Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The book cover

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The

MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, June 10, 2014

by
Price
$9.99
Publisher
Brilliance Audio
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1491536209
Dimensions
5.5 x 5.5 x 0.25 inches
Weight
3.5 ounces

Description

About the Author Michael Chabon is the author of Wonder Boys, which won universal critical acclaim and was made into a feature film starring Michael Douglas. Entertainment Weekly included his latest, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, on its list of the best books of 2000. Both are available from Brilliance Audio. He received his B.A. from The University of Pittsburgh and his M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine. He lives with his wife and two children in California.

Features & Highlights

  • 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

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(1.4K)
★★★★
25%
(1.2K)
★★★
15%
(724)
★★
7%
(338)
★
23%
(1.1K)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Dare I call a Pulitizer Prize winner overrated?

It's hard not giving 5 stars to a Pulitizer-prize winner but while I did force myself to stay with the book to the end, I ended up just not being compelled by either character. I also find tiring and unfair the predictable memes: employer bad, employee good. Gay good, straight not as good.
3 people found this helpful
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Lengthy tale - but worth the read

Don Maclean's “American Pie” told the story of rock, from its roots in the mid-50s until the end of the 1960s. A lot happened in that 15 years, it took longer than the usual pop song to describe it all.

Michael Chabon's “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” tells the story of the early days of the comic books, from the early days of World War II (before the US got directly involved) until the mid 1950s. A lot happened in that 15 years, it took longer than the usual novel to describe it all. (Over 600 pages of text – 26 hours when performed on audio book). Except – it's not JUST about comic books. It's about an artist who dabbled in parlor magic and escapes – and was able to use that training to escape Czechoslovakia during the Nazi's reign. It's about a would-be artist who finds his true calling in writing. AND … it's about the legendary Golem, even if the beast's appearance is brief – never lose sight of the fact his shadow falls on much of the action in this book.

I definitely enjoyed the aspects of the book that involved comic book history, (enjoying the cameos by some of the field's greats of those days) and the lives of the creators. I thought that time tale of the two's lives during the US involvement in World War II was a bit, um, out there. It just didn't seem to add to the story, and served as a lengthy diversion. (Yes, it affected the two – but it just felt awkward to me.)

Overall, this was an incredible investment of my time – but one which I found to be an investment, rather than a waste. Good job, Mr. Chabon.

RATING: 5 stars.

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