Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213994 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-03
• Released on: 2005-01-03
• Formats: Abridged, Audiobook, CD
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Amazon.com
Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equalizer clad in dark blue long underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains!" Before they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known) find themselves at the epicenter of comics' golden age.

But Joe Kavalier is driven by motives far more complex than your average hack. In fact, his first act as a comic-book artist is to deal Hitler a very literal blow. (The cover of the first issue shows the Escapist delivering "an immortal haymaker" onto the Führer's realistically bloody jaw.) In subsequent years, the Escapist and his superhero allies take on the evil Iron Chain and their leader Attila Haxoff--their battles drawn with an intensity that grows more disturbing as Joe's efforts to rescue his family fail. He's fighting their war with brush and ink, Joe thinks, and the idea sustains him long enough to meet the beautiful Rosa Saks, a surrealist artist and surprisingly retrograde muse. But when even that fiction fails him, Joe performs an escape of his own, leaving Rosa and Sammy to pick up the pieces in some increasingly wrong-headed ways.

More amazing adventures follow--but reader, why spoil the fun? Suffice to say, Michael Chabon writes novels like the Escapist busts locks. Previous books such as The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys have prose of equal shimmer and wit, and yet here he seems to have finally found a canvas big enough for his gifts. The whole enterprise seems animated by love: for his alternately deluded, damaged, and painfully sincere characters; for the quirks and curious innocence of tough-talking wartime New York; and, above all, for comics themselves, "the inspirations and lucubrations of five hundred aging boys dreaming as hard as they could." Far from negating such pleasures, the Holocaust's presence in the novel only makes them more pressing. Art, if not capable of actually fighting evil, can at least offer a gesture of defiance and hope--a way out, in other words, of a world gone completely mad. Comic-book critics, Joe notices, dwell on "the pernicious effect, on young minds, of satisfying the desire to escape. As if there could be any more noble or necessary service in life." Indeed. --Mary Park

From AudioFile
A witty and sometimes touching story of two talented Jewish cousins--one a writer, the other an artist. At the beginning of WWII they collaborate and create comic book action heroes who battle Hitler and his minions. Novelist Michael Chabon and reader David Colacci also are a dynamic duo. Chabon's writing is imaginative and articulate, and Colacci's reading is glib, powerful, and passionate. Despite all the wit, there is some serious stuff lurking below the surface and human tragedy around the corner. This is the first abridgment sampled--6 tapes--that was complete enough not to have lost the flavor of the original writing, over 700 pages. This thoughtful and entertaining work is so well presented by Colacci--even down to the Yiddish accents--that his performance a truly memorable experience. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Virtuoso Chabon takes intense delight in the practice of his art, and never has his joy been more palpable than in this funny and profound tale of exile, love, and magic. In his last novel, The Wonder Boys (1995), Chabon explored the shadow side of literary aspirations. Here he revels in the crass yet inventive and comforting world of comic-book superheroes, those masked men with mysterious powers who were born in the wake of the Great Depression and who carried their fans through the horrors of war with the guarantee that good always triumphs over evil. In a luxuriant narrative that is jubilant and purposeful, graceful and complex, hilarious and enrapturing, Chabon chronicles the fantastic adventures of two Jewish cousins, one American, one Czech. It's 1939 and Brooklynite Sammy Klayman dreams of making it big in the nascent world of comic books. Joseph Kavalier has never seen a comic book, but he is an accomplished artist versed in the "autoliberation" techniques of his hero, Harry Houdini. He effects a great (and surreal) escape from the Nazis, arrives in New York, and joins forces with Sammy. They rapidly create the Escapist, the first of many superheroes emblematic of their temperaments and predicaments, and attain phenomenal success. But Joe, tormented by guilt and grief for his lost family, abruptly joins the navy, abandoning Sammy, their work, and his lover, the marvelous artist and free spirit Rosa, who, unbeknownst to him, is carrying his child. As Chabon--equally adept at atmosphere, action, dialogue, and cultural commentary--whips up wildly imaginative escapades punctuated by schtick that rivals the best of Jewish comedians, he plumbs the depths of the human heart and celebrates the healing properties of escapism and the "genuine magic of art" with exuberance and wisdom. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Truly Amazing!
"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" is a work that's difficult to describe. The 600+ pages cover the years from 1937 until 1954 in the lives of Josef Kavalier and Sammy Clayman, two Jewish cousins and best friends. Kavalier flees Prague in 1937 under intriguing circumstances (that are too good to give away), and ends up with Sammy's family (Sammy's mother and both boys' grandmother) in New York City. They're poor, they're approximately the same age (17 at the beginning of the novel), and they both have dreams of bringing the rest of Josef's family to America before the anti-Semitism burbling in Central Europe does more harm to the family.

Through happenstance, careful planning, and skill, the two boys end up creating a super hero comic book. Their hero, "The Escapist," fights crimes with the talents of an escape artist (a career that Joe once aspired to) and eventually superhuman strength. He wears a mask (of course), and a blue suit with a gold key emblem emblazoned on his chest. The book uses as a template the careers of many Golden Age comic book artists, but especially that of Siegel and Schuster, the creators of the greatest of all, Superman. Joe and Sammy work together, and The Escapist is catapulted to the top of the comics heap, originally conceived as a Nazi-fighter (before fighting Nazis was cool) and an outlet for Joe's rage and impotence, and an outlet for Sammy's creativity. They build up an entire comics company, Empire Comics, and their fights with editors, radio producers, and serial producers fuel the need for conflict in the book--as there aren't many between these two friends.

The novel follows them and their comic book creation through World War II, and into the 1950's...and it's not a smooth ride for anyone. It involves marriage, children, mysterious disappearances, and cameos from the elite of the time--everyone from Orson Welles to Salvador Dali (who nearly drowns at a "surrealist party"....and he doesn't drown in water...or even liquid for that matter) shows up, along with a Jewish Golem, Eleanor Roosevelt, and eight enormous braided rubber bands. We travel to many locations, the most exotic I've seen in a terrestrial book, but I don't want to give them away, because the locales themselves are major twists of the plot.

Now, just because this is ostensibly about comic books, many of you will be turned off--don't be. That's like saying you're not interested in "Death of a Salesman" because you don't like...uh...sales. The book is about human experience--about love, death, fear, regret, longing...but the two major players (of many) happen to be a comic book writer and artist. Now, if you happen to BE a fan of comic books, you'll love the scenes where comic books are discussed--Chabon references the Greats of all time: Schuster and Siegel themselves, Bob Kane, Gil Kane, Gardner Fox, Milton Caniff, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee....and uses them sparingly (for non-fans), but some of you may recognize the creators of Li'l Orphan Annie, Superman, Batman, Flash, Hawkman, The Human Torch, Captain America, The Sub-Mariner...this truly WAS a Golden Age; and although Chabon is careful to point out that "Golden Ages always seem to be in the past," he also says this was indeed a golden time for these people. So recently out of the Depression, not yet subjected to the full horrors of World War II, the bulk of the book is suffused with a hope that transcends the material.

Now, let's just say you're not a fan of Super-Heroes, of Escape Artists, of New York City, of the 1940's, or of Jews. Why on earth are you still reading this review? And why should you pick up "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay?" This is quite honestly the BEST novel I've read in a long time, possibly years. There were moments that made my eyes well up with tears, and scenes that had me laughing out loud. Chabon is literate, and has a beautiful style. His vocabulary is enormous, and it was delightful to read a novel that had words in it that I had to actually look up--or gather meaning from context. It was such a wonderful, active, immersing experience to read this book.

I give it my absolute highest recommendation. It made me want to create something important. Something lasting. Something I can be proud of. And I already have the cutest baby ever made, but this made me want to get out there and LIVE. This is a joyous (even when heartbreaking) book that you should make a part of your library. Read it. Another quick recommendation: "The Losers Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez -- a much shorter but lively, very entertaining book I enjoyed .

Good Escapism
The story of The Escapist and his creators is good escapism. I picked up this novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize, one of the most reliable sources for good literature. I wasn't disappointed. Whether you are a comic book fan or not, this is a powerful story about an important part of history. Highly recommended.

Great writing
Just a short note to add to so many other reviews.

I used to collect comics as I kid but I actually enjoyed the characters more in this story than the comic book angle.

I really enjoyed this book though I did skim over some of the longer detailed passages. Funnily enough I would then get into some dialogue and often went back to the detail to read it anyway.

Very enjoyable.