Telegraph Avenue

Didn't give up, but perhaps I should have.

I think I have to give up on this one. Nearly 100 pages in, and I still don't care about the main characters (nor can I keep their attributes straight). In fact, several of the characters are downright loathsome. I usually love Chabon, but this one isn't gripping me. It's also hard to follow. He'll start a sentence, then add some tangent that goes on for nearly a paragraph before coming back to the main point.

I have to admit that I do somewhat agree with the critics of this book. It was kind of a slog and not a whole lot happens for long stretches of pages.

But I loved all of these characters so much that by the end I didn't care at all about that other stuff.

This was a fantastic book, so much fun to read. I picked it up at the library only because of the title. I have memories of walking down Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley with my parents in the early 1970's and what a wild place it was, even though I was just a little kid. So, I didn't know what the book was about, but the title was evocative for me and I liked the ornate orange and blue cover.

The two main characters, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, own a used record store that specializes in jazz and have been close friends for many years. The future of the record store and their friendship is called into question when a wealthy former football player announces his plan to open a media superstore a block away in their economically depressed neighborhood.

Alongside that major source of conflict, Gwen and Aviva, married to Archy and Nat respectively, work together as midwives and are also close friends. As the book opens, Gwen and Aviva are attending a home birth that goes wrong and then get into a conflict with the doctor who takes over their patient's care when they take her to the hospital.

SO much more happens in the book after all of this is introduced. You will be in the company of delightful characters who struggle with father/son relationships, sexuality, marriage, neighborhood politics, issues of gentrification, relations between whites and blacks, among other topics. Several of these people have encyclopedic knowledge of music, especially jazz. A couple of them are movie buffs, and in particular are fans of blaxploitation films. Barack Obama makes a guest appearance. I really loved this book and I think you should read it.

The most common accusations against this book are: 1. It's too wordy; 2. It's racist.

Yes, it is wordy. It's a Michael Chabon book, so there's no chance that it will NOT be wordy. However, I like words, and he uses enough active verbs to keep me interested.

“It's racist” - hmmm. I don't know that I agree. Books that paint any ethnicity as flawless are boring and hollow and false, and I have little patience for them. Having characters that are complicated, that are nice people but who not infrequently do stupid or annoying or self-centered things, well it rings true. I think that the negativity comes from the fact that the author is white, and that most of the characters are black, and so readers feel like he is being disrespectful to the black community when he creates flaws in his black characters; if Chabon was black not one person would call this book racist.

A beautifully written book–some of the best prose I've read in 2012–but there's so much crammed into the book that it doesn't work as well as it should. It's got a great character–Archy Stallings–who's struggling with relationship issues, family issues, neighborhood issues, and issues of loyalty to his friends and community, and whenever the book concentrates on Archy, it's really, really good. But there are whole mess of other characters that muddle things up.

A beautifully written book–some of the best prose I've read in 2012–but there's so much crammed into the book that it doesn't work as well as it should. It's got a great character–Archy Stallings–who's struggling with relationship issues, family issues, neighborhood issues, and issues of loyalty to his friends and community, and whenever the book concentrates on Archy, it's really, really good. But there are whole mess of other characters that muddle things up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; perhaps the first of Chabon's that I've enjoyed unreservedly. I think it helps that I am already often preoccupied with obscure music and films. the references to Tarantino were obvious before they became explicit.
But don't worry there's very little gore here and that is in a childbirth related storyline. And unlike Tarantino films the substance wins out over the style: friendship beyond dividing lines of race, gender or blood.

Some parts are overwritten and underdeveloped. (And I'm not sure the end entirely works.) But, atmosphere wise, there are big sections of this novel that I loved, making it feel like a great place I could live in for a little while at a time.