Rating: 
Summary: Overblown and Overwritten
Review: In the impetuousness of our youth, many of us make critical decisions - "complicated solutions to insolvable problems" as one of the characters in Chabon's novel muses - that bear bitter fruit for years to come; that precept is one of the central themes in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the author of Wonder Boys. An epic novel, to be sure, at 656 pages in paperback, Kavalier and Clay recalls the literary equivalent of a Steven Spielberg movie: glossy, sprawling, sentimental in a saccharine and manipulative way, and hollow at the core.Cousins Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay are budding geniuses in the also-budding world of comic books in the 1930's. Three-quarters of the narrative is spent on Joe and Sam's early years when they are both young, foolish, self-absorbed and self-pitying - and that is the book's greatest flaw. Five hundred-plus pages of sullen, brooding characters mired in guilt and shame and frustration is just much too much to expect the reader to bear, even if the reader knows that undoubtedly the characters will reap the disastrous product of the seeds they have sown. On the other hand, Chabon does a remarkable job of evoking the creative frustration of artists relegated to earning a living in a "mongrel art form" (the fabulous character of embittered pulp novelist George Deasey is a great vehicle for this). Having worked as a writer for another mongrel art form for nine years - "pseudonymous hackdom," in the words of George Deasey - I can personally attest to the fact that Chabon hit the nail squarely on the head, and for this my hat goes off to him, one writer to another. It is also for this reason -- my glowing respect for Chabon's lethal accuracy in portraying the frustration of artists trapped in literary ghettos -- that I refuse to dissect his disappointing novel any further, other than to say that I look forward to another work from this immensely talented novelist that is more focused and streamlined.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Book of 2000
Review: I first read "Kavalier & Clay" back when it came out, and I was floored by it. As a result, I was delighted to hear it won the Pulitzer. This is a tremendous leap for Chabon from his earlier works (which are, in their own right, very good) and, I believe, one of the best pieces of recent fiction. Chabon does a masterful job of presenting the world of comic books in such a way that even those with no interest in comics are drawn in. Wartime New York - and, indeed, wartime America - are vivdely portrayed. Joe, Sam and Rosa will stay with you long after you've finished reading it, but the lesser characters (e.g. George Deasey) are equally meaningful and memorable. "Kavalier & Clay" is as finely-crafted, entertaining, and enlightening a novel as you'll find anywhere. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: amazing and wonderful escape
Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a wonderfully satisfying book. Full of excitement, curiosity and love. The people and places live more fully on these pages than if they had been photographed or drawn. Michael Chabon takes on the themes of creation and escape-both what we escape from and escape to-and weaves them into a tale of shining dreams that don't come true but grow into deeply satisfying lives none the less. For his setting, he re-imagines New York City and in the late Thirties and early Fifties, the time when America passed from the height of its innocent youth to the first pangs of anxious, morbid maturity. Propelled by imaginative incidents, the passions of its characters and the cadence of Chabon's striding sentences, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay delivers what every reader wants: an amazing literary adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: I can personally relate to the theme of the book--my father was a cartoonist and a refugee from the Nazis who lived in New York (although he couldn't continue his career here). So I began it with great interest--and initially, I was fascinated with the story and enthralled by the writing. But about two-thirds of the way through, I had the distinct feeling that the author didn't know where to go with the story, and kept inventing increasingly contrived plot twists to keep it going. I turned the pages faster and faster, and reached an ending which I thought ended with the proverbial whimper rather than a bang. With this book, Chabon is something like a trapeze artist who wows the crowd with his opening stunts, gets so engrossed with his own performance that he goes on too long, loses balance, and ultimately falls. Pulitzer? Definitely not.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read, but...
Review: I was enthralled from the beginning of the book to its end, and was entrenched in the plight of its characters. Chabon's prose is mercurial, to say the least. His narration is a muscular omniscient, time-encompassing one - one that intrepidly flashes forward or backward to illuminate on the current scene being described, often in a same sentence. Chabon's command over the language is flawless, but never clinical. I've often heard people compare this novel to Delillo's "Underworld", but apart from the fact that both novels are about Americana in roughly same epochs, not much is similar. Whereas Delillo's book is a brawling beast, Chabon's story, in spite of its epic background and proportions, is an intimate one. The intimate nature of this story perfectly suits and plays to Chabon's gifts as a writer. He has a preternatural knack of describing an insight of a character or a scene with pitch-perfect sensitivity. Despite the fact that I enjoyed the book very much, by the end of the book, and intermittenly throughout, I found myself irked by a number of things. First of all, compared to the Herculean world and situation that Chabon conjure up, the statement that he makes is a very small, miniscule one. He doesn't tackle too much in the way of themes. I'm not saying that every novel should aspire to be a theme-wrestling, metaphysics-busting behemoth. (God forbid.) But I was more than a little put off by how little Chabon risked in such a big book. He is a far-too talented writer to hang so little. Granted, he evokes a lost world and its characters, telling their stories with admirable depth. But all to what end? What remains? This is a very cinematic novel, and the images and residual emotions of it remain... but nothing much more profound. I don't know if it's just a matter of a personal pet peeve, but some of Chabon's prose-mannerisms didn't sit well with me, either. He is a stylist of language, seemingly capable of writing about anything with his own flair. But in some passages, he rather sounds like a young writer trying to do an American version of Garcia Marquez. Especially when he describes a scene in the present, and flashes to an epiphanic moment in the future to show the present scene's ramifications. It's a narrative technique employed to a devastating effect in Garcia Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude." In fact, many descriptions in Chabon's book, especially ones describing surreal sequences, or quasi-absurdist moments seem like American echoes of Garcia Marquez's book. Even the mysterious magician mentor of Joe Kavalier, Bernard Kornblum, who flits in and out from the beginning and end of the tale is a dead ringer for the mysterious gypsy mentor of Buendias, Melchisedek (is this the right name? memory fails me) who flits in and out from the beginning and end of "100 Years..." I'm not implying that Chabon imitated Garcia Marquez consciously. He's a far too talented writer for that, and as I've said, this may be just a personal gripe, a prejudice based on my own tastes. But some curious mannerisms, a pseudo-fabulist-magic-realist prose, and a lack of profound themes make "Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" seem like a pretty movie with interesting characters that you forget about only too soon. Even against your own will.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful in Retrospect
Review: I read this book back in December 2000. On the one hand, it was very interesting, however on the other, I had a difficult time getting in to it. Now, months later, the book has stayed with me, in a very charming and endearing way. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Schindler's List meets The Comic Book Heroes
Review: Anyone with even a passing interest in the history of comics should give this book a read. It uses the birth of the "Funnybook" industry as a backdrop to the tale of some very interesting characters coming of age in the later 1930s and early 40s. Cousins Sammy and Josef are thrown together late one night when Sam's mother tells him to move over and share his bed with his cousin who's just arrived, having escaped from Nazi occupied Prague to the US by way of Japan. The book from that point on is as rambling a journey as Joe's route to New York. As they grow up and become involved in the fledgling comic book industry we see them grow from boys into men, two very different men. Sam serves as the catalyst, the spark to Joe's unbelievable talent. Together they create one of comic's golden age legends- The Escapist. By no means is the scope of the book limited to drawing men in tights. Memorable scenes take place all over New York, Prague, and even Antarctica. Sam and Joe are wined and dined by the best the 1940s had to offer. At one point they both attend the premiere of Citizen Kane as guests of guests of Orson Welles himself. Other cameos include Stan Lee, Wil Eisner, Harry Houdini, The Golem, and Salvador Dali in a diving suit and helmet. A host of other "Forrest Gump" type placements pepper the narrative without ever coming across as gratuitous or contrived. These famous folks inhabit the same city of the heroes and brush in tangent with their lives in a very natural way. There is so much encompassed in this book that it seems almost impossible to sum up succinctly. Very much like life. Chabon's writing seems to float like poetry. Sentences run on and on, yet we never tire or feel misplaced. Not many authors can command this sort of focus and attention. If Homer had been a fan of the Golden Age of Comics, this would have been The Odyssey.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not Pulitzer good.
Review: I thought that the writing was very good, the story entertaining, if not particularly moving in any way. I was curious to read this, because the author lives in Berkeley and it had one the Pulitzer. Although I'm not sorry I bought it and I enjoyed it, I guess that I think that a Pultizer-winning novel should somehow reflect some part of reality or bring me to some greater truth, but it didn't it. It seemed very geared towards guys who grew up with comic books and have certain associations with that. The truths seemed to be the truths of men who become fathers, or who are emotionally crippled. So, maybe this is a "men's novel." To me, something like the Poisonwood Bible would be Pulitzer material, because you never think of Africa in the same way after reading it.
Rating:
Summary: A Sprawling Epic About Escape
Review: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a wonderful and loving tribure to the powers of wonder and the need for escape. The story is spread across a large canvas from Prague to the Antarctica, but mainly set in the heart of wonder itself, New York City from the late thirties to the mid-fifties. The golden age of the comic book comes alive in this story of Josef Kavalier and Sammy Clay creating their successful stories, particulary the Escapist. Both of the lead characters have to learn about escape, both literal and figuarative, both of the imagination and the body. The journey makes for a wonderful, emotional read that deserves all the praise heaped upon it. The author has created a rich tapestry from the looked-down art form of comics and used it to create a time and place that is specific but will still resonate with all readers. A true joy to read and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading!
Review: I second everyone of those great reviews. Wonderful characters - great plot and just overall good reading. I'm new to this author but will certainly explore more.
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