"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is the best-selling novel by Michael Chabon which, since its first publication, has fast become a cult classic. Narrator David Colacci brings fans over 26 hours of listening enjoyment.
Through a rich parade of finely developed characters, Chabon takes listeners on a journey through the history of the comic book in fiction form. Joe Kavalier, prior to his escape to New York City, has been caught up in Prague during Hitler's regime. Desperate to bring his family to America, he searches for work to earn their passage money. A talented artist, he turns to his cousin, Sammy Clay, who is in need of a co-creator of a relatively new art form: the comic book.
The World War II era provides fertile soil for the comic book industry. People are longing for escape from the realities around them and from the dire possibilities that lay ahead of them. They find escape through living vicariously, and what better fantasy world to escape into than those created by comic book artists?
Kavalier does not find immediate success. Times are tough. Jobs are scarce. The emerging comic book scene is difficult to break into. Kavalier and Clay do not give up. They possess tremendous talent and the drive to go along with it. They are motivated and imaginative enough to turn the colorful characters around them into super villains creating larger-than-life scenarios where ever newer super heroes rush in to save the day.
What sets Kavalier and Clay apart from others in the industry are their own life experiences they bring to their work, drawing upon their personal struggles to fill in the colorful panels of their comic books. Their own needs to escape everyday problems played out against a New York City background spew forth from pen and ink are met with a public appetite for new entertainment via this developing art form.
Fans of the novel will rediscover the greatness of Chabon's work and remember why they fell in love with the novel in the first place through listening to this audiobook. They will also better understand why an ever-growing number of fans have named "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" Chabon's best work.
American writer Michael Chabon was born May 24, 1963 in Washington, D.C. He is best known as a novelist, a screenwriter and a short story writer. His novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Chabon has loved reading comic books from his childhood. He achieved an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of California at Irvine. His great love of comic books became the subject matter of this work, his third novel.
Michael Chabon has written under the pen names of Leon Chaim Bach, Malachi B. Cohen, and August Van Zorn.
"I thought of my friend Brian through most of this, but a lot of other people came to mind too. I hope this book isn't overlooked - it should be widely read for all the issues it touches on. Rascism, bigotry, war, copyright infringement, love, hate, life, death - and the history of comic books. Fascinating."
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Betsie (5 out of 5 stars)