Books

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay

By Lee Hoover ⋅ June 29, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Quick Synopsis: It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn’s own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.

The brilliant writing that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov is everywhere apparent in TheAmazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon writes “like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader,” wrote Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times about Wonder Boys—and here he has created, in Joe Kavalier, a hero for the century.

My Thoughts: This book is 636 pages long, so it had to be one of two things: Either a very good story, so good in fact that I wouldn’t want to put it down, or a very well written one, the kind of book that makes you wish you had similar talent.

Fortunately, it was both. Unfortunately, I was forced to put it down due to the lack of reading time and it took me a whole month and a half to finish. Even so, I am a big fan of this book.

The book is very detailed and engaging. It spans nearly thirty years and takes you through Late 30’s Europe, the comic book boom in New York City, and Pearl Harbor/WWII. The story is fascinating and the more you sink into it the more you forget how well crafted each sentence is that you’re reading. Evidently the sentences failed to escape the voters of the Pulitzer Prize; the book won for best fiction in 2000, deservedly so.

It’s a perfect book for fans of comic books, or fans of history. I’m guessing if you’re not a fan of either of those - I’m somewhat a fan of history, but have never been a big fan of comic books - you’ll still love this book. I did.