Rating: 
Summary: Writer Gone Pulitzer Prize Winner
Review: Chabon lost his touch. After winning the Pulitzer for Wonder Boys, he has begun to take himself to seriously. Glances at the dust covers of the two books tell the story (in less than Kavalier's droll 600+ pages). Chabon's portrait goes from light and genuine, to over-polished and dreary. His bio shifts from lucky kid from Pittsburgh, to 'living in Berkeley, with his wife, also a novelist'' Kavalier and Clay is a slow and trite attempt to a period piece that is like watching a Charlie Chaplin movie with your eyes closed. Instead of reading this book, read Wonder one more time. If you liked Wonder, try Lit Life by Kurt Wenzel.
Rating: 
Summary: Destined to be one of the great books of the era
Review: What can you say about Michael Chabon, who is destined to be one of the great writers of his generation that has not been said before? Comparisons between his work to Roth and Mann have become so common that they are almost cliché.This novel represents Chabon's best work to date and his significant maturing as an author. Like his previous works, the characters are rich and the language artistic. What he adds to his work with this book is tremendous scope as well as a plot more complex than he has previously attempted. How does he do? In short, brilliantly. The work is deep and complex, the character compelling, the prose lyrical. Often you will find yourself reading a single paragraph three or four times marveling at his mastery of the language. Also wonderful is Chabon's ear for dialogue, used here to great effect. I need also add my compliments to his ability as a researcher and his vivid imagination. Few other authors could give us the tale he here conjures. I cannot recommend this work highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: a fantastic novel
Review: While hyperbole abounds in our society, I think it is safe to say that Michael Chabon will be one of the great American novelists of his generation. This novel is a fine example of the genius that abounds in this young author. The scope is dramatic, the characters compelling, and the story engrosses the reader. When I read it, I could not put it down for three days. In many ways, this is Chabon's best work yet. I master of style and genre, here the author finds his own voice. He draws the reader into the joys and tragedies of these characters and brings us to accept the often-outlandish reality of their world. One last note. I applaud Chabon for his excellent research on the host of diverse topics it took to bring this work to fruition. From the history of comic books, the Kabalah, to Antarctic exploration, the author clearly spent a tremendous amount of time amassing the details needed to bring this work to life.
Rating:
Summary: ....
Review: Awh man, what a book. What a book. If I wasn't trapped in this Brighton hotel - trapped here due to the torrential rain currently filling this seaside town from the bottom up - I would be out there, running around the streets like Kevin McCarthy at the end of Don Seigal's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", telling everybody about this book. Because awh man, what a book. I want to be like a book-reading John the Baptist about this book. I'll be John the Bookworm. Go read this book. It's a humdinger. It's a five star read. I mean. If you just look at the facts of what you get - just the facts alone. You get a guy jumping from the Empire State Building, secured by a mad collection of stupidly knotted elastic bands. You get a guy - the same guy, funnily enough - stranded in the Antarctic, with a radio and a lunatic (a lunatic who uses the bodies of dead dogs to repair his aeroplane) for company. You get a guy (yeah yeah yeah - it's the same guy - Kavalier, okay? Joe Kavalier) smuggled out of war-torn Prague in the coffin of the Golem. That would be the Golem - creature of Jewish legend - dressed in a suit from Joe Kavalier's dad's collection of giant suits. Because Joe Kavalier's dad collects clothes worn by people who were in some way set apart from others (giants, midgets etc). At the other end of the spectrum, you get Salvador Dali, drowning in a fish tank. Stan Lee gossiping in some coffee shop. McCarthy-esque McCarthyite hearings berating the guys who draw comic strips. Orson Welles. You get magic. Sleight of hand. Card tricks. You get Tannen's old magic shop. All that, and you get the Escapist too. Because that is why you're here, at the start. The Escapist. That is what draws you in. Two guys - Kavalier and Clay - drawing comic books, drawing the Escapist. Who is sort of like Superman. Only not. He is one of those old time heroes. From the days when heroes did not have to be flawed. Which sounds a little John Wayne, I know (you can hear the voice-over, right? "When heroes could be heroes . . ."). But it isn't. The Escapist sets out to fight the Second World War, sets out to knock Hitler into a cocked hat (from day one, the cover of the first issue has the Escapist belting Hitler a good one, sending him flying right out into the reader's lap). The Escapist is the first of what eventually becomes a stable of heroes (the Monitor, the Luna Moth, all those people). Which in itself, would be enough. As far as I am concerned, that seems like enough. But no. There's more. Aside of the two young geniuses responsible for the Escapist - Kavalier and Clay - you get the family Kavalier had to fatally and guiltily leave behind in Prague. You get wild Rosa Saks and her father, Siggy. You get fat old Anapol, making money off of those whippersnappers responsible for the comic. You get a love story (Joe and Rosa). You get a sort of coming-of-age story (Sam Clay, his relationship with the actor playing the Escapist on a radio show, a guy called Bacon of all things). There is a kid called Tommy. There is a great period in the wilderness. There is a terrific - and by terrific, I mean of a great size, vast - rollercoaster heart thundering away in the midst of this novel (Chabon writes like an old time train driver, shovelling coal into the raging oven, propelling this amazing contraption along the tracks). Like I said at the start. What a book. What a book. Awh man, what a book. ....
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: The most genuine test of a truly great book is that one wishes it would never end. Such was the case for me with Kavalier and Klay. Chabon has written a most impressive and, I would venture, enduring novel: he's the real deal. I was impressed with the way in which the lives of Joe and Sammy became true reflections of the fantasy that they created in the Escapist, criticized as merely an easy escape from reality. "He had escaped, in his life, from ropes, chains, boxes, bags, and crates, from handcuffs and shackles, from countries and regimes, from the arms of a woman who loved him, from crashed airplanes and an opiate addiction and from an entire continent intent on causing his death." I was amazed by the epic scope of Chabon's canvas in Prague, Antarctica and Gotham, and the ease with which the characters moved within their spheres. Chabon's writing entailed bold, simple strokes that rang true and he gave us characters about whom we could really care like Tommy and Rosa -- full-bodied, flawed, loving, wounded. His style had a grand pointillism, full of big dots like the pixels in comic books in their heyday. There is a marvelous sense of optimism in this work -- that man by craft, ingenuity, invention, intelligence, will and courage can extricate himself from overwhelming, corrupt and debilitating powers. There is much to respect in this great American novel: above all, beyond the undeniable talent that is evident in the opulently elegant writing, this book has heart. Chabon will be remembered as one of the great ones -- in Kavalier and Klay he has made his mark on the American literary landscape, which is in dire need of daring, epic, heroic voices.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Read
Review: Right up there with the best of Mark Helprin. Don't waste your time reading lengthy reviews. Just go out and get this wonderfully exciting yet human story today.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book starts off very, very exciting...but quickly loses ground. The settings are absolutely enthralling, but Chabon forgets what to do with his sets. The ending is a thorough letdown, and I feel bad for all the characters involved, especially Clay's son. Not enough rewrites. Looking forward to better things from Michael Chabon.
Rating:
Summary: If only if could've been shorter
Review: I bought this book because it won the Pulitzer, and I was pleasantly surprised because the winners from the previous three years were boring and unoriginal (who cares about Woolf's pathetic life?) This book doesn't break any new grounds in terms of plot either (the friendships between the two boys seem vaguely reminiscent of Farewell to My Concubine), but it does involve adolescent friendships and comic books, two things that I treasure still. I was glued to this book for two nights because it brought back so many memories of my childhood. The only reason I give it three stars and not five is that it's too long and too much attention was put on one of the boys. Thanks to the panel of judges for the Pulitzer for finally choosing a book with a popular theme.
Rating:
Summary: a great read, a great book
Review: friendship, love, creativity, magic, escape artistry, immigration, war. It's all here, and all unique. I can't think of the last book I liked this much, that I felt succeeded on so many levels. And I never read many comic books (except a bit of Betty and Veronica at camp), so that's not at all necessary to the enjoyment of this real, American epic.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: This was the first Pulitzer-winner I've ever read, and judging from this book, I won't stop now. This is an excellent read, for anyone, comic book fan or not. I spent four solid hours finishing it off, and not every book can grab me like that. Definite recommendation.
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