The tepid occurrences of mostly Kavalier, as it would be more accurately titled. Is one of those stories which takes a certain period of history from an odd perspective. Kind of like 'Forrest Gump' or the 'Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.

In this case the 40's and 50's. The main problem with the book is really the characters, or lack of focus on the characters to be specific. When the author really zoom's in and shows what people are feeling then you become interested, its compelling at least if not amazing.
The entire last quarter is like this, however before that character connection only comes in short spurts. The author changes character perspectives or goes for a more remote viewpoint and you just stop caring.

Even at its best though its still very slight. Much of the appeal is made up of the references to 40's obscura. Its like the author did a bunch of research and came up with a list of odds and ends he was determined to get into the book regardless of what that might do to the pacing or narrative consistency.
In addition none of these references, even the comicbook stuff is particularly indepth. The whole thing feels remarkably slight given its length. The tone can be odd too, while occasionally vulgar its also remarkably sanitized, i felt like i was reading a YA novel at times.

Overall it feels like it was written by a high brow author then dumbed down for a millennial audience before being edited by a Board of Education Committee.

I cannot add the date I have read this, but just wanted to add the book to my lists. I read it many years ago, and still have it as one of my most treasured books.

It was one of those books that inspired me to read more historical fiction. This particular book opened up a world of unending possibilities in reading, which never closed up again.

Chabon definately deserved the Pulitzer for this one. I have read several of his books, but this is the only one I've read twice,and I could read it again.

I bought the hardback. Love the dust jacket. I bought the paperback, love the artwork on it,and then much to my dismay....they have reissued it again with another fantastic artwork on the cover,and I am like....do I buy that one too? I've given it as a gift before. Thinking I might get a copy for my oldest son,and maybe print it on my printer....... is that illegal? Ha!

Anyway.......this is by far Chabon's best and most engaging book. The others are great, I grant you that.

I think the biggest draw for me is I loved comic books when I was a kid,and so did my oldest son. He still reads them,and purchases them , as an adult...so truly he needs a paper copy of this one.... the history of the comics,and the banning of them due to what many felt was pornography, and the history of the war,and the states situation at the time.....it makes for a very heartfelt story of two men trying to find their way in this world. Definately worth the read!

At one point during reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I remarked to my sister I hope this book never ends. “And it may not.”

“Why?” she asked.

I said it was over 600 pages.

But the world Michael Chabon renders is one you can live and die in.

Cousins Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay fall into creating comic books when Sammy guarantees his boss that the novelty company specializing in whoopee cushions (and the like) could have its own Superman created by the end of the week with Sammy writing the tale and Joe drawing it. The Escapist, based on Joe’s experiences as an escape artist, is born. Drawing upon his own escape from Prague during the Nazis’ regime, Joe paints a cover for the first issue with the Escapist clocking Adolf Hitler upon the jaw.

Although the Escapist is a success, earning the cousins a small fortune, Joe can only see his life as that of exile, dreaming of when he can be reunited with his family.

What astounded me about Chabon’s prose was I could picture as clearly as if I had read them myself the adventures of the Escapist, Luna Moth, and the Golem. Like reading a comic book without fear of smearing the newsprint thereby diminishing its cash value.

The heart of the tome is Joe’s romance with Rosa Saks, an artist in her own right, who convinces Joe to look forward to the day his younger brother will be with him. That is until...

You’ll have to read for yourself. I’m not spoiling this gut punch of a novel. The love of the written word displayed therein is breathtaking.

The best book I’ve read in 2020 thus far.

Съжалявам, но според мен историята на господин Шейбън не заслужава да се разпростре върху тези повече от 700 страници...

Първата ми ⭐️ е за интересното начало и Пражкия голем.



Втората - за Корнблум, Худини и останалите феноменални илюзионисти и магьосници от зората на ХХ век.

Третата е за историята на зараждането на американския комикс и по-специално за тази на маскираните отмъстители и супер героите. Винаги ми е било интересно, на какво се дължи тази чисто американска мания по тях, която е жива и до днес - е, вече ми се изясни. Аз самият съм голям почитател и колекционер на комиксите от белгийско-френската школа (естествено заради огромното влияние на списанието "Pif Gadget", единственият що-годе интересен и достъпен комикс в детството ми, без да броим бъканата с пропаганда "Дъга") и това определено се отразява на гледната ми точка, чисто субективно.

Получената награда "Пулицър" е някак твърде логична, модерна и политкоректна, но американците ценят и обичат малко да хиперболизират миналото си, с цел да избягат от комплекса си за малоценност и от това, че са относително млада нация.

Затова - без повече звезди, поне не и от мен и не само защото ми дотегнаха последните 200 страници.

Основна слабост по мое мнение се явява неумелото изграждане на образите на главните герои, струва ми се, че авторът не е успял да пресъздаде добре и атмосферата на епохата, в които се развива книгата. Някак схематично и претупано ми стои историята, заобиколена от пространно, но празно от към съдържание и витиевато изложение.

Просто в невероятните приключения на Кавалиър и Клей, няма почти никави приключения невероятни! :(

Цитати:

"Всъщност неговите герои бяха Никола Тесла, Луи Пастьор и Джек Лондон."

"Попитаха го дали, ако знаел, че корабът превозвал деца, много от които не можели да плуват, щял да предприеме нападението? Отговорът му е запазен в стенограмата на процеса без никакви коментари или каквито и да било бележки относно това дали тонът му е бил ироничен, примирен или тъжен:

- Те бяха деца. Ние бяхме вълци."

3.5

I started out really enjoying this book. Unlike a lot of reviewers I've not read Chabon before, I don't particularly like graphic novels and the only bits of Marvel I can cope with are the funny bits. But this won the Pulitzer so it can't all be bad, I reasoned. And I was right. It wasn't all bad. Swathes of it were enjoyable. I liked the bits where the origin stories were being formed. I liked Sammy's character. I even liked Joe and Rosa until it got to the stage where Joe (and I know I'm supposed to feel bad for a guy who ran from the Nazis, lost his family and his country) turned into the biggest coward going.

There is also the scene which occurs towards the end of his time in the war which I found utterly revolting. That also sealed Joe's character in my mind. Yes, I know he wanted to kill Nazis but the entire episode of his revenge was utterly ludicrous and I'm quite sure he would have been court-martialled and shot for disobeying orders. (I'd explain but that really would be spoiler alert territory - read the book, you'll understand).

There was also several interminable parts during the aftermath of the war. Rosa's endless preparations for Joe's return given in minute detail; several lists which went on far too long (I hate long lists - it's a lazy form of upping your word count); also the reactions of Sammy and Rosa to a guy who basically flaked on them. I'd have screamed at the guy and told him to sling his hook, not simpered and preened and eased his return. The guy was a selfish coward who just did what he wanted and blamed everyone else for things that had happened that were beyond their control.

So, all in all, a good start that didn't live up to its early promise for me.

d'artagnan ora si fa chiamare joe. e non entra nel proprio futuro in sella a un ronzino, ma in treno e in nave dopo una fuga rocambolesca dalla praga occupata fino a new york, attraverso lituania, giappone e san francisco, per non privarsi proprio di nulla. anche qui avrà gloria e amore, sarà intemperante, guascone e idealista e non terrà mai del tutto a bada la propria ribalderia. e poi ci sono altri giovani moschettieri (uno importante, per il resto gregari) e con qualche aggiustamento un capitano de tréville e un richelieu che lavora nell'ombra.
le fantastiche avventure di kavalier e clay è sotto tutti i punti di vista un feuilleton contemporaneo. e come un feuilleton appassiona, galvanizza, deborda e rompe a buon diritto ogni unità di tempo-luogo-azione. ma per contro, come un feuilleton è sufficientemente furbo da saper dove acchiappare le nostre emozioni, e a tratti può avere dei cali di tono prima di farci arrivare in stazione.
per dire. ho patito qua e là un eccesso di retorica (la natura di feuilleton comporta l'estinzione del reato specifico, lo so, ma leggendo non ho potuto comunque fare a meno di prenderne atto) e ho trovato talvolta un po' maldestre le parti in cui viene dato spazio all'omosessualità (intuita, conclamata, rifiutata, conciliata) di uno dei protagonisti, sam. eccesso un po' trasversale di enfasi, ecco.
strettamente stilistica è anche l'unica altra critica che muovo alla scrittura altrimenti pregevolissima di chabon, a cui evidentemente piacciono le metafore gustativ/olfattive. dalle ascelle della moglie di salvador dalì che sanno di semi di finocchio, alla lingua della ragazza di joe, che al primo bacio ha sapor di latte e sale e gli fa l'effetto di avere in bocca un'ostrica. fino alle di lui labbra che, viceversa, per la fanciulla hanno un sapore "tra l'acero il fumo" (e questa me la ricordo bene perché prima di pensare allo sciroppo mi sono stupidamente chiesta se chabon fosse uso andare in giro a leccare cortecce di latifoglie).
insomma, per stringere, galeotte furono una volta di troppo la sinestesia e la seduzione papillare. ma è poca roba, a fronte di una scorribanda con michael alexandre davy de la pailleterie chabon dumas. leggete questo libro!

Uno dei più bei libri mai letti

This one didn’t grab me at all - in fact it was a real slog - until about a third of the way in, when I finally started to feel something for the characters, and some level of investment in the story. The novel does an excellent job at capturing a particular slice of American history, though often there is too much in the way of description and commentary at the expense of character development and story. Chabon’s prose is good (maybe not as good as I’d heard), though the writing felt more flashy than substantive, leaning heavily on action and zany scenarios. But this is an adventure story after all - it says so right there in the title - and I can’t really fault the novel for too much within that context. And though The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay wasn’t really my bag, I was entertained, and by the end even I had to admit it was a pretty good story.

This is the slowest take-off I've ever endured and not given up. Prague, gay Jews, World War II, and ...I don't care about any of them or what happens to them. So not working for me in terms of plot or characters.
Writing-wise, maybe 5 paragraphs that sang; the rest of it was, ehn, okay. A lot of "I have a thesaurus and I'm not afraid to use it." A lot of "refreshing adjective" descriptions that really didn't add anything ("the color of cold coffee" is.... what color? How different from "strong" coffee, for example, which would be the go-to adjective, I'd think). And I am sick to tears of The Muse character; and the child who, raised by one person, finds its True Parent and the work of the other is basically erased; AND really, when a character has to reflect on the plot's trajectory so that we can see where it's going ("looking back, he realized that all of them blah blah") (no really). ick.

“The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of the things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place.”

The historian narrator, however, ensures that the ephemeral details aren’t lost. Still, escape is never far from the surface of this narrative. Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay connects the early history of comic books to escape artists and Jewish mysticism. Even with the broad range of subjects explored, and the plethora of stories within stories, at its heart, the novel is a superb character study.

After his escape from Prague in 1939, Joe Kavalier joins his cousin, Sam Clay, in Brooklyn. Through their heated conversations upon his arrival, a mysterious golem inspires their comic book creation, the Escapist: “Every universe, our own included, begins in conversation. Every golem in the history of the world, from Rabbi Hanina's delectable goat to the river-clay Frankenstein of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, was summoned into existence through language, through murmuring, recital, and kabbalistic chitchat -- was, literally, talked into life.” Though it goes in different directions after their initial partnership ends, much of the book can be read through the lens of Joe’s escape and his first meeting with his cousin. Still what Chabon means for us to get from this expansive novel is often elusive. “His dreams had always been Houdiniesque: they were the dreams of a pupa struggling in its blind cocoon, mad for a taste of light and air.” Wonderful image!

There’s so much going on in The Amazing Adventures, wonderful writing and a superb character study. My only complaint would be the pacing of the novel that, in general, was a bit slower than I would have liked (especially in the middle). Overall, though, this was a great read! 4.25 stars

Aaron and I are starting a club for people who hated this boring, boring book. Anyone want to join?