The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay--Michael Chabon

I should start with an apology for already falling behind this week. I was expecting this week to be another of commentary on Eric's list, but a firm kick from behind from a number of loyal readers urged me to push ahead. I guess this is for the better, because today I received an A+ list from funnyman Todd Hargest, and a promised list in the works from both thechristophermyers and Matthayes. So it looks like we'll be pushing ahead for at least another couple of months. I promise that even though I fell behind (this being a Tuesday post, and the first regarding Jessica's list) I will be sure to address four of her recommends. I might have to double up one day, or something unheard of like that. You have my word that it will happen though. The walrus will get its due. And now, onwards.

I have owned The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (from this point forward referred to as AAKC) for at least three years now. It was actually recommended to me by Jessica in the earlier days of our knowing each other. I picked it up in one of those everything-is-clearance book stores in Ocean City, MD. I think I paid four dollars for it, which might be part of the reason I was never super motivated to read it. Have you ever noticed how paying less for something like a book or a CD seems to diminish its appeal? Like it isn't very good because it came so cheap. That might be how I felt about this. It is also a long read. It requires some commitment, and I was just never motivated to give it the time required to read it. A number of things caused me to pick it up and actually give it a try, one being my recent trip to Michigan, knowing that I would have a good amount of reading time. The other is that on goodreads every friend of mine who has read it (which is four total) gave it five starts (the maximum amount of stars!) I don't know that I personally would give it the full five stars, but I did enjoy it enough to make me happy that I read it.

AAKC is written by Michael Chabon. He also wrote the book Wonderboys, which in the late 90's was turned into a fairly popular movie that wasn't all that bad. Amazing Adventures won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. That's hot stuff. The story begins with Joe Kavalier, obviously one of the books main characters, escaping from Nazi-occupied Prague at the time of WWII. He manages to escape (he is a trained magician/escape artist, which ends up being a main theme of the novel) to New York City, where he stays with an aunt and cousin, Sam Klayman (the books other main character). Kavalier, a talented artist, and Clay a student of all comic books available team up to create The Escapist, which during the war years becomes one of the most successful comic books around. The majority of the book follows Kavalier's struggle to get the rest of his family out of Prague and into the United States, all the while dealing with the pain of having left them behind. There is much more to the book than this, but as stated before I'm not so good with words, and a summary or review would be better served if you got it elsewhere.

I will say that I was very impressed by how quickly this book read. I figured it would be one of those books that I would pick up every-so-often and would eventually finish some months after starting it. I ended up reading it in less than a week, and every spare minute I had I was trying to squeeze in a chapter. I tend to not devote a great deal of time to reading, so for me to finish a 650 page novel in less than a week, the book must have something going for it. It isn't a book that is jam-packed with action, but it does have some of those moments. You find yourself very attached to these characters, and even start to put yourself in their situation (which turns out pretty depressing in most cases). The book is extremely well-written, and it's receiving the number of awards that it did came as no suprise to me. It is a must read for anyone into comic books, which is a recurring theme in the book. If you aren't a comic book nut it is still well worth reading, but maybe not an immediate requirement (like I insist Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close from Week One is).