to me was Kavalier's background as an illusionist's understudy and the different levels this played out in the narrative. Obviously, his background in magic and escapism was an inspiration to the character of the Escapist. Chabon also reveals his great love for magic and sleight-of-hand, not only with enhancing Kavalier's personality and mode of operation, but with writing this novel. A good third of the novel reveals Kavalier's adeptness at vanishing, whether for self-preservation or to get what he wants. But ultimately, it's Chabon's sleight-of-hand that propels the narrative. Many, many times, there were moments where I couldn't believe that something was going to happen to Kavalier or Clay, then find out in subsequent chapters that what I feared was going to happen actually didn't happen. But Chabon's coup de grâce, his grand finale—literally in the last sentence of the book—is the revelation that the title of the novel may not be about who you thought it was. It was an amazing feat of literary perfection.

I only had a couple of issues with this novel. 1) Chabon can sometimes be a bit... long-winded. He has a peculiar habit of traipsing down asides like he has other stories he really wants to tell but shouldn't. And, as I said earlier, there is a density and intricacy to his prose that requires a certain amount of reader stamina and attention. 2) The content of the entirety of Part V of the novel is superfluous. If the almost 50 pages had been summarized in 5 pages, then the other 45 pages wouldn't have been missed—at all. After finishing the novel, I realized that this section of the novel (as unnecessary as it seemed content-wise at the time) was another bit of sleight-at-hand from Chabon, enhancing the powerful revelation in the last chapter. These two issues are quibbles, though.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a fantastic novel and well-worth the read. Funny, endearing, magical, and exquisitely written, I highly recommend it. ( )

4.5 stars ( )