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Summary: My first Chabon experience....
Review: ...and I was very pleased. Good story, great characters, fine writing.
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Summary: Another look at the writer's life
Review: There are a number of books about the life of writers, from the World According to Garp by John Irving (in certain ways, a similar writer to Chabon) to the Dark Half by Stephen King. Chabon has shown he deserves a place of merit in this special genre.Having read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and having seen the movie upon which this book is based, I felt certain that this book would be a pleasant read, and it was. It also shows the dangers of reading a book after seeing a cinematic depiction of it...it almost certainly reduces the amount of enjoyment you will get. The book and movie are similar though not completely alike. Certainly, many of the principal characters are physically different from how they are shown on film; plot-wise, however, the story is almost identical. What you get from the book that you don't get from the movie is a greater depth and more insight as to why narrator Grady Tripp is the way he is. There is a good balance of drama and humor (including a rather silly reference to the Fantastic Four that once again shows Chabon's affection for comic books) as the protagonist goes through a simultaneously absurd and plausible weekend.
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Summary: Honest, Funny, and Overall Addictive
Review: Honestly, as too-cute as the movie felt at times, I found myself feeling somewhat cheated by the book's occasionally more ridiculous yet ultimately more honest version of the story. As contrived as its last five minutes proved to be, I preferred the simplicity and the generous outcomes of the movie. At first. But sure enough, a week later, I found myself putting aside Dave Eggers and going for a second, third or tenth analysis of water-based writing, or the midnight disease. Michael Chabon is a beautiful writer, and quite the inventive storyteller. I forgive him his hyperbolic plotlines. His descriptions and meditations are heartfelt and dead-on, and his characters are nothing short of endearing, warts and all. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who has the slightest appreciation for writing, writers, or the funny coincidences that make it through the day unnoticed.
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Summary: Wonderful read
Review: I loved reading Micael Chabon's book, "The Wonder Boys." Chabon's prose is amazing, ripe with metaphor, skilled, descriptive. His dialog is amazing. The characters are realistic and compelling. Unlike "Kavalier and Klay," "Wonder Boys" offers a cohesive and logical plot, one that doesn't spiral out of the author's control, perhaps because the novel's action is set within a few days instead of across the span of several decades. Can't think of anything bad to say about this book...
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Summary: Depressing
Review: The movie seemed fairly light-hearted, but I fell into a black mood every time I picked up the book.
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Summary: beauty unsurpassed
Review: this is a nearly perfect, hilarious, realistic look at life and it makes one heck of a good read!
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Summary: 3 1/2* The Mysteries of Fiction
Review: Michael Chabon, the author of the astonishingly good first novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," returns to Pennsylvania in this comic novel of a dissolute, womanizing, perpetually pot-smoking college English teacher, Grady Tripp. Not an appealing character, but Tripp's (get it--"Tripp?") free wheeling nature allows Chabon to explore the contrasts of Pennsylvanian life: "Town and Gown," the industrial and the rural, the comic and the Gothic, the stereotypical and the idiosyncratic. As in his other works, Chabon excels at dialogue, in his use of small but revealing details, and observing, with great comic invention, the regions of Pennsylvania: "There were so many Pittsburgh poets in my hallway that if, at that instant, the [house were destroyed], there would never have been another stanza written about rusting fathers and impotent steelworks and the Bessemer converter of love." However, I found a few annoying problems with the book. First, Grady is not a likeable character, and though I can't fault Chabon for Grady's dubious qualities, I don't think the author adequately explained why Grady never seemed to have matured, either as a responsible person or as a writer. The book's first person narrative is also problematic. Unlike, say, P.G. Wodehouse, it's not always clear when Chabon thinks his character is a buffoon, and when he intends us to take the character seriously, i.e., as an extension of Chabon's own views. Some of the characters seem too easily drawn, and the farce becomes a sophomoric parade of stereotypes (the brilliant but troubled student and Frank Capra fan; the kindly father-figure/prospective father-in-law, etc.). Finally, there are a number of "grand" themes in the book that remain unconvincing; most notably, that there is an "incurable disease that leads all good writers to suffer, inevitably, the quintessential fate of their characters." Such ambitious but unconvincing theorizing coupled with his occasionally overly decorous prose make for a sometimes pretentious voice. (But is it Grady's or Chabon's voice?--we're not really sure.) The book primarily succeeds as a broad farce, and it is easy to see how the melange of characters and "scenes" lends itself easily to the big screen. (I haven't seen the recent movie with Michael Douglas.) I recommend this as "summer reading": Light, humorous, and fanciful. However, it sometimes bogs down in its own narrative virtuosity, and fails to convince us of its "heavier" literary themes.
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Summary: What a novel should be
Review: Chabon continues his exploration of issues of identity and self in this tremendous novel. Much has been said in other well written reviews and I do not wish to be repetitive. However, a few things make this work really shine. Chabon's mastery of the language is nothing short of stunning. Often found myself calling friends to read them paragraphs that were so perfect, they left me gasping. Indeed, his vivid images and tight lyrical humerous prose will ignite a new appreciation for the written word. He also does a wonderful job of developing a cast of characters, major and minor, that are always intersting. Moreover, one gets the sense that everything about them is purposeful, designed to make the reader think deeper about the issues Chabon is exploring.
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Summary: have not yet seen the movie...
Review: I have a fourth of the way left to go in the book and I can't stop thinking about it. The irony is astounding and the word choice creates and atmosphere of being inside a writers head. Chabon portrays the lifestyle of a struggling writer in a way that mirrors the theme of the book--eccentric. There is something special about a book and its author that includes allusions to popular culture, films and other literary works. The allusions throughout the book bring the reader closer to tripp and leer. I look forward to finishing the book but I am dreading having it out of my life.
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Summary: Michael Chabon: Wonder Boy
Review: I'll admit that I was expecting to like this book before I even picked it up. My favorite books are usually about down-and-out writers doing down-and-out writer things... turning their relationships into massive disasters, fending off the tedium of reality with drink (and drugs, in this case), launching themselves into ill-conceived exploits that only compound their problems, all the while obsessing over getting things right in the one realm that they usually have complete and total power over: their fiction. But in Grady Tripp's case, he no longer controls even that. He is a college creative writing professor who hasn't published a book in years, and is caught up in writing a novel that, like his marriage, has long been spiraling out of control. The novel takes place over the weekend when his college holds their annual "Wordfest," a yearly event when writers of various sorts assemble at this unnamed small Pittsburgh school for a writers conference. Everything that has been happening (or not happening) to Grady over the past several years manages to come to the surface over this tumultuous weekend. What is truly amazing about this plot is the skill with which Michael Chabon, the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Adventures of Kavelier and Clay, presents it. His writing style is increadibly clean and sharp. He manages to be profound without slowing things down, always pushing the story ahead at full speed. His characters are vividly drawn, thoroughly realistic, and most importantly, interesting. I'm usually a pretty slow reader but I fired through this book like a bullet, and look forward to reading everything else this new American storyteller has written, and will write in the future.
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