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The Sandmeyer Reaction
A short story that was cut from Michael Chabon’s newest novel, Moonglow. It’s a hilarious side-story of the half-baked plan to catch a German spy via the well-connected Jews of Philadelphia’s underbelly in the 1940s. In typical Chabon style, it’s fast and funny, and bursting with a cast of perfectly rendered outcasts and
oddballs.
oddballs.
52 pages, Paperback
Published April 29, 2017
About the author
Michael Chabon
146 books9,021 followersMichael Chabon is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, D.C., he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1984. He subsequently received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine.
Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when he was 24. He followed it with Wonder Boys (1995) and two short-story collections. In 2000, he published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel that John Leonard would later call Chabon's magnum opus. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.
His novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula and Ignotus awards; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of the same year. In 2012, Chabon published Telegraph Avenue, billed as "a twenty-first century Middlemarch", concerning the tangled lives of two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004. He followed Telegraph Avenue in November 2016 with his latest novel, Moonglow, a fictionalized memoir of his maternal grandfather, based on his deathbed confessions under the influence of powerful painkillers in Chabon's mother's California home in 1989.
Chabon's work is characterized by complex language, and the frequent use of metaphor along with recurring themes such as nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and most notably issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, he has written in increasingly diverse styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.
Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when he was 24. He followed it with Wonder Boys (1995) and two short-story collections. In 2000, he published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel that John Leonard would later call Chabon's magnum opus. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.
His novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula and Ignotus awards; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of the same year. In 2012, Chabon published Telegraph Avenue, billed as "a twenty-first century Middlemarch", concerning the tangled lives of two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004. He followed Telegraph Avenue in November 2016 with his latest novel, Moonglow, a fictionalized memoir of his maternal grandfather, based on his deathbed confessions under the influence of powerful painkillers in Chabon's mother's California home in 1989.
Chabon's work is characterized by complex language, and the frequent use of metaphor along with recurring themes such as nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and most notably issues of Jewish identity. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, he has written in increasingly diverse styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 29, 2017
Nice little bit that was cut from Moonglow. Some of the writing felt like it needed a once over, but there were fun elements and makes a nice add-on to the novel. Don't expect much satisfaction from this if you haven't already read the bigger story.
June 23, 2017
An interesting little story! I was very intrigued given the introduction, in which Chabon tells us that this story was actually a chapter in Moonglow that eventually had to be removed, but that he still held dear to him. The feeling of cutting a bit of writing you worked so hard on is a deep one. While it's not necessarily something I would usually pick up to read (I'm more of a YA Fantasy reader..) it was still quite enjoyable and the writing was sweet. There was a few amusing lines that kept me going as well.
July 17, 2017
Meh. Probably a good thing that he cut this from Moonglow.
November 19, 2017
Loved this short story.
November 27, 2017
A little bonus story from Independent Bookstore day, a fun but ultimately unnecessary side-story cut from Moonlight.
January 12, 2019
The idea is really, really cool. He has a distinctive voice and style, but it's just not one that I enjoy.
June 22, 2017
Not exactly the most reasonably priced item - $6 for a bound copy of what I suppose passes for a short story if you tilt your head and squint - but I'm a sucker for Independent Bookstore Day materials, particularly when they're signed.
I think I might be more sold on this one if I'd read Moonglow first, so I'll probably hang onto it for a bit in case I develop more of an interest in the full novel. (So far, I haven't been that inclined to pick it up; I've loved much of Chabon's work, but his last couple of novels haven't made me lunge for my wallet.) This story isn't an excerpt from Moonglow; it's a deleted section that Chabon decided didn't fit once he was moving though his final editing process.
That makes it a little bit of an odd read. For one, the narrator is entirely off screen, relating a story about his grandfather in the kind of gritty, minute detail that seems rather unrealistic for him to actually know. Who is the narrator? From this story, I have absolutely no idea. Again: the context of the full novel would probably help quite a lot.
This story, taken on its own, is a farcical little tale of a man's romp through WWII-era Philadelphia as he concocts an absurd scheme to track down and catch a German spy in order to save his boss's job. (But mostly to alleviate his own boredom.) The writing is heavier and clunkier than I remember from my previous experiences with Chabon's work, relieved by occasional bursts of humor and hints at what could be quirkily appealing characterization.
Sadly, though, my main response is: I can see why this was cut from the novel. Or: if the rest of the book is like this, I'm probably not that interested in picking it up any time soon.
I think I might be more sold on this one if I'd read Moonglow first, so I'll probably hang onto it for a bit in case I develop more of an interest in the full novel. (So far, I haven't been that inclined to pick it up; I've loved much of Chabon's work, but his last couple of novels haven't made me lunge for my wallet.) This story isn't an excerpt from Moonglow; it's a deleted section that Chabon decided didn't fit once he was moving though his final editing process.
That makes it a little bit of an odd read. For one, the narrator is entirely off screen, relating a story about his grandfather in the kind of gritty, minute detail that seems rather unrealistic for him to actually know. Who is the narrator? From this story, I have absolutely no idea. Again: the context of the full novel would probably help quite a lot.
This story, taken on its own, is a farcical little tale of a man's romp through WWII-era Philadelphia as he concocts an absurd scheme to track down and catch a German spy in order to save his boss's job. (But mostly to alleviate his own boredom.) The writing is heavier and clunkier than I remember from my previous experiences with Chabon's work, relieved by occasional bursts of humor and hints at what could be quirkily appealing characterization.
Sadly, though, my main response is: I can see why this was cut from the novel. Or: if the rest of the book is like this, I'm probably not that interested in picking it up any time soon.
April 30, 2017
A cute and fun story, albeit one that doesn't quite stand on its own and doesn't quite feel totally polished - but neat to see a deleted scene, as it were, from Chabon's Moonglow.
April 30, 2017
Quick, easy and entertaining read that was cut from Chabon's Moonglow book. I thought the introduction was as interesting as the story itself and both make me want to read his Moonglow book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews