The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Abandoned for now as I've declined to return to it for some time.

Spent most of the book thinking I was mildly engaged, and then the end had me sobbing like I haven't since I read Catcher in the Rye in high school.

This book creeped up on me. It started slow and I kept dropping it to read something else. Then it gradually became mind-blowingly terrific. Chabon uses language in a way that is approachable, witty and literate. It's rare to find a book that is both fun and as full of imagery and symbolism as Kavalier and Clay. The 630 pages are filled with Chabon's unique voice on reality, escapism, narrative, imagination and family.

Of course, my typical Chabon comments still stand – after reading a Chabon novel, I always feel as if it was written just for me to address things uniquely about my life. And I feel like Chabon is one of my closest friends, whom I know better than anyone else in the world. The universal popularity of Kavalier and Clay should disabuse me of these notions, but this is truly Chabon's unique gift.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is an unparalleled work.

You might need to read it with a dictionary, Yiddish dictionary, and Wikipedia in order to get everything - I know I did.

YES to this book. Chabon very effectively created a sense of time and place, as well as interesting and compelling characters.

Perhaps also my interest in comics made this book more interesting to me? I thought the interspersed history of the comic book industry was fascinating, but perhaps non-nerds might not be as enthralled.

I know, I know, it won the Pulitzer. And there were parts of the book I absolutely adored. HOWEVER, I think it could have been a hundred pages shorter with some incisive editing, and that would have kept me turning pages like mad, instead of what actually happened, which was that I'd get really into it for a couple chapters, and then get lost in a comic book tangent. But that's just me. Overall, entertaining.

I actually had a really hard time finishing this book. From what I remember, I liked the backstory of Kavalier a lot better than that of Klay, but it's been a few years now.

I hate it it when people only care about a book from the perspective of making it into a movie, but I have to say I am super-excited that Stephen Daldry is directing the film version of this book. I was all prepared to swoon over this book but only thought it was OK. I think Daldry will improve it.

“...the uniform legend Complete Works of George Deasey.” This legendary library of self-mortification was lost, and widely considered apocryphal, until 1993, when one of its volumes, Racy Attorney #23, turned up at an IKEA store in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where it was mutely serving as a dignified-looking stage property on a floor-model ‰ЫПHjorp‰Ыќ wall unit. It is signed by the author and bears the probably spurious but fascinating inscription To my pal Dick Nixon.”

Finishing this book was a real achievement for
me! I started it three times before I got
hooked on the characters of Joe and Sammy.
The ending was flat and a lot of the story
felt forced, but, on the whole, it held
together.

From the jacket copy: “It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.”

This is a fantastic book. I was immediately pulled in after reading only a few pages. The fluid, dream-like writing gives the story and characters a vivid quality — I could picture the story like a movie in my mind. This book is rich in detail and tells an epic story. Brilliant writing. I've also read The Wonder Boys by this author which was also very good but this book is a big wow. I enjoyed it very much.