The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel

by Michael Chabon | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0679450041 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingglade1wing of McLeansville, North Carolina USA on 5/20/2009
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingglade1wing from McLeansville, North Carolina USA on Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Picked up this hardback from the free shelf at the used book store yesterday. There is a big black mark on the dust jacket (the store's indication of a free book) but otherwise the book is in good shape. There's even a nice golf-themed bookmark in it. From the flap:

With this brilliant novel, the bestselling author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys gives us an exhilarating triumph of language and invention, a stunning novel in which the tragicomic adventures of a couple of boy geniuses reveal much about what happened to America in the middle of the twentieth century. Like Phillip Roth's American Pastoral or Don DeLillo's Underworld, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a superb novel with epic sweep, spanning continents and eras, a masterwork by one of America's finest writers.

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.

The brilliant writing that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov is everywhere apparent in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Chabon writes "like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader," wrote Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times about Wonder Boys--and here he has created, in Joe Kavalier, a hero for the century.


ETA 12-22-17: Promised to Spatial in the Wish List Tag game.

Journal Entry 2 by wingglade1wing at Greensboro, North Carolina USA on Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Released 6 yrs ago (1/16/2018 UTC) at Greensboro, North Carolina USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is an excellent book! Joe Kavalier has made his way to the U.S. via a daring escape and hopes to bring the rest of his family as soon as he earns the money. His cousin Sam Clay, a New Yorker born and raised, is always looking for a way to make it big. The two together strike upon The Escapist, a comic book character who can fight the fights Joe wants to fight and can earn both men money. Through the war years and into the fifties, the lives of these two men are entangled in business and personal ways. Ultimately, this is a story of family and making the best of what you have. Every event it drawn beautifully, every character comes to life in Chabon's hands. The story has hope and humor and fear and heartache aplenty. Chabon is a new author to me but I hope to read more of his work - this example is wonderful!

Sent to Spatial via media mail. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 3 by wingSpatialwing at Arlington, Virginia USA on Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Thank you, glade1 for this wishlist book!
Don't worry about the condition; it's perfectly fine with me! As long as it is readable and not disgusting, I'm alright! :)

And thank you for the bookmark! It's really lovely! I've been planning on making similar bookmarks, so that is a real treat!

Journal Entry 4 by wingSpatialwing at Arlington, Virginia USA on Friday, June 1, 2018
A good read! I definitely recommend and can see why it is on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.

The only things that bothered me about the book were the extreme detail in which the author wrote. You feel you really want to skim over it but if you do you'll miss important information and it really does add to the story. Also, I'm not a fan of reading about an event and then the story goes back and you read what led up to that moment. Probably a part of my aversion to flashbacks. :/ Just a couple of personal pet peeves. But, that should not keep anyone from reading this great story!

Reserved for Bookstogive’s General Literature VBB

Removed from Bookstogive’s General Literature VBB after no one requested it.
10/8/19

Journal Entry 5 by wingSpatialwing at Little Free Library #85264 - Catawba in Catawba, Virginia USA on Sunday, October 10, 2021

Released 2 yrs ago (10/10/2021 UTC) at Little Free Library #85264 - Catawba in Catawba, Virginia USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

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Dropped off at this cute LFL.

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