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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:
 Just not my thing March 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
To be fair, I think I'll just say that this book wasn't really my cup of tea. Perhaps having no interest in comic books or their history should have caused me to skip it. Recognizing that, I can appreciate the history, and understand that at least part of my disinterest with the first half of the novel was personal preference. If you share my opinion about comic books, I wouldn't say this book isn't worthwhile reading, just be prepared to skim or entirely skip a handful of pages at a time. I love to read, and I felt like I had to force myself to pick this book up.br /br /There were things I did like. I truly liked Bacon and I enjoyed reading his relationship with Sammy develop. I liked that this pure relationship took place beetween two men. I liked when Joe struggled to define his life and come to terms with it. Most of all, I appreciated the perspective Chabon used to write this novel- that this was more a coming-of-age story than a story about war, or being gay, or making sacrifices. It was refreshing to read something written in the way that life actually happens. br /br /To me, the book ended more strongly than it began- I was far more interested in the growth the characters experienced in their later years, when they were more reasonable and less selfish, than I was in hearing their back story. I don't particularly like Chabon's writing style (his thesaurus words and paragraph-long sentences gave me the distinct impression that he is trying to prove that he's smarter than his readers) and I didn't really like very many of the characters. I felt like a lot of the parts of this 600+ page book were slow-moving and totally unnecessary. On the flip side, I was disappointed when parts I enjoyed ended quickly (Joe's time in the war, for example). I almost felt like Chabon wasted all his tiresome descriptions on the first half of the book and ran out of energy when he hit the middle- maybe that's why I enjoyed the second half more; I definitely felt like it moved faster.
 Chabon's strongest effort March 23, 2008
You ever buy a book and then put it on your bookshelf for 3 years, never read it, and then one day get the jones to pick it up. That was my experience with Kavalier and Clay. While I regretted waiting so long to read it, I savored every page as this book allowed me to truly escape the blue period my life was in at the time.br /br /Brilliant. Some of the strongest character development I have read, a quick read even at over 600 pages. Chabon allows you to enter the daily lives of the characters while at the same time painting a broad portrait of a very important time period in our history. It is a view of World War 2 and the post-depression era that passes with just one shot fired. I can't reccommend this book enough.
Not to be missed March 21, 2008
When I was much younger, I used to think that I may run out of great books to capture my imagination. It is with great pleasure to have read this wonderful, touching and amazing work of fiction. As a reader, i was enthralled with the character development and the sensitivity of writing that carried me through this amazing story. Not only was the plot and writing exceptional, it was informative on the history of comic books. As a child, I was never afraid of running out of them. For me, an exciting author to travel through his other works.
About as good as it gets March 21, 2008
As I read through this book, I kept wondering if I my lifelong love of comic books was simply adding another level to my enjoyment of it, or if it was actually the main reason I was appreciating it. Would someone who hadn't grown up obsessing over superhero exploits past and present still find this novel such a joy? Or would they simply wonder why the author kept muddling his narrative with all of this talk about silly stories of grown men in their underwear? The "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction" blurb on the cover reassured me to some extent, but if I had a nickel for every award-winning book or movie that I think is terrible I would be a very rich man.br /br /However, when all is said and done, I think this story really speaks to something that anyone can relate to. You might connect a little more strongly to the main characters if you are a comic book fan, but you might connect even stronger if you are Jewish, or any minority, or a dreamer, or someone who has been in war or been close to someone who was in war, or if you lived in New York, or any of a hundred other types of people.br /br /The story focuses on two young Jewish boys, one a born-and-bred New Yorker, and the other, his cousin, a refugee from Prague. They become quick friends and find their fortune in the creation of a comic book character called The Escapist during the comic book boom that followed the debut of Superman in the late 30s. But to say that the book is about comic books or about superheroes would be ridiculous. It's about the lives of these two men and the routes that they end up taking through them as World War II, along with any number of other events, comes about. It touches on the disenfranchisement felt by immigrants, the difficulty of being a homosexual during that period, the beginnings of suburbia, and the wonder of childhood, in addition to being something of a history lesson on the creation and publication of superhero comics.br /br /Chabon is simply a masterful writer. Whenever he begins to build the characters up and give them a hope of real happiness, the reader can tell that something terrible is around the corner. But the true measure of his expertise comes from the fact that you can't help but get excited for them. You know a catastrophe is looming, yet the desire to see them succeed and be happy, and the hope that it is possible, simply won't allow you to remain totally cynical. The other thing I feel the need to point out is that Chabon's use of language is a joy to read. His descriptions and the way everything is structured are English at its best. He could write a novel about American Idol and I'd probably find it a pleasurable read.br /br /So, to wrap it up, you owe it to yourself to read this book no matter who you are. I have nothing bad to say about it. I haven't read a book this good in so long I think I had forgotten that they existed. I almost hesitated to praise the book so heavily because I was concerned that I might have raised expectations too much, but, honestly, I feel confident that the book can take it.br /
About as good as it gets March 21, 2008
As I read through this book, I kept wondering if I my lifelong love of comic books was simply adding another level to my enjoyment of it, or if it was actually the main reason I was appreciating it. Would someone who hadn't grown up obsessing over superhero exploits past and present still find this novel such a joy? Or would they simply wonder why the author kept muddling his narrative with all of this talk about silly stories of grown men in their underwear? The "Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction" blurb on the cover reassured me to some extent, but if I had a nickel for every award-winning book or movie that I think is terrible I would be a very rich man.br /br /However, when all is said and done, I think this story really speaks to something that anyone can relate to. You might connect a little more strongly to the main characters if you are a comic book fan, but you might connect even stronger if you are Jewish, or any minority, or a dreamer, or someone who has been in war or been close to someone who was in war, or if you lived in New York, or any of a hundred other types of people.br /br /The story focuses on two young Jewish boys, one a born-and-bred New Yorker, and the other, his cousin, a refugee from Prague. They become quick friends and find their fortune in the creation of a comic book character called The Escapist during the comic book boom that followed the debut of Superman in the late 30s. But to say that the book is about comic books or about superheroes would be ridiculous. It's about the lives of these two men and the routes that they end up taking through them as World War II, along with any number of other events, comes about. It touches on the disenfranchisement felt by immigrants, the difficulty of being a homosexual during that period, the beginnings of suburbia, and the wonder of childhood, in addition to being something of a history lesson on the creation and publication of superhero comics.br /br /Chabon is simply a masterful writer. Whenever he begins to build the characters up and give them a hope of real happiness, the reader can tell that something terrible is around the corner. But the true measure of his expertise comes from the fact that you can't help but get excited for them. You know a catastrophe is looming, yet the desire to see them succeed and be happy, and the hope that it is possible, simply won't allow you to remain totally cynical. The other thing I feel the need to point out is that Chabon's use of language is a joy to read. His descriptions and the way everything is structured are English at its best. He could write a novel about American Idol and I'd probably find it a pleasurable read.br /br /So, to wrap it up, you owe it to yourself to read this book no matter who you are. I have nothing bad to say about it. I haven't read a book this good in so long I think I had forgotten that they existed. I almost hesitated to praise the book so heavily because I was concerned that I might have raised expectations too much, but, honestly, I feel confident that the book can take it.br /
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