The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

By: Michael Chabon

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2001

It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book.

Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor, and the otherworldly Mistress of the Night, Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. The golden age of comic books has begun, even as the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a stunning novel of endless comic invention and unforgettable characters, written in the exhilarating prose that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to Cheever and Nabokov. In Joe Kavalier, Chabon has created a hero for the century.

©2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2000 Michael Chabon

Critic reviews

"Michael Chabon can write like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader with their beauty and their style." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

a tribute to the original!

loved the written version of this book and loved equally this audible version! props for the accents!

Poignant & Entertaining

K&C touchingly tells the story of two cousins from the 1930s to the 1950s. It seamlessly travels through time and perspective through its rich and entertaining storytelling.

Narrator is wonderful

This book was amazing and made better by the narrator. I am so grateful I stumbled upon it.

Pre-WWII America and the Golden Age of Comics

I took a few days to write my review because I think many of you out there who don’t normally read this kind of thing would enjoy it. I hope this encourages you to do so. After thinking about my review I ended up giving it more stars.

This is a story about a Jewish immigrant who comes to stay with his cousin in Brooklyn, NY. Both boys are artists and have the dream of making it big in the emerging world of comic books. The story takes place during pre-WWII era in NYC, and centers around three main characters Joe 19, Sammy 17 and a little later Rosa, also a graphic artist.

Joseph is a classically trained artist, who studied in Prague and is also an accomplished magician and escape artist. Joseph’s family spent great sums of money to try to get him out of Europe as the Nazis were beginning to crack down on travel in the country. He literally undergoes a “great escape” scenario after his legitimate travel plans are foiled in order to make it to America. One of Joseph’s constant driving forces throughout the book is to use his talents to bring the plight of the Jews in Europe to the attention of everyone else in America through his graphic art and development of The Escapist comic book hero.

Sammy is the American born cousin, with dreams to make it big in this emerging comic business. Sammy lives alone with his mother. His father was a traveling strong man who basically abandoned the family as he toured the Vaudeville circuit. Sammy took ill as a child and was left with residual physical damage. In many ways he is the classic 90 pound weakling found in ads at the back of the comics of the time. Although Sammy is a passible artist, his real talent is his story telling and entrepreneurialism. Together he and Joseph create the Escapist and help develop the new business of Empire Comics during the golden age of comics.

What makes the story so unique is that it not only coves the WWII Jewish experience in a very unusual and interesting way, but also weaves in many real celebrities and events of the time surrounding the comic book industry, including Senate hearings on the corruption of youth by graphic art and the fact most of the artists behind these popular comics were cheated out of money that should have rightly been theirs. Many events are based on the lives of actual comic creators like Stan Lee, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Will Eisner, Jerry Siegel and Jim Steranko to name a few. Several other historical figures are mentioned like Orson Wells and Houdini, Al Smith, Salvador Dali and Fredric Wertham. The book spans a great deal of time from about 1939ish shortly after the debut of Superman to 1954 when the Senate hearings on Juvenile Delinquency were taking place which drastically affected some comics, especially those of the crime and horror genre.

This book was highly acclaimed. With a little research I found there are study guides for the book to discuss its many themes found including fantasy vs. reality, escapism represented on many levels and even how much of an escape artist anyone has to become in order to survive the world. I think because I was listening to this book in audio form, I had not really considered these viewpoints. I plan to read it again in hard copy and pay more attention to these themes and the quotes that support them. I think it would make for good book club discussions. The audio book was very well done by the way – great narration.

The story development is a little slow without a lot of actual action, so some of you may have a problem with the pacing, even though I think the story itself will make up for it. It is implied through a certain character’s development that homosexuality in this time period forces people to be in the closet. Although historically accurate, I really don’t think it had to be mentioned to have this story told. It fit the theme I guess, but sometimes I think authors feel they have to include certain social issues within their work to be relevant to today’s readers. I would be interested to find out if this aspect of the story was referring to a specific historical reference within the comic artist community of the time and plan to do a little more research.

A few other side notes I think are worth mentioning. Dark Horse Comics actually published two series of the Escapist comic based on this book and at one point a movie was considered. Although the movie may be on permanent hold, a TV miniseries with HBO was proposed back in 2011. I would love to see either if they ever come to fruition.

I love comics

Joe leaves Prague for NYC to escape from pre WWIi Europe. He joins his imaginative cousin and they discover that they make a great team for creating comics, Joe the artist and Sammy, the writer. Much of the time period concerning the beginning of comic books in America sounded quite probable and out fictional heroes for right in! I loved all the characters. The story was very good for the most part except for Joe’s Antarctic WW II experience. I very much enjoyed listening.

Amazing!

One of the best books I have ever read and listened to. Now that I have finished it, I feel a little bereft, the way I always feel after the ending of a wonderful book.

Escape From Reality is a Worthy Challenge

At Last! Because You Demanded It! An Unabridged Recording!

Ahem.

It's been several weeks since I finished listening to Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," and I'm starting to think it's one of the best books I've ever read/heard. I read it when it first came out, and enjoyed it. But when the unabridged recording came out I knew I had to grab it, and give it a listen. I am so glad I did. And it was one of those listening experiences when you realize that a book is even better than you already thought it was.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay's an incredible story about two Jewish kids prior to the U.S.'s involvement in WW II - one an immigrant, the other an American - who create a comic book hero that's a perfect and pure meditation on escapism: The Escapist! The novel itself is an epic story full of love, loss, friendship, creativity, and most of all: the human need for escapism.

Chabon's prose is spectacular, painting the setting and the characters better than a splash page. David Colacci's reading is no less spectacular, he was able to expertly give voice to all the characters - Sammy, Joe, Rosa, George Deasey, Tracy Bacon, and Thomas - they all sound exactly the way they should.

According to Chabon's story, Escapism is just as necessary for humans as love. It can be thrilling, sexy, healing, comforting, and transformative. It can make us better people.

Toward the end of the story, Sammy stares at another character's art work and says, “It makes me want to make something again. Something I can be just a little bit proud of.”

That about sums it all up for me. Listening to this book made me laugh, got me all choked up, and left me wanting to create art for as long as possible.

Michael Chabon's magnum opus.

If you only read one book by Michael Chabon, this should be it. And, fortunately, David Colacci reads it, with his typical skill and verve. The book might be called over-written. Many of Chabon's books are like that. The story, however, is a remarkable one. Josef Kavalier escapes from Prague to eventually land in New York City during the early 1940s. He is welcomed by his cousin, Sam Klay, and the two young men rise to the very top of the world of comic books. Their hero, the Escapist, is a superman-like hero who is always escaping from Nazi-like traps and then returning to beat the Nazi-like guys to bloody pulps. The story of the personal lives of Kavalier and Klay is told in great detail. The book is extremely carefully researched. The ambience of New York City during this period is lovingly recreated by Chabon. There are a number of remarkable scenes. Kavalier has studied the great Houdini (whose real name was Erich Weiss) and has become an escape artist himself. He is also a magician and a clever entertainer. The book goes on perhaps too long, but if you are truly entertained, then Chabon and Colacci have done yeoman's work. The scenes of Kavalier's stretch in the Navy at a base in Antarctica are particularly memorable and heroic. Chabon's writing style is an acquired taste for many, but this is exactly the sort of thing for those who like this sort of thing.

Fantastic Story, Passible Narration

What did you love best about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay?

The characters jump off the page and stick in your heart. You connect with them despite the gaps in history and crappy jewish mother accents.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Joe Kavalier. Great character. He is broken and compelling.

What three words best describe David Colacci’s performance?

Please, Stop, {the} Accents

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Plenty, but I don't want spoilers out there for future readers.

Any additional comments?

If you have the time and have heard about this book for years, it's worth a listen. The narration could be better, but the story makes up for that.

Amazing indeed!!

Having started routinely writing reviews of books I listen to recently, I've been looking back through my 900+ book Audible library for some of the very best, and a few of the worst, books to which I have listened. I listened to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay two years ago. It remains one of my favorite novels although it is not of my favorite mystery/thriller genre.

The novel is set in the US during the WWII time frame beginning inn 1939. Kavalier, recently arrived in the US from a portion of Europe controlled by Nazi Germany, is the cousin of Clay. Both are in their late teens and they live in the house of Cay's mother as the book begins.

In this wonderful and inspiring, and sometimes funny, historical fiction novel the two talented cousins invent the modern comic book.

The narration is perfect.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay falls into the must-read category.