The Hose

Outdated Book Review

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon


The author of Wonder Boys apparently took the world by storm six years ago with this prototypical great American novel. At the time I was too far into the grips of self loathing to notice or do anything about it. I remember reading a lot of Camus and lying down a lot. (SHOUT OUT TO EVIL)

Sam Klayman (later Clay) is laying in bed one night minding his own business, when his mother walks into the room shoves him aside in his own bed and introduces him to his cousin Joseph Kavalier, a trained escape artist who managed to escape the Nazis and get to New York. The two cousins quickly strike up a friendship and convince Sam's boss (a woopie cushion maker) to get into the comic book business. From this lush backdrop we get it all, a view into the jewish experience during the 1940s, the second world war, Gollems, the Kevaufner Hearings during the 1950s, repressed homosexuality and of course comic books (yah!). Sam and Joe leverage their marginal fame into meeting people from Orson Wells to Salvador Dali. Joe even manages to fall in love with a member of the Saks family before he leaves it all to enlist and fight in World War 2.

I managed to read the whole book on the flight to and from Atlanta in about 2 days. Check it out..