Rating: 
Summary: Literary Magic
Review: I found The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay to be a compelling read; I couldn't put it down. This is the story of two cousins and the woman who would be muse, lover, wife and mother, forging careers in the burgeoning comic book industry of World War II-era America. The detailed descriptive prose, the verisimilitude of the times, the history, culture, characters, all rang true to me. The author interwove the themes of magic, escapism, the Holocaust, World War II, the comics, New York, love and art, into a rich tapestry of destiny meeting circumstance. Michael Chabon iterated the essence of how the times in which we live, those we love and the art we pursue, create who we are. A Pulitzer Prize well deserved.
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel
Review: For my money, the best book written in this country in the last 50 years. A depth of character, an meaniful and invovling plot, an urgency to story-telling, and the most beautiful grasp of language imaginable...these are the qualitites that make it not only a book that's impossible to put down, but one whose importance will live for generations to come.
Rating: 
Summary: CHABON KNOWS HIS STUFF, BUT...
Review: Having recently read this book, I was unaware that it had since won a pulitzer prize, and felt as mystified as when I finished Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. Granted, both great books, but why the prize? I suppose Chabon's seeming mastery of the English language impressed a few blow-hards on the Pulitzer board (who decides these things?), but other than that, it left me somewhat dissatisfied.To say it in short, this book was much like bologna on a freshly baked roll, dissatisfying in the middle. After 100 pages, I had originally intended to give it four stars, and ended up wanting to give it two, but awarded a third for Chabon's obvious effort in compiling such a work, and also for a somewhat satisfactory ending avoiding the middle's disturbing descriptions of homosexuality and a blase war story thrown in to make it seem "epic." The only "epic" feeling I got was of the momentousness of my having finished a 640 page book. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is much a book in parts (which it is thankfully divided into), but often the parts don't compliment each other well. It often wanders in distracting ways and fails to explain introductions of completely new characters or plot segments until pages after you have been reading them. Probably a book you'd have to read twice, Kavalier and Clay unfortunately didn't leave me wanting that. If you are, however, somehow interested in reading about early 20th century Jewish Culture AND Comic Books AND Street Smart Coming of Age AND Savvy New York business tactics AND a Love story involving three men and one woman AND the psychological effects of Antarctic war, this book is for you. I suppose if I could work all those into one novel, I'd feel like I deserved the pulitzer too.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting ideas that never come to life
Review: I read this book before it received the Pulitzer and it was a major disappointment. The book has so many possibilities that are never realized: such wasted opportunities! First, the idea of a novel with such wonderful elements as Houdini and escapism, the Golem, the birth of comic books and World War II in Antartica, is intriguing to say the least. And there are some magic moments in the novel, such as the rescue of the Golem and the creation of the Moth Woman. But almost all the characters - Joe, Sammy, Rosa, parents, police - are lifeless: they are passive, their dialog bland, their interactions mundane. The story meanders and important plot points are described by characters after the fact, rather than vividly lived by them. The action performed Sammy and Joe are often perplexing and poorly motivated (explain again why Joe jumped ship and disappeared for all those years?). The result is frustrating because the book always seems on the edge of giving a lot more.
Rating:
Summary: A colorful adventure into lives during and after the war...
Review: As a comic book fan, I was intrigued by this story of two immigrants who come to America to make it big in the comics biz. Chabon's style of writing includes the sounds, and smells, and fine detail which doesn't drag the reading pace, but actually makes it more flavorful. Very entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Sinks to the level of its subject matter
Review: If you like your Pulitzer-winners average then this is the book for you. "The Amazing Adventures" probably really deserves a three, but it loses one star for the damage it does to the reputation of a venerated award. It's a novel about comic books that has the plot pacing and dialogue of its subject matter but provides no saran-wrapped women to gawk at. Furthermore, the prose is overly romantic and the romances are overly prosaic. (Ha! Give ME a Pulitzer for THAT!) Buy the book if you want but keep your expectations low.
Rating:
Summary: Great literature that's great fun!
Review: Chabon has brought together so many wonderful elements in this book that perhaps most impressive is his success in melding them all into a coherent whole. The reader is treated to evocative glimpses of 1930's Prague and decades in gritty, bustling Manhattan; the tutelage of an escape artist and the mythic stature of the Great Houdini; the ink-stained genesis of pulp comics and their two-fisted, four-color war against the Axis Menace; soirees peopled by a young Orson Welles and an antic Salvador Dali; life and death in an arctic naval station; a peripatetic pint-sized strongman and an ancient clay giant; and so much more that just thinking of it all makes me want to reread the book NOW. Rich with tantalizing nuggets of historical interest on at least a dozen subjects, this delicious stew of a story also bubbles with a magical realism reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Crackling with energy and humor, pulse-pounding and poignant, and written with a love and true mastery of the English language, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is great literature that is great fun.
Rating:
Summary: Admirable
Review: Two kids decide to make up their own comic book. Sounds like me and my kid brother. Of course, we didn't live in New York in the 1930's, we didn't have family stranded in Prague during the Holocaust, and we didn't have a chance in hell of getting our comic book published. We were dreamers with no motivation and no talent in that arena. The Amazing Adventures of K&C is a chronicle of two very motivated, very talented individuals and their struggles to influence the universe through art and will. I'll just mention a couple of things that show up in this book that will stay with me: A background in Houdini's magic that may not be as detailed as I've read before, but certainly is more heartfelt than any. Two stunning chapters that took me into the world of comic books again. These double layers of imagination remind me of Hamlet's play within a play. An education about Jewish Golems. A visit with Salvador Dali and Orson Welles. A review of Citizen Kane through the actions and words of a character that inspired me almost as much as the movie did. --- Chabon's style is complicated but not insulting. He uses words that would make Faulkner go grab a dictionary. He uses sentence structures that would make Dickens read them slowly. This was my first time with his work. I'm going to go buy the others either today or tomorrow.
Rating:
Summary: A real book
Review: There are enough reviews to allow me avoiding redundancy. Simply put, this is why we read, and if you write, this book will inspire and intimidate.
Rating:
Summary: A Love Story Writ Large
Review: Following in the tradition of many renowned novelists of the twentieth century, Michael Chabon sets his love story, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," in a large city. Mr. Chabon contributes much here to the urban legend that is New York City. A troika of major characters, Joe Kavalier, Rosa Saks, and Sammy Clay, joins with a cast of minor characters so believable that they seem like neighbors. The comic book characters drawn by these three come to life as well. Mr. Chabon's prose is passionate and, yes, purple in places, a narrative device used to lift the lyricism off the page. Sometimes I looked up unfamiliar words; sometimes I didn't. I found Leo Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish" useful for looking up Golem of Prague and some Yiddish words. I enjoyed all the references to Harry Houdini; for the reader who wants to know more about him, I highly recommend "Houdini!!!" by Kenneth Silverman. Mr. Chabon provides a clue to his extensive research in his Author's Note and gives excellent suggestions for reading more about New York City during the 1930s to 1950s; Prague during the 1930s to 1940s; magic, magicians, and escape artists; the Antarctic; the Kabbalah; radio and comic books; and Levittown. "Kavalier & Clay" is a tender love story writ large that caresses some controversial themes with sensitivity, humor, and grace.
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