The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Part II - Discussion (January 2012)

[William]

Discussion thread for Part II: A Couple of Boy Geniuses.

[Adam]

This is another great section. Chabon's appreciation of comic books as art and knowledge of their history really shines here. The author's notes reveal the depths to which he went to get the history right (personal interviews, numerous secondary sources). The detail of Josef's growth as an artist and the sophistication of his usage of frames to tell a story without words should make people who are dismissive of comics or those who swore them off after getting burned by the mid-1990s comic book glut of alternative covers (me) grudgingly admit that some are pretty good.

He really captures the magic of creative impulse well as Sammy sees his dream morph into a collaborative idea with Josef and then catalyze into reality. The resultant blend of comic book fantasy with reality is very effective.

I am really liking this book.

[Sophia]

I agree this got off to a great start. I also thought the attention to detail was impressive. I learnt a lot. But, now I've finished the book my overriding feeling is that it didn't deliver on its early promise. Pity.

[Logophile]

I'm finding the writing just captivating. I keep having to read a line out loud to my husband (who I'm sure is finding it pretty annoying by now!). Each sentence seems to perfectly evoke a character or an ambiance:

"The landlady, a Mrs. Waczukowski, was the widow of a gagman for the Hearst syndicate who had signed his strips 'Wacky' and on his death had left her only the building, an unconcealed disdain for all cartoonists veteran or new, and her considerable share of their mutual drinking problem."

Or

"When, fifty-three years later, he died, the drawing of Rosa Saks naked and asleep was found among his effects, in a Barracini's candy box, with a sourvenir yarmulke from his eldest son's bar mitzvah and a Norman Thomas button, and was erroneously exhibited, in a retrospective at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, as the work of the young Julius Glovsky."