The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Comics, Magic, And The American Epic Novel

Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is a vast, sprawling novel that features a comic book character known as "The Escapist" and the "escapist" magic world of Houdini. The metaphor of "escapism" pervades the book. People use magic and comics both to escape from the humdrum of the everyday and to have heroes. During the 1930s and 1940s, as this book illustrates, people endeavored to escape from Nazi Germany and subsequently from communism. People attempt to "escape" from themselves in the book too when they deny themselves and their sexuality.

The book follows the adventures of Josef Kavalier and Sammy Clay, cousins. The book and the characters are factually based, but this book, make no mistake, is a work of fiction and imagination. In a note the author tells us that "I have tried to respect history and geography whenever doing so served my purposes as a novelist, but whenever it did not I have cheerfully or with regret, ignored them."

Kavalier grew up in Prague, the child of educated, assimilated Jewish parents and in Prague he studies magic and art. He escapes from Prague and joins his cousin Sammy in New York. Sammy is raised by his mother, the father having abandoned the family.

Josef is a talented artist and Sammy a writer. Sammy persuades the novelty salesman for whom he works to publish a comics character he and Josef have created, "the escapist" which becomes a great commercial success. The character is initially created as a strong fighter of Hitler's Germany. Josef hopes to use the character to rescue his family in Prague. Sammy and Josef, alas, are cheated out of much of the financial reward that should have been theirs from their creation.

There is a complicated love plot, as Josef meets an American woman and Sammy discovers his homosexuality. Josef enlists in the Navy and there are startling scene shifts describing his adventures in Antartica where he carries out his own war against Germany.
The book is too long for its material but it mostly reads welll. Some of the finest writing is in the details with the occasional pointed metaphor. Also, the author at times departs from his story and gives us in his own voice what purports to be factual information about the comic book industry, the characters, or New York. I found this technique worked well. The characters are well developed and there are wonderful descriptions of New York City and of the comic book industry.

The book itself mirrors its story. It is "escapist" in that it is a robust, improbable tale different from the quiet lives most of its readers will lead. The author loves his subject, the comics in particular and New York City. He wants the reader to see the comics as something of an American art form. He is far from persuading me to do so, but the vibrancy, liveliness, and talent of his characters are compelling.

There isn't much of a focus in this book and it doesn't measure up to the epic cast that the author tries to give it. Readers that like this book might enjoy "Martin Dressler" by Steven Millhauser. Millhuaser's book, as did this book, won a Pulitzer Prize and covers the same themes in a more succinct, evocative way. Also, Doctorow's City of God is similar to this book in the way it discusses and praises American culture (on a more highbrow level) although that book has more overtly religious themes.

In spite of its shortcomings, the book is Pulitzer Prize quality. Most importantly, it shows the course and promise of American life. This is a worthy theme of an enjoyable book.

Robin Friedman

Never let it be said that Michael Chabon ever passed up the opportunity to embellish a narrative with a deep extemporization into a character’s colourful past, no matter how tenuous the relevance to the story; likewise, never was any description or situation unworthy of being riffed out from a simple phrase to a multi-page improvisation. You just have to let the stream carry you along …

Actually, this one was touch and go at first. I nearly abandoned it following a really promising first chapter introducing Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, when the story took what seemed like an interminable diversion to pre-war Prague (and further historical meanderings from there), where Joe’s family was desperately trying to get him out just as the Nazis invaded, to make a new life in the USA with his cousin Sam.

And I had avoided reading this for years as I’ve never been interested in comic books and especially not superheroes, while Chabon simply loves and admires them as an art form. But (several long passages that tried my patience excepted) this isn’t about comics or comic characters, it’s about the intense bond between Sam and Joe, and with Rosa, the girl whom Joe falls in love with but who eventually marries Sam.

The story isn’t complicated: although there are untold diversions the tale is gloriously unconvoluted; it’s heart-rending, intense and convincing, with none of the feeling that Chabon was trying too hard (which I found with The Yiddish Policemen's Union).

Joe is a talented graphic artist and Sam excels at storylines, together they created The Escapist – a homage to Houdini whom they both admired – and become fairly rich (though not nearly as much as their employers) and for a while, quite famous. Joe soon falls in love with Rosa whom he meets at a surreal party involving Salvador Dali (many real people pop up in this story), though his prime focus remains to make enough money to bring his family, in particular his younger brother Thomas, to the USA. After discovering that the refugee ship that Thomas was on and that Joe had sponsored is lost at sea, Joe is completely devastated and disappears at the start of the USA’s entry into the war, leaving Sam to marry Rosa who is now pregnant, but also as a cover for his secret life (he has gradually accepted that he is gay). Joe had thought to train as a fighter pilot but instead is sent to an Antarctic weather station, and doesn’t feel able to return for more than ten years. His return is unwittingly mediated by his son, and the ending in the mid-fifties is both poignant and appropriate.

In the edition I read there were a further couple of short chapters - outtakes from the original manuscript apparently, though that could simply have been Chabon’s way of wrapping up the story – that rounded out the Amazing Adventures nicely.

So in the end, this has been my favourite Chabon by far.

I was already a big fan of Chabon with The Yiddish Policemen's Union and later, wonderfully, with Wonder Boys. So of course I had to pick up the official "classic" he made a name for himself with!

Tour-de-Force, epic traditional fiction, a whirlwind of blah blah blah. :)

In reality, it really is an awesomely well-rounded character novel set very firmly in the early comics industry and it made the giddy fan-boy in me go all blubbery. :) It was very nice.

The second best part of the text was the absolutely deep drill down in the characters and the time and places, from before WWII, the social mixes and prejudices and pressures, the boom of the comics industry and how it affected the war, and especially Kavalier's own little crusade to get his Jewish family out of Germany's hands. It really affected the comics, as you may guess.

But later on, even after joining the war and building families, it's even better because of Rosa. :)

Clay was really a rather breakout character, being gay. We still have to place him in his time and place though. I really laughed loudly when he was asked in the senate committee about the reason why Batman had an underage kid prancing around in tights in his underground dungeon. Public Morals, indeed!

:)

All told, I'm very satisfied with this novel. It has a little bit of something for everyone and best yet, it's supremely crafted and beautiful. :)

n  

Having lost his mother, father, brother, and grandfather, the friends and foes of his youth, his beloved teacher Bernard Kornblum, his city, his history - his home - the usual charge levelled against comic books, that they offered merely an escape from reality, seemed to Joe actually to be a powerful argument on their behalf.

n

I admired many things about this novel, but Chabon’s playful and profound explorations of the theme of ‘escape’ (with its sidekick ‘escapism’) were extraordinary. On one level, he is paying homage to the golden age of comic books, (that particularly American ‘art’ form), but he takes those comic book tropes of adventure and heroism and expands on them in a way that is touching, entertaining and profound. He gives them cultural and historical weight by connecting the heyday of the superhero with World War II and the Holocaust. He gives them emotional weight by connecting them to the exploits and psychodramas of the two main characters.

Josef ‘Joe’ Kavalier and Samuel ‘Sam Clay’ Klayman are cousins, Joe being a representative of the highly educated and cultured Prague branch of the family, and Sam being an American offshoot scrabbling for purchase in the rawer, rougher streets of Brooklyn. After Joe’s ‘escape’ from Prague in 1939, as the Nazi regime closes like a trap around the Jews of Europe, the cousins unite in a creative and money-making endeavour: comic books. Sam provides the text, while Joe draws the pictures. Together the cousins build the story arcs - with none of their considerable output being more personal and symbolic than their character ‘The Escapist’.

This is a particularly American story, although it begins in ‘old world’ Prague; but then what could be more American than the immigrant scrabbling for a toehold in New York City? It’s also a Jewish story - a story of exile and a New Jerusalem. It begins with the most famous ‘golem’ of all: the golem of Prague, brought to life by the rabbi Judah Lowe ben Bezalel in the late 16th century. Josef Kavalier smuggles the famous Prague golem out of Prague; or more precisely, he is smuggled out of Prague inside the golem. It’s the perfect symbol, embodying both hope and despair, the earthy and the mystical, disguise and transfiguration. For a young boy who has been obsessed with Harry Houdini, and seemingly impossible escapes, it’s the first important escape in a biographical timeline made up of getaways, concealments and diversions.

Sam has his own escapist storyline, but in many ways he is the sidekick of Joe - a plot device and character trait explored in more than way in the novel. There are several other key characters, the most important being artist Rosa Saks - who becomes the third side in a triangle that is more scalene than equilateral. The minor characters are just as lovingly drawn, though, and in many ways are lavished with character traits and descriptions out of proportion to their importance to the plot.

Chabon’s writing style is dense and ornate; he lavishes detail on every sentence and every plot point. He builds up a setting rich with historical accuracy and peopled by real-life characters. At times, this makes for a slow read. My paperback edition was 656 pages in a tiny font which necessitated both strong light and an alert mind. This book demands a lot from the reader, in terms of focus and concentration. For me, it completely paid back the effort needed to read it.

n  

He had escaped, in his life, from ropes, chains, boxes, bags, and crates, from handcuffs and shackles, from countries and regimes, from the arms of a woman who loved him, from crashed airplanes and an opiate addiction and from an entire frozen continent intent on causing his death. The escape from reality was, he felt - especially right after the war - a worthy challenge.

n

I read this novel as part of the 2020 #mypulitzerstack challenge.

4.5 Stars - Fantastic book

(Mild spoilers ahead - some hidden and some not)

I absolutely love this book and was so close to rating it 5 stars, though obviously I rounded up to 5 here on Goodreads because this book deserved it.

Where do I even begin?

Okay, let me start with the golem. I think it’s important for the reader to have a basic understanding of what the Golem is and why it’s significant in Jewish culture and subsequently, its role in this book. I’d start with this Wikipedia page or this short article. The most well-known golem, in my opinion, or at least where the modern golem is really rooted comes from Rabbi Judah Loew’s golem, which he created to protect the Jewish people of Prague from the blood libel. The way Chabon is able to wrap the story of the golem with the creation of the modern superhero and Jewish people’s experience during WWII is beautiful. He discusses the Golem of Prague at the beginning and it isn’t explicitly mentioned again until the end and it was fantastic.

Another aspect that I loved was this books connection, maybe obvious connection, to the origins of popular superheroes we know and love (e.g. Captain America) as well as comic book royalty, Jack Kirby. Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clayman’s “The Escapist” has faint hints of Captain America. Can I just say, that if you don’t know the origins of Captain America to do yourself the favor and read up on it. There is a direct connection between Captain America and The Escapist, mainly in that both Captain America and The Escapist are portrayed as punching Hitler in the face on the covers’ of their first issues. What Chabon was able to do is absolutely brilliant.

The first chapter is great and the set up reminds me a lot of  Chaim Potok and the relationship he created between his two main characters in  The Chosen and  The Promise. It’s hard to explain, I’m finding, but it felt familiar and wonderful. One of my favorite lines of the book is in this chapter. It doesn’t carry a lot of weight but it paints a fantastic picture of one of the main characters, Joe Kavalier.

"He slouched, and wore clothes badly: he always looked as though he had just been jumped for his lunch money." p.3

In that one simple sentence, Chabon created a lasting impression of Joe. It’s so simple yet so effective. The more I read of Joe, the more I realized that is the perfect first impression of him.

The author created such rich and complex characters in Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay. The more you read about them the more you understand them. They fold out and develop in such a wonderful way. I will say that Chabon tended to focus on Joe and at times I found myself wanting more info about Sammy. I’d say it’s a 60-40 (maybe 65-35) split between the two, on top of their direct interactions. Both Joe and Sammy are tragic in their own way. I think Joe’s may be the more typically heartbreaking. He stops his magic and then he has to go to America, leaving his family behind in Central Europe right at the outbreak of WWII. He then learns that his father dies, and just when he thinks that his brother is on his way over, he learns that he died. Then his mother dies. He’s angry and joins the navy. He gets Rosa pregnant but doesn’t know until he’s overseas. He stays away from Rosa, and Sammy, and Tommy for over 10 years. I mean, what about that doesn’t hurt your heart?

Sammy’s story is also upsetting, but in a different yet no less compelling way. He’s gay, and of course being gay in America in the first half of the 20th century was a taboo - to say the least. He doesn’t get to be with the man he loves (or at least I think he loves him), Tracey Bacon, even though I was rooting for them every step of the way. Unfortunately but not surprisingly there’s no happy ending for them. It’s also sad that Sammy can’t seem to come to terms with his homosexuality. I never got the vibe that he totally hated himself, but it took him a while to come around to it, and I can’t judge him for that especially taking into consideration the homophobic climate he lived in. On top of that, he marries Rosa, who he does not love, and takes her and Joe’s son on as his own.

I found the juxtaposition of Sammy and Joe interesting. I felt that Chabon painted a great picture of two Jewish boys, and then men, who came from opposite ends of the world - someone from Central Europe and a New Yorker. However, neither character read like an overdrawn stereotype. They were just so well written. The commonalities and differences and the way those change over time are superb.

I will say that I wasn’t a huge fan of Rosa. She does play a semi-important part in the story, but I would have been fine without her. It’s not that I don’t think Joe deserves happiness - without a doubt he does. I guess her personality doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t feel like I ever got a good feeling for who she was, and maybe that was Chabon’s intention but it just felt off to me. I don’t hate her and some of her actions make sense to me,  especially marrying Sammy and all that entailed. However, I just didn’t connect.

The writing is significantly better than my other experiences with Chabon’s writing. Though there are still parts of the book that could have done with better editing. I’m thinking in particular, of the last third/quarter of the book. He could have cut down on Joe’s time in the navy. I also think we could have skipped Tommy’s point of view. I’ll go so-far as to say that it’s important to read what he thought/was going through, but selfishly I was more interested in Joe and Sammy’s actions and thoughts.

Joe and Sammy’s reunion is so weird, but also so perfect. My favorite part about this is Sammy’s character development is so obvious and slightly sad. I could feel how tired he was. At the same time, I could feel the love the two cousins had for each other. It was all very emotional and I loved every moment of it.

The ending, and I’m talking about the last 5 pages here, isn’t necessarily what I originally wanted. However, I think it was right and fair. Sammy deserves his true shot at happiness.

Do I recommend this? As much as I love it, I can see how this might not be for everyone. If you like comic books and superheroes, Jewish history and folklore, and/or stories about the ebbs and flows of relationships, then yes. If you don’t normally like Chabon’s writing then maybe not, but I think it’d be worth the try at least.

(I will say that this will probably be my last Chabon. Let’s end on a high note.)

Smarmy, Stagy, Too Much Whine [orig. rvw. 5/23/16]

Count me, I confess, among the small minority not absolutely enchanted by this hefty book. The positive: I found it interesting, and some parts were spectacular. Had I grown up a comic book fan or collector, I likely would have a different perspective.

It could just be that I don't connect with Michael Chabon's writing; I couldn't bear to read past around page 250 (of 456) of Telegraph Avenue as it flailed on a wobbly storyline (even though it started out so promisingly). I find Chabon writes dialog that often slips into the smarmy and his stories smart from getting shoe-horned repeatedly by an excess of successive social issues, which in turn, IMO, makes the really important scenes appear stagy, as if a social issue is on the precipice of some solution or there lurks offstage some other social issue to tackle.

Just not my bag, you dig?!?!

This book might eventually merit a new shelf: stuff I keep trying to read and put aside because while they are good and everyone raves about them I just jump at the chance to read almost anything else.
In terms of writing, scope of imagination, and peregrinations of plot, completely deserving of its Pulitzer, but there's a self-congratulatory facility, a "look how I make a marginalized hobby into an academic metaphor for life and growing up in America and I TALK ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST TOO" feeling to Chabon's graphic-novel-sans-graphics. Maybe I've overdosed on hard luck tales of young boys with improbable dreams growing up in America smack dab in the midst of the twentieth century. Recent years have produced enough that they merit their own name: subway novels. They're the ones you can be guaranteed to see at least one person on your car reading every time you commute for about three to six months after they hit the bestseller list, or are reviewed on Oprah's book club or listed as some young but socially conscious actor's favourite in Entertainment weekly. Everyone reads them, reccommends them to friends, and has a paperback copy lying around somewhere. For about a year. And then, other than being referenced on an extraordinary number of Internet networking sites in the little box for "favourite books", they sort of fade out of the cultural lexicon. Does popularity make them any less well written? No. But I can't muster the standard level of enthusiasm for most of them because I don't think it makes them any better written than a great many other books that missed the spin train, and happen to feature someone other than a scrappy but troubled New York boy with Eastern European parents who lusts after some idealized woman or man cultural cut-out with all the personality of a box of crackers.
Middlesex also falls in to this category, and, in a sub-section, Everything is Illuminated.

Laughing....I think this is about the 3rd time -my review has disappeared for this book. I read Michael's book when it was first released. I didn't move for days --its one of the most engaging -exciting fun books I've ever read. There aren't other books that one can compare this too.

The characters are to love.......... "Rosa" is still a girl after my own heart!

Read Violet's review --Its not often she writes an 'elyse' review (its a joke) -- you know...
5 stars!!!!!!!!!!!! (she doesn't dish them out as easy as I do).

To 'not' read this book --where I come from --would be to ask forgiveness during Yom Kippur.
No problem --always time to repent. The book is not out of print, yet! :)

Pure enjoyment. The characters alone will be little friends inside your head ---'forever'!