The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

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 ageing 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 of a world gone completely mad. --Mary Park, Amazon.com

No brief summary of the action, however, can begin to convey the depth and scope of this imaginative and original novel. Chabon manages never to lose sight of the Nazi menace while putting it into completely new contexts, including magic, superheroes, Houdini-like escapes, golems, and comic book characters, and ranging from Prague to New York and Antarctica (a section that could have used some pruning). It is a novel of huge scope--and it is hugely entertaining! Mary Whipple


An absolute must read   December 13, 2006
Benjamin (UK)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Superbly written and engrossing story about two cousins, American Samuel Klayman, and Polish refuge Josef Kavalier, who first meet as the young refuge is shoved into bed alongside his cousin. Before that happens though Josef has to engineer his escape from the Nazi threat in Poland. They grow up and establish themselves as a partnership in comics. The story is complex and meaningful, and any attempt to give a synopsis would only spoil the pleasure for the reader. That it covers a lifetime; trauma, love, devotion, loyalty, loss and sacrifice and much more should suffice.
What shines through is a most beautiful story of the developing relationship between the two cousins and Rosa, the extravagant young girl who becomes inextricably involved with the two boys. There is a beautiful air of melancholy that pervades the story at times, including circumstances that surround Sam in relation to the isolation his sexual inclinations create for him. Full of wit and humour and humanity, the writing is superb, a sheer pleasure to read. This is truly a book that cannot be recommended too highly, an absolute must read



A Lesson In Escapism   March 18, 2010
Steve Keen (Herts, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful


Strange, but as a former Eng Lit student it's over three years since I last read a novel. I've read plenty of books, but the last novel I read was Bellow's Humboldt's Gift, whose central character is a Jewish boy from a humble background living in Chicago.

So, Kavalier & Clay starts off with Sammy Clay, a Jewish boy from a humble background living in New York, unexpectedly one evening finding that he is sharing his bed (though not in the biblical sense) with a cousin from Prague (like Bellow's Sammler, a refugee in New York from Hitler's Eastern European rampage). They exchange pleasantries, and share a roll-up salvaged from butts in the flower pot. At this point it's looking like another tale of urban Jewish-American folk getting by against the odds.

But there's something the cousin, Joe Kavalier, isn't telling yet, and the book sucks us back, and in, and then back again, to slowly reveal the backstory to his arrival, via Japan and San Francisco, in the Big Apple.

Back to his first ever attempt to emulate his hero, Harry Houdini, in the cold waters of the River Moldau, an attempt that comes close to being the end both of him and his younger brother, and to his escape from Nazi-controlled Czechoslovakia, in a not altogether conventional manner.

Thenceforward the story progresses with the development of the money-generating juggernaut Joe and Sammy unleash in the form of Empire Comics and heroes such as The Escapist and Luna Moth.

Joe turns out to be to Impulsive what Mao was to A Bit Spiteful. This leads him into all kinds of scrapes, such as breaking into the Aryan-American League HQ and picking fights with anybody who looks German, leading inter alia to a pasting by a Max Schmelling lookalike, and it is only the appearance of the female part of the story's love interest which prevents his making the error of attacking Max Ernst. Ernst is one of a number of real-life people who intrude on the action, including Salvador Dali, at the same party, Orson Wells, and Eleanor Roosevelt, who intercedes to...

No, that would be telling!

There's also an amusing aside suggesting that Sammy may have been the source for Roy Liechtenstein's signature style, and the other real-life star of the piece is New York itself, particularly the Empire State Building, around which a considerable amount of the action revolves.

Meantime, Sammy is grappling with his sexuality, mystified by his lack of interest in girls and lacking the kind of role models we now take for granted in the other direction, and which make the signposts easy for us to spot.

However, there are sinister hints that what began as a set of "adventures" is going to turn a little darker, and so it is that around the middle of the book the inevitable fall occurs. The nature of the fall is kind of predictable (though again, I won't disclose what it is). And it is around this point that the irony of the title becomes clear. This is not an Adventure story. Adventures are mildly risky, have a happy ending, and their stories can be retold lightheartedly at parties. But for Joe and Sammy there's too much hard reality crowding out the adventure, as they each have to make heart-rending decisions, and are witness to and involved in an avalanche of Misadventures, the most poignant of which is the tragicomic climax to Joe's war service.

So, what starts out as an apparent escapist tale about the creation of escapist tales becomes a lesson in life. This is foreshadowed by Joe's early disquiet at his profession, and his realisation of the futility of having The Escapist constantly kick Nazi butt in a comic strip only adds to his sense of impotence in the face of the evil stalking the world. Later in the book Joe reflects on escapism and concludes that it's all right, and that his comics help him. In the words of writer Jane Wagner, "Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs." Joe's drug is comics, but they only give him temporary release, at best.

Joe's final stunt turns out to have more comedy about it than the events in the dark centre of the book. Again, his compulsiveness contributes something to this, but it's mostly seen, by him at least, as the price he has to pay for regaining access to those he has isolated himself from.

A compulsive read this most certainly is, and the sleep you'll lose will not only be from sitting up into the small hours unable to stop reading, it will also be from the adrenaline pumping through your system.

Even before you reach the bibliography at the end of the book it is clear that the author has undertaken some serious research, into escapology, Harry Houdini, magic, comic books and their lore, art and history, and Jewish mythologies, such as the Golem that accompanies Joe from Prague and later mysteriously reemerges in Long Island, and Kaballah. This gives the story a greater depth, as does its handling of the issues of Nazism and sexual politics, especially Sammy's appearance before a congressional committee which has all the sinister overtones of McCarthyite witch hunts, with its insidious insinuations about the relationships between comic book heroes like Batman and Robin. The effect of this is similar to that of Tom Sharpe's satires on apartheid. It's funny, but not funny enough to outweigh the serious implications.

The book also raises some interesting questions about fatherhood. Who's the best father? Sammy's absentee one, Joe, or Sammy himself? The fact that Sammy has no biological children makes the question quite intriguing.

The final act left me with one final question. Is The Escapist really Sammy?



Wonderful... extraordinary   February 23, 2010
messageinthemoon (Kent UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Since I am not a reader who enjoys the typical Hollywood theme of heroes and villains fighting it out through the course of an all too predictable storyline, I was initially sceptical about the idea of a novel combining American comic book superheroes and Jews suffering under Nazi oppression. Surely it would be too silly and far fetched to be even readable wouldn't it?
Not at all! The plot is extraordinary, the writing sensitive and beautifully creative and its themes touching and thoroughly researched. As our two main characters Kavalier and Klay grow up in a world about to be plunged into war, they are drawn into a realm of magic tricks and comic book superheroes as a means to deal with the traumas of the real world outside. Henceforth the narrative of our characters flickers between the confused realities of the lives they are living and the dramatic fantasies of the storyboards they are drawing.
It's a long book and there are elements in it that you may find irrelevant, confusing, even distasteful; but stick with it, and like some strange trick of illusion it will all make sense in the end; although like the best magic tricks it will leave you wondering how it was done with such simplicity. Wonderful... extraordinary!


Truly Amazing!   September 4, 2004
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

"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. Other quick recommendations: WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes and The Losers Club by Richard Perez -- two much shorter, but lively books, I enjoyed. Read on!