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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by…
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (edition 2000)

by Michael Chabon (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
18,862415257 (4.21)1 / 774
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE The beloved, award-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," a Michael Chabon masterwork, is the American epic of two boy geniuses named Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay. Now with special bonus material by Michael Chabon. A "towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book" ("Newsweek"), hailed as Chabon's "magnum opus" ("The New York Review of Books"), "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939. A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America's finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age. "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Decade by "Entertainment Weekly"… (more)
▾Book information
Member:ethorwitz
Title:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Authors:Michael Chabon (Author)
Info:Picador (2000), 639 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
Rating:
Tags:to-read, sackett-street-recs

Work Information

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

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Recently added bygreigroselli, glenneath, AudLaw, MeganBowden, Leviticus, private library, cjstoner, EMSKavitsky, liprairian, popchyk
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  1. 184
    The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (Pagemistress)
  2. 122
    The World According to Garp by John Irving (alzo)
  3. 71
    The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (Othemts)
  4. 71
    The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu (legxleg, questionablepotato)
    legxleg: The Ten-Cent Plague is a nonfiction book about the crackdown on the morality of comics that the characters of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay are so affected by.
  5. 83
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Othemts, questionablepotato)
  6. 31
    Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (tmspinks)
  7. 31
    The Escapists by Michael Chabon (WomensSeqArtLibrary)
    WomensSeqArtLibrary: Companion book about group of young artistic friends trying to re-imagine the Escapist for the 21st century, by one of the hottest comic book writers of our age.
  8. 20
    Lily Renée, Escape Artist: From Holocaust Survivor to Comic Book Pioneer by Trina Robbins (WomensSeqArtLibrary)
    WomensSeqArtLibrary: A graphic biography for younger readers about a real-life Kavalier; the true story of a young Jewish woman who escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna and became a legendary comic book artist
  9. 10
    The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (Bookmarque)
    Bookmarque: A little birdie told me this was a great fit!
  10. 32
    A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (alzo)
  11. 10
    The People's Act of Love by James Meek (alzo)
  12. 11
    Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Miranda_Paige)
  13. 00
    Crossing California by Adam Langer (BookshelfMonstrosity)
  14. 00
    Join by Steve Toutonghi (47degreesnorth)
  15. 00
    Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (sturlington)
  16. 45
    Captain America: The Classic Years, Volume 1 by Joe Simon (artturnerjr)
    artturnerjr: Trailblazing comics from a real-life Kavalier & Clay.
  17. 03
    Underworld by Don DeLillo (igorken)
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▾Member reviews
English (400)  Spanish (4)  German (2)  Dutch (2)  French (2)  Swedish (1)  All languages (411)
date ▼ | votes
Showing 1-5 of 400 (next | show all)
This is a fantastic book for anybody interested in comics, jews, jews in comics, the politicizing of comics, how people were ripped off left and right in the creation of comics, or more.

Not to mention, how people react to sex, loss, homosexuality, Jews, war, and the ugly truth that you are, in fact, not a super hero -- you are not going to stop a bad man from hurting those you care about... and what people will do to make dreams reality. ( )
  crowsandprose | May 15, 2024 |
Four stars only because it's not 100 percent my kind of perfect book. Everything else about it is five stars. The story, the subject matter, the writing are all worthy of the Pulitzer that it won. One tiny thought is that the giant fancy words he likes to use kept making me stop to look them up, which kind of broke the magical spell of reading. But i guess if you're writing about comic books you have to balance out the subject matter with a big cerebral vocabulary. ( )
  RaynaPolsky | Apr 23, 2024 |
I really enjoyed this book, which is ultimately about all the ways people can be trashed and the ways to escape. It is imaginative and heartfelt, with well-developed characters. Ostensibly the story of two cousins who create a comic book superhero around the time of World War II, it touches on magic, religion, mythology, all the various types of love, friendship and personal fulfillment that can be found if you look hard enough and are brave. A caveat to dog lovers, you might want to skip the polar section, you'll thank me ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
Some writers of fiction tell stories; others construct intricate worlds. Michael Chabon is the second kind of writer, and I'm so glad I've finally gotten around to his work.

On its face, this is a high-concept book: Sammy Clay is an idealistic nobody from Brooklyn; Joe Kavalier, his cousin, is a Jewish refugee from Nazi Prague; together they accidentally strike it rich as a writer-illustrator team during the Golden Age of superhero comics.

But in Chabon's hands, the story of their partnership is much bigger than its premise: a jumping-off point for a meditation on suburban American identity, an examination of the uses of "escapist" fiction, a surrealist fable about the Holocaust, a feminist and queer reading of superheroes*, a study of grief and survival. And yes, embedded in the novel are some thrilling metafictional superhero stories, if that is your wheelhouse (as it is mine).

It's a deft magic trick of a novel, and it succeeds for two reasons. Chabon is an immensely gifted writer; there are some lovely, heartbreaking passages in this book that are now imprinted on my brain. And he is very, very good at writing characters. Joe, Sammy, and Rosa are rather understated characters and it would have easy for their personalities to get lost in the sweeping epic of this story, but Chabon always returns to the characters in private and surprising moments.

And DAMN, I think the last page of this novel is one of the best endings I've ever read. Like, WOWSERS.

*Just as I was lamenting the lack of female characters, Chabon introduced Rosa, PLUS a fabulous yet problematic lady superhero with a librarian secret identity. Women readers (and librarians), Michael Chabon has your back! ( )
  raschneid | Dec 19, 2023 |
I'm more than twenty years late to the party for Michael Chabon's hefty novel about the origins and heyday of comic books. THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY won him the Pulitzer, and well-deserved for such a dense, ambitious project about two dissimilar friends (and cousins) who created a memorial superhero for the comics in "The Escapist." They are Jewish, of course, as Chabon's characters usually are, and this is especially important as the story begins before the U.S. enters WWII, and continues through the war years and into the post-war Eisenhower years. So the tragedy of the Holocaust looms large in the background. It is also very much about male friendships and homophobia, another frequent theme in Chabon's fiction. (This is my fourth Chanon.) The book has already been read and reviewed thousands of times, so I will pretty much stop here, although I should probably confess that I almost gave up on it a few times in the first three hundred pages, as it seemed to drag here and there. But once I passed that halfway point (in its six hundred-plus pages), it suddenly picked up speed and began rolling downhill like a runway train. Enuf said. Good book, Mr Chabon. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )
  TimBazzett | Sep 20, 2023 |
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Showing 1-5 of 400 (next | show all)
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▾Published reviews
It's like a graphic novel inked in words and starring the author himself in the lead role: Wonder Boy.
added by ty1997 | editEntertainment Weekly, Troy Patterson (Sep 29, 2000)
 
This is definitely New York, the old-school version. In the fusion of dashing young men in fresh new $12 suits, the smell of newsprint and burned coffee and laundry, and the courage to face unrelenting evil with pluck and humor, Chabon has created an important work, a version of the 20th century both thrillingly recognizable and all his own.
added by ty1997 | editsalon.com, Amy Benfer (Sep 28, 2000)
 
Although suffused with tragedy, ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'' proves to be a comic epic, generously optimistic about the human struggle for personal liberation.
added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Ken Kalfus (Sep 24, 2000)
 
Chabon is a genius --- there is no other way to describe his ability to blend Hitler, comic books, brotherhood, first love, fame and the pitfalls of celebrity, Brooklyn Jewish home life, the European struggle against the Third Reich, America's growing prosperity, and good-looking women who use their smarts and their curves to get ahead in the world together in such a cohesive, complete story.
added by ty1997 | editbookreporter.com, Jana Siciliano
 
▾Other authors

» Add other authors (21 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Chabon, Michael—primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Baardman, GerdaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Colacci, DavidNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
▾Series and work relationships
▾Awards and Honors

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▾Common Knowledge
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Canonical title
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Original title
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Alternative titles
Original publication date
2000-09-19
People/Characters
Joe Kavalier (Josef Kavalier)
Sam Clay (Sammy Klayman)
Rosa Saks (Rose Saxon)
Tracy Bacon
Sheldon P. Anapol
Important places
New York, New York, USA
Antarctica
Prague, Czech Republic
Empire State Building, New York, New York, USA
Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA
Important events
World War II (1939 | 1945)
Holocaust (1939 | 1945)
Kefauver Senate Hearings (1950 | 1951)
Golden Age of Comic Books
Related movies
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (in-development | IMDb)
Epigraph
We have this history of impossible solutions for insoluble problems
--Will Eisner, in conversation
Wonderful escape!
--Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Wakefield"
Dedication
To my father
The Gabrielov Family
First words
In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini.
Quotations
"We have the idea that our hearts, once broken, scar over with an indestructible tissue that prevents their ever breaking again in quite the same place."
"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."
It was a mark of how fucked-up and broken was the world - the reality - that had swallowed his home and his family that such a feat of escape, by no means easy to pull off, should remain so universally despised.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Full title (2000): The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel / Michael Chabon.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
English
Canonical DDC/MDS
813.54
Canonical LCC
PS3553.H15
▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

▾Book descriptions
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE The beloved, award-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," a Michael Chabon masterwork, is the American epic of two boy geniuses named Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay. Now with special bonus material by Michael Chabon. A "towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book" ("Newsweek"), hailed as Chabon's "magnum opus" ("The New York Review of Books"), "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939. A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America's finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age. "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award Named one of the 10 Best Books of the Decade by "Entertainment Weekly"
▾Library descriptions

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Book description
The novel follows the lives of the title characters, a Czech artist named Joe Kavalier and a Brooklyn-born writer named Sam Clay—both Jewish—before, during, and after World War II. Kavalier and Clay become major figures in the nascent comics industry during its "Golden Age."
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WorldCat

Genres

Melvil Decimal System (DDC)

813.54Literature › English (North America) › American fiction › 20th Century › 1945-1999

LC Classification

PS3553.H15Language and Literature › American literature › American literature › Individual authors › 1961-

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