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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

By: Michael Chabon
Narrated by: David Colacci
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About this listen

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2001

It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book.

Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor, and the otherworldly Mistress of the Night, Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. The golden age of comic books has begun, even as the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a stunning novel of endless comic invention and unforgettable characters, written in the exhilarating prose that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to Cheever and Nabokov. In Joe Kavalier, Chabon has created a hero for the century.

©2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2000 Michael Chabon Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Adventure Science Fiction Funny Heartfelt Witty Polar Region

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Critic reviews

"Michael Chabon can write like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader with their beauty and their style." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)
All stars
Most relevant  
Finding a life affirming story from the holocaust Chabon gives us characters to love and admire. The end of the book leaves you missing them and wanting to know what happens next. Not bad for a book this long. It keeps you hooked. Sometimes laughing out loud sometimes deeply sorrowful.

I miss them

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Loved it from start to finish, great characters, loved the narration, innovative and creative. You will enjoy it if you go with and enjoy the many bizarre side stories. The long lists of things could be a bit shorter.

Wow

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Loved the humanity, wit and deeply drawn central characters, unevenly paced in sections of narrative

Beautifully drawn story of cousins & comic books

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Wonderful characters, place, ideas, themes, humour, emotion, beautiful, inspiring, good sets of lists, funny and sad and human.

Fantastic

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The story of cousins Joe Kavalier and Sam Clayman takes us on a journey from their youth in the 1930s to the late 50s or early 60s.
Sam introduces his newly arrived cousin to the emerging world of comic book superheroes and sets them on a path that takes in escapology, antisemitism, the sharp edge of capitalism, war, attitudes to homosexuality, surrealism, the value of art and parenting.
I found myself wondering occasionally, what is this book about? Getting a little frustrated at the inconsequential sense given to much of the action even though it is describing significant moments in the lives of the 20th century and the characters in the story. I finished the story with a feeling that it was true to the times and the characters.

As Kornblum says "Only love can unpick the hardest lock"

Buddy saga set in early American comics

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What made the experience of listening to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay the most enjoyable?

The whole place and time, New York 1939-53 comes fresh through this book,so near and yet so far and strange. It's a comic book evocation of a world we almost know.

What did you like best about this story?

The Prague Jews of the book are my family, and this might have been my world if my mother hadn't landed up in the UK instead of the US. But the awful parts of the book, the concentration camps and German occupation of Prague are both tragic and bearable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not possible to listen to this enormous book at one sitting, but such fun, so exciting to go from cliff-hanger to cliff -hanger.

Any additional comments?

I wouldn't have the time to sit and read it, and so invest it with my own voice, which was a small sorrow, given how important to me the book turned out to be. But given that, I absolutely adored David Colacci's reading and it's done now. This reading is an essential part of the book to me.

Why did I come so late to this?

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Loved the book when I read it, this is a great audio book too - narration is spot on. An amazing adventure indeed.

great!

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The story grew on me , the pace gentle though the plot and the characters went through the mill. I enjoyed the narration and became very fond of the principals. Just finished and sad to have done so but very satisfying.

A book that rewards the more you listen

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Compelling story. Adroitly mixing historical fact and vivid imagination, Chabon recalls the heyday world of comic books in a prose style that references the best comic - in both senses - style. It’s not all whiz, bang, kapow: Jewish prosecution, the horror of Nazism, the magic of Jewish folklore underscore a beautiful tale of families. Families are torn apart, unconventional families lovingly formed, and love is the golden key. Highly recommend.

Too much fun!

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I know little of any of the worlds that coincide in this book (Jewish lore, history of comics, 1940s America) but thank whoever recommended this engrossing book to me (sorry Ive forgotten the trail that led me there). The author plays us so skillfully and the narrator is excellent.
Its so rare that I find nobody to dislike in a long book - I was gunning for all of them.

sweet book (in a good way)

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