The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Hardcover, 639 pages

English language

Published Nov. 19, 2000 by Random House.

ISBN:
978-0-679-45004-7
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4 stars (8 reviews)

The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef "Joe" Kavalier as a refugee in New York City, where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin Sammy Klayman. Joe escaped from Prague with the help of his teacher Kornblum by hiding in a coffin along with the inanimate Golem of Prague, leaving the rest of his family, including his younger brother Thomas, behind. Besides having a shared interest in drawing, Sammy and Joe share several connections to Jewish stage magician Harry Houdini: Joe (like comics legend Jim Steranko) studied magic and escapology in Prague, which aided him in his departure from Europe, and Sammy is the son of the Mighty Molecule, a strongman on the vaudeville circuit.

When Sammy discovers Joe's artistic talent, Sammy gets Joe a job as an illustrator for a novelty products company, which, due to the recent success of Superman, is attempting to …

28 editions

From Am Graben to The Empire State Building

5 stars

I am no fan of American comic books. Grown up men wearing swimming trunks over tight pants is ridiculous.

However, this has been a most enjoyable read! Prague, New York, Jews, Americans, Germans, war, comic books, masked heroes, friendship, love, struggle, mystery, American dream, Golem, escapistry...there's just about everything. And it is well mixed with a set of unique characters who are believable. Nice intro into the comic books industry of pre-war and post-war US + interesting language-wise, too.

I hope Sammy is happy in LA.

Review of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I really struggled with this book.

I've been wanting to read it since it came out and have started it a few times but it never engaged me initially. This time I forced myself to push through the book, and I think I understand my issues with it.

The first 40% of the book is plot driven, not character. The characters have an interesting back story, but they have no meaningful relationships.

About 40% into the novel, we see some relationships start and flourish. This is when I found myself wanting to continue reading. Then that just ended, and we moved back to plot driven.

So, in a reversal of most novels, I found the beginning and the end lacking in meaningful character development while the middle of the book flourished.

Subjects

  • Comic books, strips, etc. -- Authorship -- Fiction.
  • Heroes in mass media -- Fiction.
  • Czech Americans -- Fiction.
  • Young men -- Fiction.
  • Cartoonists -- Fiction.
  • New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

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