Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Title: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Author: Michael Chabon
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: A+

Abbreviated Summary (from Back Flap): "Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America-the comic book... With exhilerating style and grace, Michael Chabon tells an unforgettable story about American romance and possibility.

Review: What can you say about this book? They don't just go giving out Pulitzer Prizes to bad books. This book is superbly fantastic. I loved all the characters (some a little more than others), but all in all they were all lovely.

The only drawback was that (because I loved some characters more than others), I was itching to get to their perspective, but even that was easily swallowed because Chabon is pure genius.

To illustrate, he writes a scene so roundly, so full of emotion that when Josef is running across the arctic ice and freezes because he fears the sound of the wind, fears that there are Nazis hunting him, you freeze and catch your breath. You fear that the sound of your finger sliding down the page is too loud and will alert the Nazis who are hunting you in Subway where you're eating and reading. It's that good. (Luckily, there aren't actually any Nazis hunting us in Subway restaurants).

This review is painfully short because anything I write would be painfully insufficient to express the beauty of this novel. All I can say is: Drop whatever you're reading right now and pick this book up. Don't check it out from the library, you'll need your own copy that you can love and re-read because that's what the book does to you.