Let me first say, I do not agree with the reviews that say the novel's middle and end are slow or boring or unnecessary. I thought this book was very well crafted. Realistic and well-written, it was also deeply touching. Whether the setting is New York City, the Moldau river, or an Arctic army camp, the reader is immersed and aware of her surroundings. Characters, too, are developed and realistic; they will probably reappear in my dreams. Chabon has an excellent vocabulary and does not mince his words. Though I am new to comic books myself, I could see the ways this novel raises the comic book's status, while making use of staple techniques found in that genre.
Sammy Clay was an ambitious, lonely young man, living with his mother and trying to make a name and good money for himself, when Josef Kavalier appears from out of the night . Josef, his never-before-met cousin, is a Jew from Prague, sent to live with his American family during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Joe, who immediately made a place for himself in my heart, is a magician, particularly an escape-artist. He makes it his life's work to bring over his younger brother, along with his mother, father, and grandfather, to America with him.
Clay and Joe make a great team of comic book artists--Joe makes the drawings, Clay the stories. Though their comic books achieve great success, there is more to their goals and to the novel than that. Clay harbors a secret that even he cannot face. He is gay, but does not want to be. Joe, meanwhile, has to come to the understanding that his efforts of saving his family through the making of a comic book are futile, and must struggle to somehow accept his own survival.
The novel is one about love; about family; about Jewish lore; about World War 2; about comic book history; about American dreams; about magic, both illusion and real. I loved it. I truly recommend this novel, great as it is, to someone who wants to read a true American novel. Also, to those who are homophobic or anti-comic books-- open your mind!!
It seems I've been reading a lot of literature on homosexuality-- The Invention of Love, Sodom and Gomorrah, Women in Love, and now The Amazing Adventures. Though this is all coincidental, I think it is important to read literature that deals with this issue. Though the stigma and repercussions of being gay today are much less severe than they would have been in Clay's world, they are still very much present and it is ridiculous. So many negative reviews had to do with "all the gay rape scenes" in The Amazing Adventures, and yet I was surprised to find there was only one, which was implied not described. Furthermore, it was a terribly touching scene and the turning point for Clay in his decision to deny his own nature.
Anyways, I'm very excited for my next novel, which also features some lesbianism, as well as incest! Ada, or Ardor, by Vladimir Nabokov, HERE I COME!
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