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The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 14,312 ratings · 1,184 reviews

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller.

The sheltered son of a Jewish mobster, Art Bechstein leaps into his first summer as a college graduate as cluelessly as he capered through his school years. But new friends and lovers are eager to guide him through these sultry days of last-ditch youthful alienation and sexual confusion--in a blue-collar city where the mundane can so...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published July 5th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published 1988)

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Feb 10, 2008 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, I loved this book, and kind of wanted it to be my life, the way certain people I could name but won't feel about The Sun Also Rises. I was about fifty pages in, tops, before I found myself casting the movie in my head. (I deliberately avoided looking at the cast list until after I finished reading the book; thank god I did, I would have liked the book, I estimate, about 46% less had I know while reading it that Mena Suvari plays Phlox. Appalling.) Or, to be honest, imagining myself as the le...more So, I loved this book, and kind of wanted it to be my life, the way certain people I could name but won't feel about The Sun Also Rises. I was about fifty pages in, tops, before I found myself casting the movie in my head. (I deliberately avoided looking at the cast list until after I finished reading the book; thank god I did, I would have liked the book, I estimate, about 46% less had I know while reading it that Mena Suvari plays Phlox. Appalling.) Or, to be honest, imagining myself as the lead character in the movie of the book. Or, to be even more honest, imagining myself as the lead character in the real-life version of the book. I haven't done this since, I don't think, and funnily enough, Fortress of Solitude. (Not coicidentally, another book that takes place appealingly in a culturally signified past; I think it helps, if you're going to try to place yourself in a story, it helps to be able to place the story in a time and place that already seems and looks like part of history, as opposed to the uncertainly defined present.) Yeah, I know there are a hell of a lot of other things literature can do, but this was the first of the things that literature can do that literature did to me, and I'm glad to be reminded of how it feels.

And you know what? Chabon knows exactly what he's doing. It's so obviously semi-autobiographical, embellished and romanticized (crime! great food! copius sex! adventures!), but essentially a not-quite-as-young-as-he-once-was man's marvel at his youth, and sadness at its passing. (I'm fairly certain I could have figured this out even if I had read an essay to that effect once.) Chabon makes it clear, I think, exactly how aware he is of all this, with passages about "the will to bigness," and the narrator's closing admission about his tendency to exaggerate.

So The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a book about how art can make life bigger and better than it is.

I should also mention that one of the reasons it pulls this off is because there's a memorable image, quotable bit of dialogue, fresh observation, or hilariously perfect and original turn of phrase on pretty much every page of the thing.(less)

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Apr 11, 2009 Shelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I, like tons of other goodreaders, wish we didn't have to give a book an entire star so really I rate this at a three and a half more than a four.
In any event, I know that I liked this book, I'm just not sure how much I liked it or why I liked it. I mean, if a book holds your attention to the point where you can finish it quickly and are interested in picking it up everyday does that by itself make it a great book? Or a really good book? Because this book was that for me. Then again, some really...more I, like tons of other goodreaders, wish we didn't have to give a book an entire star so really I rate this at a three and a half more than a four.
In any event, I know that I liked this book, I'm just not sure how much I liked it or why I liked it. I mean, if a book holds your attention to the point where you can finish it quickly and are interested in picking it up everyday does that by itself make it a great book? Or a really good book? Because this book was that for me. Then again, some really shitty Lifetime movies have been that for me, too. Depends on my mood. Some of the stuff in this book bugged me, though. Like, for example, how one of the main characters is a girl named "Phlox." Really? Seriously? Phlox from Pittsburgh? Then the main character, Arthur Bechstein, is annoyingly indecisive, cries often and for no apparent reason, and is one of those people who is into something because all his friends are. I think spineless is the word I'm looking for here. Despite all that, I still liked him. He's a nice guy. The story itself is nothing groundbreaking. Young man who cant relate to his father comes of age type shit. Only Chabon has mixed it up a bit by creating a main character who can't decide which one of his lovers, the guy or the girl, is true love and which one is lust. Also there's a back story involving the main character's father-- a Jewish Mob Boss-- and his thug-life homey who uses him (Arthur) for his underworld connections.

What it all comes down to for me I guess is that whether or not a story is derivative or whether or not its been told before (which, you know, most have) doesn't matter if it's well executed. And that's where I'm confused. On the one hand I really enjoyed reading the book and found myself invested in the characters and absorbed by the story, but on the other hand there were plenty of times where I was really turned off by it and thought "This is total bullshit. Why is this here?"

Ugh. I hate how I hated Arthur's indecisiveness and now I can't even decide how I feel about this book. What Bullshi!

PS- This movie: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2429...
seems very little like the book I just read. And I can't believe I didn't realize for nearly the entire time I was reading this book that a) there was a movie made about it and b) It's the movie Sienna Miller was filming when she referred to Pittsburgh "Shitsburgh"? So that's kinda cool.

Edit: OK, I'm knocking it down to just three stars. I just wasn't comfortable with the four that were up there. (less)

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Apr 05, 2008 Tung rated it 2 of 5 stars

My fourth Chabon work in a row after having read Final Solution, Model World, and Werewolves in their Youth in the past few weeks. Thankfully, this is the last of his early works for me to read, since I don’t know how much more unpolished Chabon I can take. Mysteries is Chabon’s first published work, his master’s thesis at Cal-Irvine. The book takes place in Pittsburgh at an unnamed college, and revolves around a college student named Art Bechstein whose father is a Jewish gangster. Art meets se...more My fourth Chabon work in a row after having read Final Solution, Model World, and Werewolves in their Youth in the past few weeks. Thankfully, this is the last of his early works for me to read, since I don’t know how much more unpolished Chabon I can take. Mysteries is Chabon’s first published work, his master’s thesis at Cal-Irvine. The book takes place in Pittsburgh at an unnamed college, and revolves around a college student named Art Bechstein whose father is a Jewish gangster. Art meets several friends – Arthur (a gay student in love with Art), Phlox (an eccentric girl also in love with Art), and Cleveland (a wild young guy with no clear future who is involved with the mob) – and the book winds its way around their relationships to Art and to each other, while at the same time exploring Art expanding his mind and boundaries and trying to figure out who he is and what he wants. All of this takes place in the shadow of Art’s relationship to his gangster father. For a first novel, it’s well-written and you can see glimpses of Chabon’s strengths: perfectly-developed characters, natural dialogue, complex relationships. But that’s what made this frustrating for me; having read Chabon’s best works first (Kavalier & Klay & Final Solution), seeing how unpolished Mysteries is alters how much I enjoyed this book. My biggest gripes about Mysteries are in its pacing and in its protagonist. Pacing-wise, Mysteries spends way too much time (in my estimation, about 4/5 of the book) shaping the main characters, developing their interactions, and setting up the book’s climax so that when it wraps up in the final few chapters, it feels rushed. This book doesn’t have the scope that Kavalier & Klay had: hundreds of pages fleshing out decades of lives. Rather, Mysteries takes place in one summer in 300 pages; I feel like Chabon could have shortened much of the set-up and expanded the ending to even out the timeline of events. Protagonist-wise, Art is the least likable character in any of the Chabon works I’ve read. He spends far too much time crying and acting passively, which might be somewhat natural for a young kid finding himself, but I simply didn’t care for him in the least. And Art is such a critical protagonist to the story – more directly connected to everything and everyone in this book than other protagonists in other books – that if you don’t like him, the story ends up falling short, which it just does for me. Not quite recommended, unfortunately.(less)

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Feb 06, 2008 Frederick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This was Michael Chabon's first novel. He was in his early twenties when it was published. It was widely praised. While many of the critics focused on the sexual ambiguities of the main character, what Chabon clearly showed here was his gift, to this day undiminished, for giving architectural landscape a personality.
In every Chabon novel or story I've read, manmade structures give meaning to the characters' actions. If I exaggerate, then allow me to clarify what I'm saying. Are the characters in...more This was Michael Chabon's first novel. He was in his early twenties when it was published. It was widely praised. While many of the critics focused on the sexual ambiguities of the main character, what Chabon clearly showed here was his gift, to this day undiminished, for giving architectural landscape a personality.
In every Chabon novel or story I've read, manmade structures give meaning to the characters' actions. If I exaggerate, then allow me to clarify what I'm saying. Are the characters in THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH not often scrambling in giant, broken down arenas, negotiating rusty staircases and climbing up brick edifices?
And isn't Chabon's trump-card the fact that the reader WANTS to read about the utilitarian monuments which house his characters?
WONDER BOYS would be the book I'd give to someone from another country who might want an idea of what it LOOKS like to live here.
There is a Michael Chabon masterpiece which more people should seek. It's buried on his official website (if that website is still up. I haven't checked it out in three years.) [Note added Feb. 6th, 2008: An article which I think is the same one I'm thinking of appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES on September 26th, 1993 and is called PRAGUE: LOST ERA'S LAST SURVIVOR. I can't tell if it's the same one because I can't get the TIMES'S website to bring it up. By the way, here's a web-page listing that article, as well as many other articles and books by Michael Chabon: http://www.sugarbombs.com/kavalier/wo... an essay about a trip he made to Prague. He describes the famous, eccentric architecture. But this is not mere travel writing. This is about a city which drove out its Jewish population as the Nazis swept across Europe. The architecture, ornate and whimsical, draws tourists, while the monstrosities within its hallucinatory frame are forgotten. Chabon visits the Jewish cemetary and sees blond-haired, blue-eyed visitors, obviously Gentiles, making a show of grief. The beautiful, eccentric, mad architecture lives generations after multitudes of innocents who had called it home were taken from its shelter and slaughtered.
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Feb 13, 2008 Speedtribes rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-leeeeterature

This is what I call the "It was summer and we were young" school of youthful indiscretion and confused attempts at living the Full Life.

The story is filled to the max with sexual confusion, societal yearning and emotional tug of war between what the protagonist calls his beautiful god-like people -- all put together in a sleepy, yellow-warm and lyrical package.

I had a little difficulty buying into some of the situations and characters and I'm not entirely certain the ending had been built up e...more

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Nov 12, 2007 Rebecca Armendariz rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: girls who like boys. gay boys.

Shelves: favorites-ever

This book is my new personal favorite. Mostly because of this quote,
"Every woman is a volume of stories, a catalogue of movements, a spectacular array of images."

The other quotes I like are:

“There had been a time in high school, see, when I wrestled with the possibility that I might be gay, a torturous six-month culmination of years of unpopularity and girllessness. At night I lay in bed and coolly informed myself that I was gay and that I had better get used to it.”

“It was as though she had stu...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Nikki Boisture rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lindsey

I've read this book three times. I'm trying to decide exactly what it is that I love so much about it. Michael Chabon's writing style makes me long for such skill. I get an ache in my stomach reading his works and loving them so much and wishing his words could come from me. The characters in this book aren't wonderful people, but they are wonderfully real. Art's lack of self-confidence especially speaks to me. When Art falls in love with Arthur I fell in love with Arthur right along with him. I...more

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Mar 06, 2007 Jake rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone feeling nostalgic for college or feeling anxious about leaving.

Shelves: books-for-drummey

This book is incredibly evocative of the time right after college graduation - I just graduated in May of last year, and it still hits me now when I read it nine months later.

While the writing leaves a little to be desired, and some of the scenes are over the top, most readers would probably just write it off as an expected issue with an author's first novel. Some might argue that no real person talks like these characters do. To be perfectly honest, I know too many people who talk like this. F...more

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Aug 31, 2007 Shea rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

I bought this book many years ago while actually in Pittsburgh. I was visiting a girlfriend who was living there, and shortly after my arrival I was unceremoniously dumped.

Browsing the street of the unfamiliar town I was supposed to spend the next 3 days in, I stumbled upon this book. Based on title alone it seemed an appropriate subject, given my recent circumstance. I imagined myself sitting and reading for days at a bench on the Monongahela, forlornly pondering life's intricacies. Instead I w...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Jason added it

Shelves: all-time-favorites

i do love michael chabon...
this book has been no different so far...this is his first novel and you can sort of tell...his language is a bit more self conscious and you can really feel him trying to impress you...the thing is, he does...
his command of linguistic expression is very very good...and his ability to weave multiple characters together and build their complexity through interaction is extremely effective and affecting...you never feel him losing control of the characters or the plot th...more i do love michael chabon...
this book has been no different so far...this is his first novel and you can sort of tell...his language is a bit more self conscious and you can really feel him trying to impress you...the thing is, he does...
his command of linguistic expression is very very good...and his ability to weave multiple characters together and build their complexity through interaction is extremely effective and affecting...you never feel him losing control of the characters or the plot threads...
his themes, as in all his books, are sprinkled though out the narrative, given to you in various forms such as character action, symbolism, and most importantly dissociated metaphor...
i'm only halfway through so i'm hesitant to conclude anything...
i'll make a little comment by way of pre-analysis...the section in the beginning when art talks about the hotel is a symbolic sketch of the entire novel....
and the snatch of dialogue between art and arthur when art asks "is is this illegal?" and arthur says, "no, but don't fall out, mohammed already has too many tickets", is also integral to understanding the book...just a wild guess...
this is a remarkable novel...it's easy to see within these words the incredible success he will achieve with his next three...

the cloud factory and the hotel...
the cloud factory is a major image in the book...it permeates the text from beginning to end...no one knows what it's really for it just seem to be there to create clouds, billowing out its smokestacks...
the cloud factory is a symbolic structure meant to represent us, as individuals, as identities, as people who seek to know who we really are...but can't...
we don't really know what we are, we just create these beautiful, ephemeral moments that define us and the world around us...
we are all of us cloud factories...some people keep trying to find out what the factory is really for...they try to climb the fences and peek in the windows, but there is never a clear answer...
it's possible that there is no answer...and people who can't stop climbing the fences end up like cleveland...who can't be content with any of the cloud formations that come out of his factory and ultimately he is destroyed trying to scale its walls...
the hotel is life...endless rooms with endless floors, leading to a zeppelin moored to the roof...art makes it through the stream of identities that are living in those rooms, the stream of friends and relations in whom he tries to find his identity...in the end he steps onto the zeppelin and sails away for as he says: "he no longer needs them"...

this is an astonishing book...it really is...
identity, love, friendship, sexuality, family, masculine consciousness, themes which are dealt with with sensibility and poignance, a powerful, deeply affecting book which i will read again and will certainly teach...

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Aug 26, 2007 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaslessly back into the past."

A very good post-graduate summer novel that aspires to be The Great Gatsby if that novel were instead written by Philip Roth. Unlike The Great Gatsby, however, the Mysteries of Pittsburgh reaches a very unsatisfying end: the protagonist succeeds in destroying every aspect of his life without a even hint of redemption beyond the mere fact that he has lived to tell the tale. Chabon's writing is nonetheless very en...more

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Mar 13, 2009 Osho rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

An enjoyable early novel from Chabon. I enjoyed his language while in some moods finding it over the top. For example: "As she moved her hands and head in the still light evening, talking about herself, the pearls seemed to string and restring themselves on the invisible thread of her gestures" (p. 75). In some moods I admire this and in others it tires me. Throughout, I thought of Gatsby and wondered if this were a re-telling with variations. After reading other reviews, I think this perspectiv...more

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Dec 30, 2009 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To the matter at hand: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. Chabon is the author of one of the books on my top-ten-of-all-time list (which, by the way, I intend on writing about one of these days), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And as every good pageant queen knows, you shouldn't judge one contestant in comparison to another - each should be judged solely on the criteria set forth and how she rates, not on how she rates next to someone else. But as every good pageant que...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Patrick Faller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chabon's first novel is very much a young man's pursuit of that mysterious state of grace that is adulthood postponed. A very quick, sexy, engaging read, this novel deals with Art Beckstein's struggle to reach an accord with "[his:] father, the gangster", his confused sexuality, the death of his mother, and whether and to what extent he should be made to suffer for his father's sins. There's a great deal of energy, and youthful whimsy--much of which is driven by the mystery of our pasts and whet...more

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Lori I remember not really liking this novel so well although the description of some of the neighborhoods I know like Highland Park were good, the Pittsbu...more
Jan 29, 2009 05:16am

Patrick Faller Lori wrote: "I remember not really liking this novel so well although the description of some of the neighborhoods I know like Highland Park were good...more
Jan 29, 2009 05:34am

Lori Thanks for the recs. I'll add them to my to-read list. I'm up to give them both a try if I can learn something from them, though it may be a while bef...more
Jan 29, 2009 06:11am

Jan 10, 2009 Jess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Holden Caulfield lovers

Recommended to Jess by: Lexi, i think

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 05, 2009 Perryville Library rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, john

“Arthur had chosen this uppermost step, where the sun warmed our backs and wilted the lettuce of our sandwiches. And sitting very close beside him there, behind the Fine Arts Building, at the grassy bottom of one of Oakland’s hundred abrupt endings, I felt uncomfortable, extremely conscious of the seclusion and intimacy of our perch and of the distinct possibility that he had brought me here to broach again, as he might say, a delicate subject. I decided to reiterate my position at some point d...more “Arthur had chosen this uppermost step, where the sun warmed our backs and wilted the lettuce of our sandwiches. And sitting very close beside him there, behind the Fine Arts Building, at the grassy bottom of one of Oakland’s hundred abrupt endings, I felt uncomfortable, extremely conscious of the seclusion and intimacy of our perch and of the distinct possibility that he had brought me here to broach again, as he might say, a delicate subject. I decided to reiterate my position at some point during lunch; unfortunately, my position was that I was crazy about him. I wanted to be like Arthur Lecomte, to drink, take, deny, dominate; and, with the wild friendship of Cleveland, to hold aloft the enchanted flag of summertime.”

At 23, Art Bechstein, newly freed from the constraints of higher education, plans to live his summer with no plans at all. His father, a noted Pittsburgh gangster, worries that his son has no direction, and spends entirely too much time with the wrong kind of people. He meets another Art, Arthur Lecomte, who is someone that Art Bechstein immediately becomes enchanted with, though his overt sexuality leaves Art with an immutable uneasiness. Arthur Lecomte introduces Art to a cast of characters that includes Cleveland, a brilliant, but broken, biker; and Phlox Lombardi, a librarian with a penchant for the outlandish. As Art Bechstein navigates his way through a summer of new relationships, feelings, and questions, he deals with old wounds, his father’s love, and a sense of urgency to do nothing. For a story wrought with irony, Pittsburgh, the city of steel, seems the perfect setting.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was the first novel written by acclaimed author Michael Chabon. It is here that we first see Chabon’s gift in providing concise, yet undeniably clear descriptions of the people, places and things that make up his fictitious worlds. It’s this ability that makes this coming-of-age tale succeed where so many often fail. This novel is in some ways a better read than Chabon’s later, more critically acclaimed works (such as the Pulitzer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay), in that you can actually see and feel the author coming in to his own as a writer. Like watching a snake shedding its skin, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh provides the reader with a first-hand account of an author’s molting process. By the end of this novel, the chaos of summer gives way to the seriousness of adult choices, with Art Bechstein beginning to find his way. In reading The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, I believe we see that in Michael Chabon as well.
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Apr 10, 2013 Susan Emmet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fitzgerald: meet Salinger and Roth.
This first of Chabon's many books is a good one.
Recent graduate Arthur Bechstein spends a grainy Pittsburgh summer working in an awful bookstore, exploring his sexuality/options, trying to "talk" to his hoodlum father (who may have had his mother murdered), and "making choices" (which are not choices at all), careening from one experience to the next without much sense of purpose beyond immediate gratification, despite protests to the contrary.
I found the nove...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What does it say about a book when your favorite part of the book is it's title? I found the title intriguing and then until about the 2/3 mark of this book, I found the title to be the reason for the book to be written. All of the twists and turns that spin out from an accidental meeting are the mysteries of discovery as well as the mystery of memory. While I was not as mesmerized by the writing chops as I was in his other works (this was his first novel and highly acclaimed) there were still m...more What does it say about a book when your favorite part of the book is it's title? I found the title intriguing and then until about the 2/3 mark of this book, I found the title to be the reason for the book to be written. All of the twists and turns that spin out from an accidental meeting are the mysteries of discovery as well as the mystery of memory. While I was not as mesmerized by the writing chops as I was in his other works (this was his first novel and highly acclaimed) there were still moments of greatness like this paragraph:

"Although that used Sears furniture, the fake Renoir, the cat statue, et cetera, still seemed kind of ugly and in bad taste, I discovered I had made one of those common aesthetic efforts that consists of just swallowing an entire system of bad taste-Las Vegas or a bowling alley, or Jerry Lewis movies-and then finding it beautiful and fun."

I sit back and reread this and wonder- how many hours, days, months, years or decades of writing would it take me to come up with a paragraph as perfect, charming and funny as that one. Of course in mysteries of Pittsburgh there are some perfectly concocted dialogues and scenes.

I wrote a song once, that I called "Driving Home" that was sparked by riding home from New England on a bus and peering into other towns and wondering, what would it be like to live in that town? To drive that car and go to that CVS instead of mine? Would it be different at all? There is a magical section of writing where Chabon describes just that. There are also those long lingering moments on the roof of the "Cloud Factory" where the descriptive language is so perfect, that you feel like you have just passed through but have absorbed everything.

So why only three stars? Well, stars are stupid, but here is my problem. Like "Telegraph Avenue", you get to the finale, and you get through the too graphic, obligatory, gay lovin' (not that there is anything wrong with that) and as the book reaches it's denouement (thank you Flyers announcer Gene Hart for that word) you realize, that you are not rooting for any of these reprehensible, morally bankrupt characters. Like Telegraph, the women are fairly sensible and likable, but the men are corrupt and unworthy of our sympathy or empathy.

Yeah, Arthur, Cleveland, and Phlox were fun to hang out with, but you may not want to take them home to meet your family (a theme that recurs in the book) and therefore, you don't take them that deeply into your reader's soul.
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Feb 18, 2013 Laura Zurowski rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: another-place-another-time

This book fits so nicely in the oeuvre of mid-80s urban 20-something stories like Alice K's Guide to the Life (Boston) and A Girl in Love With Her Clothes (NYC). Told from the point of view of a young man, Art, recently finished from college and contemplating his future, Mysteries shows an accurate portrayal of the confusion and excitement that comes with exploring familial expectations, personal histories, and social/sexual desires.

Considered somewhat groundbreaking (at the time) for its depict...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Vikram rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was about a third of the way through "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" before realizing its author, Michael Chabon, also wrote "Wonder Boys," the novel that inspired a favorite film of mine by the same name. Similar elements between the two -- a heavy emphasis on characterization over plot and a search for identity and place in the world by a twenty-some-odd year old -- were clearly evident. Historically, I've had problems with novels pregnant with burdensome characterization without a corresponding p...more I was about a third of the way through "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" before realizing its author, Michael Chabon, also wrote "Wonder Boys," the novel that inspired a favorite film of mine by the same name. Similar elements between the two -- a heavy emphasis on characterization over plot and a search for identity and place in the world by a twenty-some-odd year old -- were clearly evident. Historically, I've had problems with novels pregnant with burdensome characterization without a corresponding plot, but Chabon's writing style, laden with beautifully sculpted clauses linked together with abundant commas and semicolons that force a reader like myself to fall in love with the English language all over again, illuminates a typically clichéd "coming of age story" with creativity and alacrity. The following two bits from the novel, I believe, portray Chabon's writing style well:

[about the main character's girlfriend]
Phlox, recognizing early that she lacked a strong sense of humor, or rather that she lacked the ability to make up jokes, had memorized thousands of bizarre passages from books and from here and there, and had developed, in place of humor, an ability to drop these bombs into a conversation, sometimes with incongruous, killer accuracy. (100)

[about the main character's father]
In the big, posh, and stale lobby of the Duquesne Hotel -- in a city where some of the men, like my father, still wear felt hats -- one can still get one's hair cut, one's shoe shined, and buy a racing form or a Tootsie Roll . . . Although he was in many ways a man of modern tastes, for music, hats, and hotels he looked to the Depression, and loved nothing but Goodman, snap brims, and the Duquesne. (102)

Such incredible language and characterization is not without cost, however -- the gut of the shadow plot only gets going around page 150, halfway through the book. Perhaps some would find it tedious, but I believe venturing through the seemingly pointless, but elegant prose is worth it in the end. "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" was Chabon's first novel, and I'm looking forward to reading his others.(less)

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Jan 19, 2013 Rory Storm added it · review of another edition

Good old Michael Chabon blows hot and cold with this books - they're either great or very subpar. Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this riff on The Secret History - first world problems of rich american late 20 somethings. Starts off frothy and lots of sexual shenanigans and one liners - but the last act is pretty devastating and existential. Nice work!

Probably this would be a bit of a surprise for anyone who comes to him through his best known book, Kavalier and Clay - god, did I spell that ri...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Alec rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have been on a Michael Chabon kick, reading Telegraph Avenue for a story on Oakland (and because I wanted to). I'd never read his first novel. What a magnificent beast it is. The protagonist is drifting after graduation, unwisely staying in Pittsburgh where he did his undergrad, working in a hilariously described bad, chain bookstore. He falls in with a group as glamorous and mysterious, as bright and fucked up as the kids in Secret History: uberblonde, out of the Philadelphia Story, Jane; gay...more I have been on a Michael Chabon kick, reading Telegraph Avenue for a story on Oakland (and because I wanted to). I'd never read his first novel. What a magnificent beast it is. The protagonist is drifting after graduation, unwisely staying in Pittsburgh where he did his undergrad, working in a hilariously described bad, chain bookstore. He falls in with a group as glamorous and mysterious, as bright and fucked up as the kids in Secret History: uberblonde, out of the Philadelphia Story, Jane; gay, and prim and enigmatic and dignified, Arthur (with whom he falls in love), crazy Vintage queen Phlox (with whom he also falls in love) -- sidebar: she has no sense of humor but makes up for it by quoting aptly from the French literature she loves. But most of all, above all others, there's Cleveland, the sun around whom these planets rotate. Heard of first, in the tone of voice that says this is a somebody, and then, when he appears, he's amazingly enough no let-down. The articulation of the group dynamics between people who've grown from their teens into their twenties together -- never done better.

And, oh, the writing, the damn writing: "I was conscious, then, of a different ache, deeper and more sharp than the feeling of bereavement that a hangover will sometimes uncover in the heart." Just so: a hangover exposes that forlorn, there-is-nothing-to-hope-for feeling, but it is there always.

Chabon's description of Arthur: "Arthur stood straight, looked deeply, beautifully sympathetic for perhaps a tenth of a second, and nodded, with that fine, empty courtesy he seemed to show everyone. He had an effortless genius for manners; remarkable, perhaps, just because it was unique among people his age. It seemed to me that Arthur, with his old, strange courtliness, would triumph over any scene he chose to make; that in a world made miserable by frankness, his handsome condescension, his elitism, and perfect lack of candor were fatal gifts, and I wanted to serve in his corps and to be socially graceful."

It has flaws -- there's this vagueness that is in all his writing, but it's an evocative vagueness, with Pittsburgh floating in mythic territory, not pinned down. (But sometimes you don't knew exactly where you are -- which is fine, too.) The protagonist's own family story -- he's the son of a Jewish mobster, the boy lost his mother early -- somehow never sings, at least not to the extent that the story of these friends does.

Spoiler alert: this is the miraculous last paragraph of this novel, one that only a young man could write: "When I remember that dizzy summer, that dull, stupid, lovely, dire summer, it seems that in those days I ate my lunches, smelled another's skin, noticed a shade of yellow, even simply sat, with greater lust and hopefulness -- and that I lusted with greater faith, hoped with greater abandon. The people I loved were celebrities, surrounded by rumor and fanfare; the places I sat with them, movie lots and monuments. No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything."

Even F. Scott would have to sigh at that, and say he wished he'd written it. (less)

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Aug 25, 2012 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, bookcrossing-com

I had a little bit of trouble getting into this book at first but the beautiful writing by Chabon kept me going. Hard to believe that this was his first novel (and written while attending college). I will say that I liked Kavalier and Clay better than The Mysteries of Pittsburgh but mainly because Kavalier and Clay was a more adventurous tale . This story is more of a narrative following a group of young adults as they discover a summer of freedom, love and who they are to be. It has a nice touc...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Gadi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

I'll be generous.

This book did not capture me. The writing felt amateur in ways that stunned me. I remember feeling lost in Kavalier and Clay, floating on wave after wave of blindingly gorgeous sentences, paragraphs, so complex and bold that you couldn't help but feel an awesome seasickness. Here, though, the writing is just plain old insecure. Chabon plays it like a coward, and Art sounds like a boring crybaby who we end up not liking that much because, well, he can't write fo shit.

Not that the...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Gloria rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is impossible for me not really like what Michael Chabon rights. He's a damn good writer he makes me green with envy. His metaphors his imagery his dialogue its all so good. Hence he is a winner of the Pulitzer prize and a best selling author. In any case Mr. Chabon first Novel M.O.P. was pretty good--I think he got even better when he got older but this was pretty dang good. I feel he deals with more adult themes in his later works like Wonder Boys and Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Klay...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Daniel Kanhai rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, Harper Perennial, New York, 2005

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, first novel by young author Michael Chabon, is a coming of age story that tells the tale of Art Bechstein, a recent college graduate trying to find his way the summer before entering the real world. Art I unsure of where he wants to go in life and determined to distance himself from his family. His father is a Jewish money launderer and gangster, a fact that brings Art deep feelings of sha...more The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, Harper Perennial, New York, 2005

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, first novel by young author Michael Chabon, is a coming of age story that tells the tale of Art Bechstein, a recent college graduate trying to find his way the summer before entering the real world. Art I unsure of where he wants to go in life and determined to distance himself from his family. His father is a Jewish money launderer and gangster, a fact that brings Art deep feelings of shame and embarrassment.
First novels are prone to issues and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is no exception. It is clear that Chabon is still finding his voice here. The cliché opening of a twenty-something year old feeling lost in the world only expands to introduce a similar group of cliché friends. Art soon meets Arthur, Phlox, Jane and Cleveland, a group of characters who conveniently appear and take Art in for one last summer of experiences and self-discovery.
Chabon attempts to liven up his so far unremarkable cast of characters by reintroducing Art’s father’s ties to organized crime into the story. The dramatic Cleveland becomes entwined in the world of crime and ultimately dies in a helicopter chase after stealing jewels. After such a bland introduction I had to reread the scene over again to make sure it had really happened. The only explanation for such a diversion from the mundane events of the previous chapters appears to be an excuse to artificially create some action and drama where there otherwise was none. Whereas other authors can blend two different tones and get away with it, the genre shifting here feels forced and out of place. The characters fail to react accordingly to the death of their friend. It adds nothing to the book. The characters all feel flat and unimportant. Instead of coming across as fully realized individuals they act more like faceless names simply existing to advance Chabon’s plot. Even Art, the character the reader is supposed to sympathize with most seems unrealistic. He engages in a relationship with Arthur which results in him questioning his sexuality, but his motives for doing so are never fully explained to the reader and it comes across as simply more conflict for the sake of plot. The story is in his voice, but we know very little about who he actually is.
As far as first books go, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh leaves a lot to be desired, but at the same time could be a lot worse. Chabon pads out a mostly bland story about young people with pointless drama. There is promise here; if the characters had been more developed there could have been a more interesting story, but ultimately it falls short. Many of the memorable moments have less to do with characters and plot and more to do with the way Chabon captures some events. Chabon’s writing really shines in these detailed descriptions of locations or single scenes, but there are so few throughout the novel they get buried. I’d suggest trying one of his later works. The mysteries of Pittsburgh, whatever they may be, never seem to get solved in this novel.
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Nov 13, 2011 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this one up at my local bookstore because it is another Michael Chabon novel set in Pittsburgh. Those of us who grew up in Western Pennsylvania will read just about anything that deals with the region. Although this novel was written before Wonder Boys, and it seems to reflect a younger sensability than the later book, still the grittiness of Pittsburgh is brought out nicely. I particularly liked the reference to a "cloud factory" that was in a deep ravine next to the Carnegie Museum in...more

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Aug 26, 2011 Barbara Fang rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many folks that I know have been sucking Chabon's literary dick for a while now. I picked up Wonder Boys a few years back, and okay, yes, he's a strong writer. I'll gladly admit that the man really knows how to string a sentence together. Overall, though, I can't say that he was particularly resonant with me. The themes, the characters, even the tone of voice - nothing really rang out with genius. I thought that maybe he's only popular because he's from Pittsburgh, and most of the people I know...more Many folks that I know have been sucking Chabon's literary dick for a while now. I picked up Wonder Boys a few years back, and okay, yes, he's a strong writer. I'll gladly admit that the man really knows how to string a sentence together. Overall, though, I can't say that he was particularly resonant with me. The themes, the characters, even the tone of voice - nothing really rang out with genius. I thought that maybe he's only popular because he's from Pittsburgh, and most of the people I know who love him are also from Pittsburgh. His fandom is based along similar lines as Andy Warhol, the Steelers and Heinz ketchup.

I tried again. Several people told me to read Mysteries of Pittsburgh after I bemoaned my directionless wandering in my post-graduate summer spent in Pittsburgh. "You should really read it. It's all about a kid who just graduated college and spent the summer in Pittsburgh." Sounds like it'd be resonant and relevant, yes? And there were definitely some weird parallels. Art is an economics major who doesn't know why he majored in economics - I feel the same way about my economics degree. Art also lived about three blocks away from where I lived, which was pretty curious. Chabon started the book after his summer in Pittsburgh as an English writing major, and I started reading his book after my summer in Pittsburgh as an English writing major. And then there were just the mention of familiar places, streets, buildings and what have you because I did go to Pitt and did live in Oakland and Squirrel Hill and it made me wonder what it would be like to read this book without knowing exactly what he was talking about. The problem is I really only knew the places he spoke of. Other than that, it still wasn't resonating, and really, it should have been! I don't understand! I feel like I am in the ripest position to understand and feel what this book has to say to me, and all it is is just a good read. Again, great writing, engaging plot, good characters, but something is missing for me. I don't know what.

I think maybe Chabon is just a dude author, like Cormac McCarthy. I can recognize the greatness in both, but the style, tone, diction, themes and everything that is hard to distinctly pin down just appeals more to men. At least it seems that way based from whom I received the book recommendations.(less)

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Jun 06, 2011 Ben Carroll rated it 3 of 5 stars

There's something bittersweet about delving into a favourite author's early work. It's pretty exciting to see how an author has grown over the years; what talents they always had, what weaknesses they have or haven't lost, which aspects were seeded long before they were developed.

But on the other, more emotive and less rational, hand; what tainted greatness, how boringly humanising, how utterly demythologising. I mean, it's really comfortable to believe that greatness is something separate, inhe...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Kraig Horton rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the second novel I have read from Michael Chabon, the first being Wonder Boys. Walking into Chabon’s first novel, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” which was written when we has 21. I was excited to see what it would be like!

I found myself once again caught by this authors irrevocably immense talent in creating a world of confusion and out of this world almost unbelievable happenings that angered and made me question the believability of the novel while at the same time drawing me into this...more This is the second novel I have read from Michael Chabon, the first being Wonder Boys. Walking into Chabon’s first novel, “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” which was written when we has 21. I was excited to see what it would be like!

I found myself once again caught by this authors irrevocably immense talent in creating a world of confusion and out of this world almost unbelievable happenings that angered and made me question the believability of the novel while at the same time drawing me into this spiraling incredibly real feeling story and bringing me along for the ride with deep, connecting, characters that jump off the page and directly into the readers heart.

He makes every action, choice and experience that happens; feel like it is happening to the reader. Pulling them into the novel from the start to the end.

What I found so enthralling about the novel is how it encompasses with ease the confusion, feelings, experiences and thoughts that we all go through. The main character Art Bechstein finishes college in Pittsburgh, and through the issues he faces: disagreeing with his Jewish mobster father, his identity confusion if he is bisexual and his journey to find who he is and where he wants to be in society. We are given a ride that though different from our own is very easy to relate to because at one time in our lives if not throughout most we all ask these type of questions and encounter conflicts that can through us deep into a hole that we have to struggle and struggle until we can climb out.

Everyone that graduates and then has to go out and find their place in the world can relate with these ideas. Being in that place myself throughout the novel I found that I was thinking and applying the story to an idea of what it would have been like for me. I know that every student when it comes time to graduate no matter if they know exactly what they want to do or still have no idea get this overwhelming feeling of either complete freedom, failure, horror or all three and beyond. This story encompasses these ideas and I believe that Chabon’s choice in this matter was extremely well done.
Besides a great plot and an enveloping story, Chabon has again showed even in his first novel, his ability to form language through expansive imagery, creative use in description and his ability to create these quirky, confused in-depth characters. With out all of these talents I believe this novel would have been pages filled with only chaos.

Over all I found this story to be about a summer after college and a step into the rest of a persons life and who they will become. I thought the novel was full of insight, covered a wide array of popular themes in writing and was a lot of fun to read and look forward to reading more of Chabon’s work.
(less)

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About Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon (b. 1963) is an acclaimed and bestselling author whose works include the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000). Chabon achieved literary fame at age twenty-four with his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), which was a major critical and commercial success. He then published Wonder Boys (1995), another bestseller, which was mad...more

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“Never say love is "like" anything... It isn't.” — 75 people liked it

“When I remember that dizzy summer, that dull, stupid, lovely, dire summer, it seems that in those days I ate my lunches, smelled another's skin, noticed a shade of yellow, even simply sat, with greater lust and hopefulness - and that I lusted with greater faith, hoped with greater abandon. The people I loved were celebrities, surrounded by rumor and fanfare; the places I sat with them, movie lots and monuments. No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything.” — 42 people liked it

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