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| The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Chabon
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $2.99
You Save: $12.01 (80%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (596 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1194
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 656
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0312282990
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312282998
ASIN: 0312282990
Publication Date: August 25, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Rich, Detailed, Extravagant. A Wonderful Book. May 14, 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay is the story of Sammy Clay and Joe Kavalier, cousins, Jews, reaching their young manhood during WWII. It ends in 1954 in a suburb of New York.br /br /Sammy and Joe invent a comic book hero, The Escapist, based on their early childhood experiences. They grow up, fall in love, have disappointments... I want to tell the WHOLE STORY here, but there's so much to it that I couldn't do it justice. You just have to want to read a book about Jewish boys, New York in the 40s and 50s, Czechoslovakia, WWII, comic books, suburbs, the Navy, The Empire State Building, and love.br /br /This book is rich. It's rich in the storyline and in the language and sentence structure. Michael Chabon is generous with detail and subplots and lets you enjoy his characters as he develops their lives. I really liked Sammy and Joe and Rosa and Tommy. br /br /Joe is the most complicated of the characters and if I actually stand back and review his actions I'm still puzzled at some of the things he did in response to the crises of his life. It's a pleasant sort of puzzlement and doesn't detract from my loving this book. br /br /It is a very long book - 635 pages in trade paperback - and there were a few slow parts for me, but once I got to about page 250 or so, it took off. In looking back, I see how everything Chabon wrote in the early parts that were less interesting to me contributed to the book as a whole.
 if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. May 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.br /br /The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.br /br /The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. br /
 5 star for 70% of the book May 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thought the first portion about the comic books was exciting and well written and above all enjoyable. However there were a few scenes that seemed to be a bit too progressive for 1930-40's America. A father walks into a room where his daughter is naked with a man in bed and just seems to chat? A mother accepts her son's homosexuality? I was not alive at the time, however, I found those scenes to be a bit hard to believe. br /After Joe goes off to war, I found the book a bit too easy to put down and a bit harder to pick up. It seemed to have lost a bit of its momentum.
WOW April 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is quite simply remarkable. Chabon an immensely talented writer, who may have the most ridiculous vocabulary I have ever come across, has created a work that is first and foremost ridiculously entertaining. br /While I am not a comic book fan Chabon's depiction of the early days of the industry were quite fascinating; as is the New York of the Late 30's/early 40's that Chabon creates. br /The books real strength though are its characters, with the main trio of Joe, Sammy, and Rosa being particularly memorable.br /While the book takes several outlandish turns Chabon never lets his story jump the track so to speak. The conclusion he reaches is also rather perfect and low key for a novel that features quite a few fantastical interludes.
Amazing... One of the best books in years ! April 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book through a Twitter contact and mainly by accident... but what a find ! This is one of the best books I have read in the last 15 years. Is it because it features topics I like a lot; New York, the 30ies, 40ies, 50ies, comic books and superheroes or the very humane story of a boy during WWII... I don't know... but the great writing skills of the author certainly help to make this a page turner. Simply a wonderful read.br /br /The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay
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