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 ( )

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! ( )

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 ( )

I keep thinking that a five star review is supposed to be reserved for a 'perfect' book. I wanted Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Kavalier and Clay" to be such a thing. And for a while I thought it might be. Alas, there is no such thing as a perfect book. This might not be the 'Great American Novel'. But it still deserves five stars.

It deserves five stars for its rich prose, distinct characters, vivid settings, and strong story. That's not to say that we haven't seen similar characters and settings and themes before. But Chabon weaves them together in a way that sweeps up the reader and carries them along such that the pages simply fly by (most of the time). There's not only the pair of journeys from boy to man, including the classic loss of innocence. There are also the journeys from urban to suburban, from child to parent, and peace to war to peace.

It's not a perfect book. There are quite a few spots where the narrative loses focus and seems to get off track. It sags a bit in the middle. It's also lacking in universal appeal. It is definitely a male book, about manly pursuits and male bonding. There are few women and they are only there to illuminate the men in the story. But these are only minor quibbles.

This is a great book and highly recommended. ( )

This book creeped up on me. It started slow and I kept dropping it to read something else. Then it gradually became mind-blowingly terrific. Chabon uses language in a way that is approachable, witty and literate. It's rare to find a book that is both fun and as full of imagery and symbolism as Kavalier and Clay. The 630 pages are filled with Chabon's unique voice on reality, escapism, narrative, imagination and family.

Of course, my typical Chabon comments still stand -- after reading a Chabon novel, I always feel as if it was written just for me to address things uniquely about my life. And I feel like Chabon is one of my closest friends, whom I know better than anyone else in the world. The universal popularity of Kavalier and Clay should disabuse me of these notions, but this is truly Chabon's unique gift.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is an unparalleled work. ( )