Reviews

• The American Dream in Comics?

  All too often, I have found so-called "great" books depressing. However, I found in Michael Chabon`s latest novel, a plot, which throughout the emotional ups and downs, maintains a thread of hope, although at times only as fine as a spider`s silk, just barely there. THE ESCAPIST reaches out to the escapist in all of us. For who, at some point in their life, has not wanted to run away from something. The questions remain, however, as to where one is running, as well has how. I can relate: as a full-time Japanese housewife and fishing widow (like a football widow) with salaryman husband (long commute,) two active little boys, and no babysitter, of course, I have only just reached the stage where I can usually keep up with the front page each day (catching up, occasionally, when I chance upon a missed day`s issue while wrapping fish entrails.) Yet somehow, I managed to read this adult`s novel all the way to the satisfying close in less than a week: a feat I have not accomplished since the birth of my first-born. I kept wanting to know more: it kept me hoping, and delivered. Yet this is no typical American Dream. There is no TYPICAL American Dream, anyway.

• gorgeous writing, story falls short

  probably the best american writer alive, Chabon crafts blindingly beautiful sentences & dazzling dialog, making the first half of the book a perfect masterpiece. but after WWII sets in, he seems not to know quite what to do with his characters and sadly they begin to retreat from our grasp. they descend into fantasy and leave us lonely, nostalgic for a happier past.

• Llego a tiempo y en buen estado y esta divertida la novela :)

• Bottom Line First: Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Paperback, Picador edition) is one of the best books I have read in years. That statement and the 5 stars insure that many review readers will never see this review. Then again the mere fact that it is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel will keep some folks from considering it. Their loss. Chabon has grasped what it is about the comic book and the pre-World War II era when the industry emblazoned its men in tights into the culture of America. The publishers tended to be a shady bunch and the artists and writers were as obscure as any collection of the nerdy, edge of society types drawn from American depression families and European political refugees. One may reasonably argue that the comic book and Jazz are coequal American Art forms. Chabon gets this notion and enrobes it in a complex, human and magical story. The Amazing Adventures is relatively discrete in it use of language, violence and sex, but the more sensitive reader may want to consider that all of these topics, plus politics are part of the story telling. At whatever risk there are two major thoughts that will come back and drive this novel: Concentrate on what you are escaping toward, not what you are escaping from. And The Escapist cannot not fly. Author Michael Chabon anchors the history of the comic book in a few concepts. The progenitor of Superman, the first of the super heroes in another creature of imagination, created by an earlier generation of preyed upon Jews, The Golem. Following this argument he personifies the history of this entertainment cum art form in the persons of American hustler and writer Sammy Clay and his cousin Jewish refugee artist Joe Kavalier. Sammy is just another New York Jew with a story that will be told in small reveals. He is like many Americans looking for that one break that will place him and his family beyond material want. Sammy has a complex history including training as an escape artist, magician and the first family member to escape from Hitler. Escape will be a word that will be a key to his life. Early in the book they create their super hero the Escapist. A costumed avenger with the special mission to “perform amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains.” They will create more characters and in so doing tell the story of much of the rise of the comic industry. About half way into the book this plot line wears thin. This is when the Chabon magic happens. All of publishing stops being important. The entire plot shift to the adventure of living. Cavalier, Clay and Rosa Saks the female character… Major point: Rosa is not just the love interest or the common inspiration. She is a third figure, but a character in her own right who demands respect for her role not just as an inspiration to the main two, but as a person with her heroics and weaknesses. Rosa makes her own sacrifices and mistakes. She is second fiddle in the strictest sense, but she is a lot more. Returning to the second half of the book. Chabon presents us with the Amazing adventures of living. There is a war to be won, but it is a personal war, not one of big battles and hand to hand fighting. There is a small technical error that has a German firing a .45 instead of a Lugar, but never mind. Mostly the heroic adventures are about raising a family, continuing after success and money and coming to terms with the guilt of surviving. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is filled with asides, and deliberate diversions from the main plot. Non-issues inserted just to make you the more ready for the plot to resume. Chabon makes these techniques work. He is doing with literature what the magicians and serial comic book writers do to build suspense and fill out the panels. The magic is in the author’s ability to do in the narrative what he admires in his characters.

• Hard to read because the text goes too far into the middle. Also very flimsy.

• Awesome display of calculated prose, mpressively dissecting the modern American condition. A joyously yet sad Jewish story, like most Jewish stories are. Highly recommended for it transposes the human condition into a literary narrative that we can all relate.

• Delivery on time. Packing was good taking care that the book wasn’t folded or creased. The quality of this used book is also good.

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