Rating: 
Summary: Scattering of images
Review: I find it deeply discouraging when I finish a book and am glad that it is over. Although I enjoyed Chabon's writing style and his fantastic use of metaphors where I never thought metaphors could be used, in the end, I just didn't care what happened. Chabon's style, with its enormous build-ups and immediate and sudden conclusions left me wanting so much more than he was offering. It took me a good 40 pages to get used to Josef in Antarctica, and then once I did, he left. And just when we are about to get into the deeper caverns of Josef's mind, we leave him and are only given small bits of his time between Cuba and his move back to New York. The novel moves with some bizarre twists and turns, something I tend to seek out. However, it's so disjointed and incomplete, that in the end it just deflates. Chabon wrote some wonderful sentences and he is obviously a talented writer that will keep me coming back for more; but this one just didn't do it for me.
Rating: 
Summary: A Symphony of Metaphors and Ideas
Review: This 600+ novel may at first seem a bit daunting in a world where your average novel may not exceed 400 pages, but every page in this book is worth it. All these pages are needed for Chabon's flashbacks, asides, quirky footnotes, and metaphors. All of these aspects of Chabon's work accentuate his extremely original storyline. As some critics have noted, this story seems to jump around at times, chapter 8 seems to have little to do with the preceding chapter 7. At times this makes the storyline a little harder to follow...however, when you can follow it, the quick jerks in plotline gives you the uneasy feeling that you don't know where the story is headed.
As I mentioned before, Chabon enriches his already creative storyline with intriguing metaphors. Often times I found myself tasting the food he described, or seeing the clothes of a famous celebrity. Obviously this is what metaphors do; however Chabon does it in a way that fascinated me over and over again with every description. He compared things, I thought had no comparision...but when phrased correctly bring the objects to life. Chabon has one more great talent and interest it seems. He likes to catch you off guard. Instead of building up to a climatic moment and then spilling the beans in ordinary fashion when you want him to...he may hint at something that you know is coming...but then he springs it on you before you're ready. In short, he catches you off guard and keeps you there. This is another way that you think you know where the story's going but really you have no clue. In conclusion, read this book if you were ever interested in comics, or you like a good yarn that's never been told before, or you want to experience the WWII era from two young men's perspective. After you read this book, you'll want to be able to describe things in such detail, wished you'd learned to draw when you were younger, and give Hitler that "CRACK!" in the jaw.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book
Review: This book is magical. I can't remember the last time I cared so much about the lives of imaginary people. If you are interested in New York City, comic books, WW2, art, or simply want to read a great story about love, life, and friendship, you should buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading some reviews for this book and noting the Pulitzer Prize award, I brought this book on vacation with some anticipation. I guess I expected something like Mark Helprin (A Soldier of the Great War, etc.). This book starts well but the pace slows to a crawl a third of the way through the book and utilizes contrived and unconvincing mechanisms to move the plot forward. Finally, I found the characters rather two-dimensional and not particularly appealing.
Rating: 
Summary: So Much More Than I Expected
Review: To be honest, the backdrop of the comic book world lowered my expectations for this novel. But, as the overused saying goes, "You cannot judge a book by its cover." This piece of literature is not about comic books. This book is about war, evil, and, most of all, love . . . and the unbearable pain of losing those that you love. The tale that Michael Chabon weaves pulls the reader in and out of fantasy in such a complicated, yet meticulous, fashion that I became uncomfortable in the fantasy world- I could feel the dysfunction of fantasy as a coping mechanism. As a piece of emotion, this book is heartbreaking. The author also does an excellent job of incorporating the history of World War II, New York City, and suburbia as compliments to the story- and does an excellent job of fighting the urge to regurgitate historical facts for the sake of showing he did his research (although I was often left wondering which items are historically accurate and which were the result of poetic license). The one (minor) thing I would have liked (for authenticity's sake), was the writing of foreign dialogue in the appropriate language with English translations dropped in footnotes (which Chabon otherwise had no problem using in the book). But one can hardly call that a complaint.
Rating: 
Summary: Overlong and irritating.
Review: Did anybody care about the characters by the end?
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful reading
Review: Best novel that I have read in years. This is the first novel that I have rated as 5 stars. Extremely enjoyable reading, wonderfully written, and incredibly well researched.
Rating:
Summary: The American Dream Meets Reality
Review: I don't know why I decided to read this book; I suppose the cover caught my eye and then the description nabbed me. In any event, I'm glad I did. While the story does ramble a bit and could have used a bit of tightening, the characters and the imaginative tale kept my interest, and it seldom flagged. Sammy and Joe, while not your everyday male characters, are nonetheless "Everymen" who typify the American Dream, and who actually get to live it, with all the good and bad that go along with that dream (Be careful what you wish for. . .). The novel explores many issues: the irony of tragedy that can accompany the life devoted to creating comics, the creative process itself, the search for love, the isolation we each must experience in order to be able to finally connect with our fellow human beings, the search for happiness in monetary success, the hypocrisy of bigotry in a free society, etc. These are all addressed in an imaginative and detailed story. I must say that, while I consider myself very well read and educated, I too was a bit put off by Chabon's almost whimsical use of obtuse vocabulary; but I love words and just kept a dictionary nearby. That did, however, tend to interrupt my reading and the flow of the narrative at times. Overall, I believe that this is a book that can be read for entertainment, but is best enjoyed when one savors the metaphor, symmbols and imagery that work with the likeable characters to create a tale that illustrates well the painful process of maturing that inevitably results when we must learn to temper our dreams with reality.
Rating:
Summary: A Comic Lover's Heaven. A Comic Hater's Heaven.
Review: This book called to me as soon as I saw the cover. I am fourteen, an avid comic book reader, Jewish, and a fan of Chabon (Wonder Boys). This book is actually a very close match to both comic history and young adulthood. The creators of real comic books around the same time WERE Jewish. The book seems so personal, yet so unbelievably ridiculous (in a fun way). I was disappointed when they just killed off Terry, and stopped the Joe in Antartica (as another review put it, a metaphor to limbo). But otherwise, this topped "wonder Boys" majorly, and with a little more pep and spice. The characters are likeable and easy to relate to, and the writing soothes without being too "bumpy (language and vocabulary-wise, the book was unbelievably understandable, why are you [...] sayingthere is a lot of "big" words? Not everything is monosyllabic)" or sappy. All the characters are picured in your head very quickly, and there is a bit of Comic history shoved in (Officer Lieber towards the end; Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee's real lat name is Lieber. I was happy to see appear, however minor, in the book, and the characters seem like an average comic hero (except the Luna Moth, who seems to be a love interest for Arthur in the indie comic/tv show(s) the Tick). Rosa and Tommy, the characters who the author are probably most like (sex, age, etc.) real people, whereas Sammy, Joe, and Terry are like people you encounter on New York streets. Thank you for the book (and the Orson Welles cameo), Mr. Chabon. I can't wait for a movie out of THIS one.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Escape
Review: Okay, it's hardly Moby Dick. Still, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a very fine novel. It may not be for everyone, as the mixed nature of these reviews make fairly clear. I feel I got my money's worth and more. It's interesting to me that so many people comment on Michael Chabon's prose itself. The reason for this is that Chabon has a singular and distinctive style. Occasionally, it borders on pretentious. He drops names and details that betray extensive research. He indulges in convoluted sentence structure. He has an immense vocabulary, which he is not loathe to display. His use of metaphor is occasionally Dennis Milleresque. I found his prose very unusual and interesting. Occasionally, he gives a stunning sentence (his style is such that he often crafts some beautiful clauses within sentences). His metaphors might stretch sometimes, but often they spring back with an insightful snap. This book has a wonderful spirit, instinct as it is with the pure guilty delight with which a child reads a good comic book. This rumination on the creation of comic books brought all the remembered pleasure of reading them back to me, along with a new appreciation for the sweat and inspiration that spawned them. Only a fundamental lack of faith mars it. Hope it's got, but what the hope is based on is left to the reader to guess. Which can be okay, I guess. Read the two and three star reviews, they've got some valid points. But read the four and five star ones as well. The delight expressed in some of them is not groundless. For me, the good far outweighed the bad with this one. Definitely one of the best novels I've read in a while.
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