Rating: 
Summary: A rare case...
Review: I believe this is one of the rare instances where the film was stronger than the novel. This book is thematically inconsistent and, in many of the scenes that did not appear in the film version, pretty boring. The characters are great and Chabon is a good author - but, much to my surprise, I would advise one to rent the film before reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: The mark of great skill!
Review: I've barely finished this book and I already feel like a swan diving off the roof; Mr. Chabon is that good. The story of an eccentric novelist whose life turns upside down in the midst of a writer's block is insightful, entertaining and thought provoking. The dark humor is second to none. Granted, Grady Tripp isn't the most pleasant character ever read, but his off-kilter personality had me in stitches throughout the novel. I haven't seen the film yet but I hope Michael Chabon made pots of money off its release. What a skillful and brilliant novelist. You must read this book immediately.
Rating: 
Summary: Writers in Pittsburgh on a bizarre weekend bender
Review: Michael Chabon's "Wonder Boys" is a darkly funny literary novel about a writer lost in a marijuana fog, tapping away at an endless fourth work that has taken over seven years of his life, and how his life finally unravels over the course of a weekend during "Wordfest" at the small college where he teaches.
On a Friday, writer/teacher Grady Tripp has his wife leave him, learns his lover, the college chancellor, is pregnant, and has a young writing student living in his basement, who may have more in mind than just reading his work in progress.
Enter James Leer, a sort of Amish Goth student of Tripp's, and we have a kind of Fear and Loathing On The Road in Pittsburgh.
There are a number of interesting characters, including Tripp's editor, the sexually ambiguous Crabtree, the transvestite, Antonia Sloviak, one Vernon Hardapple, aka Pea, and all of Grady's women.
Chabon has a way with a phrase and I found myself rereading sentences and passages because the prose was so beautifully executed. He turned some fresh similes, and while the story was mostly character driven, there was tension and conflict throughout that kept the story moving.
I felt that it did sag a bit in the middle when Grady and James went to Grady's in-laws to celebrate the Jewish holiday Seder, and it's funny because that entire part was written out of the movie version.
Yes, the movie version was good as well, excellently cast with Michael Douglas as Tripp, Tobey Maguire as James Leer, Robert Downey as the lecherous Crabtree, and Frances McDormand as Sara, Tripp's lover.
Great book that I will probably reread at some point, and I'm looking forward to digging into Chabon's other works.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I was assigned to read this book by a college English professor, and I'm glad I was because this isn't the kind of book I would normally pick up. As a writer myself, I loved reading about the main character's troubles in bringing his gargantuan novel to a close. The story was full of weird characters and twists, but that made it fun. The things going on around the main character were ludicrous, but that highlighted the seriousness of his situation. The best word I can think of to describe this book: interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: Masterpiece! Brilliant! His best work....better than Kavalier and Clay. T
Rating:
Summary: A Good Story Streched Too Far
Review: Towards the end of "The Wonder Boys the potential next conquest of our novelist hero Grady reads the draft of his Wonder Boys. Her only comment was maybe it would be better if Grady weren't stoned all the time. Funny thing is I had come to the conclusion that Michael Chabon's novel of the same name would have been better if Grady wasn't stoned all the time either."The Wonder Boys is the tale of a writer in crisis. His third and long overdue novel is at 1000 pages and he is still nowhere near completion. As a result his relationship with his oldest friend Crabtree, who is also his editor, is coming to an end. His wife has left him over his affair with another professor who teaches at the same college as him. Complicating the affair are both her pregnancy and her husband, the Chancellor of the same college. Meanwhile his substance abuse, consisting mostly of smoking enough pot for three sequels to "Up In Smoke has addled his creativity, his senses, and his sense. Over a weekend including both a writer's conference at the school and Passover at his in-laws Grady's life collapses, all his mistakes coming together. At the very end, a reborn Grady rises not like a phoenix but a guy who has it together to start a new life. There are a lot of fun ideas in "The Wonder Boys: the midnight disease, the unbalanced nature of writers, a mentor relationship, uncontrollable womanizing, substance abuse, confused youth, mortality, and on and on. There are some memorable characters, including Crabtree, James Lear a potential writing prodigy, and Grady's mistress. In fact there is one hell of a two hundred and fifty page novel in there. The problem is the damn thing is 350 pages long and it seems like each of the 100 extras is Grady getting stoned and feeling sorry for himself. In fact Grady is the real problem of the entire novel. While the protagonist of a novel about midlife crisis, failure, and rebirth probably won't be very attractive at the beginning (after all, we're talking about someone at the bottom coming up) by the end you should have found something in him that makes his recovery from the mess of his life seem both just and desirable. With Grady I just wanted to scream, "Sober up and open your eyes you stupid pothead." Only after much navel gazing (Grady is a stereotype of the midlife crisis boomer so much it hurts) does Grady finally start to take action and become a character whose side you want to take. While no particular part needs to be removed some healthy editing and trimming to some scenes and sequences would have done wonders. However, the story is interesting and if Chabon does take too long in the middle to resolve the crisis he setups in the end the overall story is good. The sense of coming full circle where Grady returns to his hometown to be moderate successful novelist after opening the book with the tale of a failed pulp writer a la Howard or Lovecraft is satisfying. Chabon has a nice sense of language and his supporting cast shows an interesting eye for character. While I'm not as enamored of it as many were I can see the potential that was apparently fulfilled in "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay based on that book's Pulitzer Prize. Certainly not good enough to make me run out and get his other books, but not bad enough to make me never read him again.
Rating:
Summary: Pre-Pulitzer Grace
Review: Wonder Boys is nothing short of magnificent. While Chabon was awarded a Pulitzer for a Kavalier and Clay, this is a far superior work. Taking place over the short span of a weekend, Wonder Boys manages to embrace the reader and take him along on a tour of middle aged panic, Mid-Atlantic mindset, and fear of mediocrity. As his world crashes down around him, our hero Grady Tripp is forced to make decisions, apparently for the first time in many years. He is at once lover, mentor, failure, last hope and father figure to those surrounding him. Can he pull it off? Read and find out.
Rating:
Summary: Chabon is amazing
Review: Maybe you have to be an English Major slash hopeful writer to really enjoy this book to it's full potential, though I really don't think that is true. Chabon has painted a beautiful canvas in this account of a few days in the life of Grady Tripp. It's a clever, funny look at the world of a burned out novelist. I highly recommend it. With works like this and Kavalier and Clay, Chabon is fast becoming one of my favorite authors writing today, alongside Nick Hornby and Chuck Palahniuk.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK
Review: Although he won the Pulitzer for another one of his works, I believe Wonder Boys is Chabon's finest work to date. It's a great book about a man encountering a mid-life crisis and an attempt to find meaning in his life. Passages throughout are poignant, anecdotes are screamingly funny, and the fall of the main character is -- not tragic -- just pathetic. This book is simply marvelous and one that every middle aged man should read.
Rating:
Summary: Good but different from the movie
Review: I watched the movie and then read the book. I enjoyed the movie throughly. The book was good but different from the movie. In some parts it filled in the details that were missed in the movie but in some parts it was had different outcomes than the movie in which there were parts I enjoyed the movie outcomes more.
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