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
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
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel
August 25, 2001 | 706 pages
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Comments
7
jayarclaire (Grade: A) I love this book. Chabon's prose is a joy to read and the story is both original in its content and familiar in its themes - a new spin on a classic tale of brothers (if not by blood, then more than close enough) driven apart by circumstances but drawn together by fate and family. Any fan of silver/golden-age comics should read it for sure, but even someone without that interest would find this to be a wonderful book.
(Rated on Sep 3, 2013)
3
mareuter (Grade: A) Breathtakingly good. One of the best books I have read in years. Full of wonder, mystery, and a world we wish were our own.
(Rated on Feb 23, 2015)
3
notapuppy (Grade: B) A well written book, the themes are tightly wound together and enjoyable.
(Rated on Jun 14, 2015)
2
bennett_the_ceo
(Grade: C+) This is a mixed bag that loses steam as the page count grows. Chabon shifts most of the action and pivotal events off-screen, which only works if the characters are compelling enough to carry the narrative. The protagonists here are talented but hollow, repeatedly shocked that the world can be unfair to them. Chabon's meticulous research is evident in the interweaving of history with fiction, but there's not enough genuine adventure to make the novel a success.
(Grade: C+) This is a mixed bag that loses steam as the page count grows. Chabon shifts most of the action and pivotal events off-screen, which only works if the characters are compelling enough to carry the narrative. The protagonists here are talented but hollow, repeatedly shocked that the world can be unfair to them. Chabon's meticulous research is evident in the interweaving of history with fiction, but there's not enough genuine adventure to make the novel a success.(Rated on Aug 4, 2016)
0
Electron (Grade: A) Chabon pays loving homage to the Golden Age of Comics in this novel. Beautiful!
(Rated on Sep 19, 2015)
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