Michael Chabon, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay"
Man, that took a long time to finish. I had about 80 pages to go on Wednesday, but Pete the Punk Rock Roadie stopped into town for a visit, which meant much drinking transpired. Then I felt really sick on Thursday, so sick that I went home from work early and went to sleep. I still don�t feel great, now that I mention it. Anyhoo...
So, a book involving two guys who create superhero comics with lots of insider references, the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and as a bonus, this was one question on my test to Columbia University that I got right. This has got to be great, no?
Well... no. Don�t get me wrong, it is pretty damn good, but as the story progresses we deal with the main characters, Kavalier and Clay. Joe Kavalier is a Jew who leaves his family in Prague to escape the Nazis. As he grows older he uses his fortune earned from comics to try and rescue other people and bring them to America. When Germans sink the boat carrying his nephew, he gets so angry that he joins the Army for the sole purpose of killing Germans. Intertwined are details of his life as a magician and escape artist.
This is an interesting character. Sammy Clay, the other hero, simply wrestles with whether he is a homosexual or not. This is not an interesting character.
It reminded me of reading Stephen King�s �Cujo� when I was a child. �Yeah, yeah,� I thought while reading that, �I know there�s a lot of other things going on, but can we please hurry up and get back to the dog?� Kavalier was the dog.
This book also reminded me of another childhood experience. Early in the book we�re given insight into the creative process of creating a superhero for comics. Though I never read much of X-Men, I happened to come across a contest when I was about 12 years old where readers could create their own mutants. The only thing I could come up was a guy who could turn inanimate objects into condiments like mayonnaise or mustard. After turning the floor into a slippery mess of semi-congealed toppings, he would quip, �Would you like fries with that?�
Needless to say, I didn�t win. And I�ve been jaded ever since.
