Rating: 
Summary: Captivating, imaginative and totally human
Review: I was surprised that I actually felt regretful, even sad, when I finished the book. Definitely my favourite to date! The tale, one of epic proportion, revolves around the lives of 3 characters - Josef, Sammy and Rosa - all of whom were totally real and believeable. And the care at which Chabon develops his characters is simply mind-blowing. The entire tale wasn't rushed in any way (600+ pages) and yet it absorbed me right from the very first page. Chabon writes with amazing prose and captures the imagination of his readers with his introspective, and descriptive writing while maintaining the pace of the story throughout. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated
Review: How this book won a Pulitzer I'll never know. There may be material here for a couple of good short stories, but a 700 page book?! I kept on anticipating some fabulous, comic book sized event to take place, but the book never got "lift off". Several friends told me it was a good piece of historical writing, that war-time New York and the golden age of comics were beautifully captured. I have a love of old comic books and the people who created them, but it fails to capture that magic.
Rating: 
Summary: Big, quirky story to get Lost in
Review: I would reccomend this story to anyone, even if it wasn't as well written as it is, simply to be exposed to its odd choice of venue. On your way through this story, you'll encounter magic and escapsitry, Jewish mysticism, the Golden Age of comic books, the Holocaust in Prague, surrealism, WWII in antarctica, and it goes on. Such a story with such far flung interests runs the risk of losing the reader in its sheer bizarre-ness. Chabon's great achievement here is that it all makes perfect sense at the end. On the way, you get sentences to luxuriate in, and drama that is intense, but never overbearing. It's a long one (636 pages), but if you are ready to be swept away to some truly unique locations, and hear a genuinely different story, read this book. It's the sort of book you can luxuriate in.
Rating:
Summary: A Pulitzer? Puh-lease
Review: I chose this book thinking that since it had won the Pulitzer Prize, it must be a masterpiece. Boy, was I disappointed! This novel is long, rambling and seems to go absolutely nowhere. Where's the climax? There is none. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: REQUIRED READING
Review: A real page-turner - totally engrossing. A motif of the story is the Golem, the giant man made from mud by Jewish occultists. In many ways, this story is like the Golem, a story in which the beast and the hero coexist, where each character is wrought, fully formed, and as palpable as the stinking mud of Prague. An exploration of 20th Century America's most pivotal years through the eyes of two boys who believe, beyond all else, that heroes exist. I cannot recommend this book more highly. I started reading and quite literally did not stop until the last page. Do yourself a favor and order this today, if not for yourself then for someone you love.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Fable
Review: This beautifully written novel is both funny and poignant. It captures both the warmth and misunderstandings of love and family. Joe Kavelier, Sammy Clay, and their shared muse, Rosa Saks are endlessly fascinating. The frustrations, brutality, and sheer dumb luck (both good and bad) of the human experience are captured in Chabon's luminous prose: Every success seems overlain with the memories of earlier failures -- just as it is in life. What a wonder "The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier & Clay" is! Highest recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: A pleasurable deep thinking read
Review: As a lover of books, I read reviews both before and after I read a book. In this case the "befores" met expectations. I have really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more Chabon. I appreciated the book for both its writing style (great descriptive prose) and its content. Many times I just enjoy reading a good story and don't like to think about what the author means by this or that. For me reading is shear pleasure. However, with this book, I thought a lot about the lives of the characters, how the story came together, what the author had in mind in telling this story, etc. I can certainly see why the book is Pulitzer-worthy! It's a keeper!...
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't finish this book
Review: This book [isn't good] to put it mildly. I finally put this book down half way through. I *REALLY* tried to read it all the way through as I always finish a book I start. I jsut couldn't take it anymore. I was bored. I hated Cabon's writting prose, I hated his charachters, I hated this book period. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I'd rather pull all my eyelashes out for fun than read this book. on a side note..maybe the movie will be better!?
Rating:
Summary: Tribute to the Golden Age of Comics
Review: Chabon's novel is a formidable attempt to capture the essence of the Golden Age of Comics. Indeed the world of Jack Kirby and his contemporaries, their greedy publishers, and a generally indifferent readership is captured with his well-paced prose. However, there seems to be a clash of styles when Chabon is faced with fleshing out his characters which fall into archetypes especially toward the last part of the book. His characters often fall short of the grandiose situations they are often placed in and the great "escapes" become almost outrageous characaturish situations.
The large scale of the novel serves its characters well though and makes for the most unbelievable situations to seem plausible. Chabon seems to have set out to pay tribute to the American spirit and in doing so made a highly entertaining, surprising work.
Rating:
Summary: Happy Surprise
Review: I'm not a fan of comic books or even a fan of books about comic books. I picked this up an the airport simply because I couldn't find anything better and I liked the movie "The Wonder Boys". I got home 3 days later and the book was done. This is much more than a book about comic books. The character development started early and kept going right to the end. Every character is both funny and believable, their world was brought to life very nicely by Chabon. Now I may go and buy Wonder Boys.
| 
