Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses, even hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions of love and war, dreams and art, across pages lurid with longing and hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy and Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equaliser clad in dark blue long underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains". Before they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known) find themselves at the epicentre of comics' golden age.

Suffice to say, Michael Chabon writes novels like the Escapist busts locks. Previous books such as The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys have prose of equal shimmer and wit, and yet here he seems to have finally found a canvas big enough for his gifts. The whole enterprise seems animated by love: for his alternately deluded, damaged and painfully sincere characters; for the quirks and curious innocence of tough-talking wartime New York; and, above all, for comics themselves, "the inspirations and lucubrations of five hundred ageing boys dreaming as hard as they could". Far from negating such pleasures, the Holocaust's presence in the novel only makes them more pressing. Art, if not capable of actually fighting evil, can at least offer a gesture of defiance and hope--a way out of a world gone completely mad. --Mary Park, Amazon.com

Emotional start, dull middle, great ending!, 26 Dec 2008
The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don't often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.


It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe's escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin's flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I'm really glad that I didn't though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.


An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 4.5 or 5 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.


Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section - it is worth it in the end!



Epic Adventure, 30 Sep 2008
There are books that are easy to read and have gripping stories full of suspence and there are books that are beautifully written with rich characters, flowing prose and deep emotional involvement. There are rarely books that are both but this is one.
If I were a writer, I'd want to write like this. Charm, wit, love for his characters and a fantastic turn of phrase.
Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight novel in scope and theme. It's easy fo forget this and think of it as simply a well-written page-turner but that would be to miss out on the complex emotional centre.
If only all great novels were so accessible...

All Tell and no Show, 26 Jul 2008
Perhaps the Amazing in the title gave me false expectations but I didn't find anything amazing about this book at all. It never connected with either of the main characters enough for us to care deeply about them - we are expected to understand Clay's struggle with homosexuality but we are never shown any of this - we are told that Joe is mourning for his brother but he doesn't give any convincing evidence of this. And literally nothing Amazing happens - unless you count the implausible method of Joe's escape from Prague in the first place.

The only thing I found interesting was the insight into the comic book world, but even that failed to convince.

Decent enough, but hardly lives up to the Amazing hype.

(3.5 *) Anyway, a worth and entertaining reading, 22 May 2008
Casualties of II WW and tragic events back in the late 30's, places escapism arts apprentice, Joe Kavalier in a troubled but successful trip directly from Praga to Brooklyn, to the home of an unknown and distant cousin, the young and ambitious cartoon artist Sam Clay. It doesn't take too long for the two boys to know each other and their own creative talents and the accidental encounter between them, not only is the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship but also a popular and successful future team of innumerous stories and characters in the world of the classical comic books.

Michael Chabon creates a very intimate, magical and imaginative world largely due to the perfect portrait of Clay and Kavalier as individuals; this are really two well crafted characters with a very complex personality that the reader absolutely indentifies with, having the particularity to allow him/her to "feel" and understand their most profound and recondite emotions, differences, frustrations, etc.
The novel is also very original and appealing concerning to the way it cross "serious" and dramatic themes and issues, such as the nazi holocaust and war, sexual orientation, religion, corporate greed and putting them through the perspective of a graphic novel and the eyes of the comic heroes as well from those he sets free from the iniquities of "evil". In fact this battle between the "good" and the "bad", where justice is the final goal, where for every super hero there's a super villain, told by the simple and redeeming language of a comic, is the most exciting and distinguish accomplish of the novel; Chabon masters this two universes (reality and the imaginary world of the Escapist) so well, in such a sublime and terrific way, that in my opinion this is one of the main reasons that the novel as a whole, seems to end up being a little disappointed.

Since the beginning till the "golden age" part, the narrative is absolutely flawless, a real page turner, a vivid and colorful writing of the amazing adventures of Kavalier, Clay, Rose, the Escapist, the real villains of the world and also the imaginary ones, but after that, so suddenly as the break of sales of the comic books in the end of the 40's, also the life of our heroes loses the flair, joy and charisma of the youth, turning towards to a sad predictability that at the beginning seemed to be exactly what Chabon wanted to avoid and struggle against to, decided to make a subtle (and artistic) but powerful statement of all the dark forces and inhuman actions that still haunt and blind the human spirit. But maybe after all there is some point in this "adult" transformation, as something being part of the growing process and the loss of innocence, the conclusion that in real life there aren't omnipresent heroes with all the super powers, only average people trying to struggle the best they can against the adversities of life...but for any reason that doesn't seems to fit so well the positive, fresh and always coherent description of character's truthful nature, at least towards their friendship, one of the most important ideas as a concept of the all novel.


if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. , 11 May 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.

The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.

The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.

Emotional start, dull middle, great ending!, 26 Dec 2008
The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don't often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.


It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe's escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin's flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I'm really glad that I didn't though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.


An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 4.5 or 5 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.


Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section - it is worth it in the end!



Epic Adventure, 30 Sep 2008
There are books that are easy to read and have gripping stories full of suspence and there are books that are beautifully written with rich characters, flowing prose and deep emotional involvement. There are rarely books that are both but this is one.
If I were a writer, I'd want to write like this. Charm, wit, love for his characters and a fantastic turn of phrase.
Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight novel in scope and theme. It's easy fo forget this and think of it as simply a well-written page-turner but that would be to miss out on the complex emotional centre.
If only all great novels were so accessible...

All Tell and no Show, 26 Jul 2008
Perhaps the Amazing in the title gave me false expectations but I didn't find anything amazing about this book at all. It never connected with either of the main characters enough for us to care deeply about them - we are expected to understand Clay's struggle with homosexuality but we are never shown any of this - we are told that Joe is mourning for his brother but he doesn't give any convincing evidence of this. And literally nothing Amazing happens - unless you count the implausible method of Joe's escape from Prague in the first place.

The only thing I found interesting was the insight into the comic book world, but even that failed to convince.

Decent enough, but hardly lives up to the Amazing hype.

(3.5 *) Anyway, a worth and entertaining reading, 22 May 2008
Casualties of II WW and tragic events back in the late 30's, places escapism arts apprentice, Joe Kavalier in a troubled but successful trip directly from Praga to Brooklyn, to the home of an unknown and distant cousin, the young and ambitious cartoon artist Sam Clay. It doesn't take too long for the two boys to know each other and their own creative talents and the accidental encounter between them, not only is the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship but also a popular and successful future team of innumerous stories and characters in the world of the classical comic books.

Michael Chabon creates a very intimate, magical and imaginative world largely due to the perfect portrait of Clay and Kavalier as individuals; this are really two well crafted characters with a very complex personality that the reader absolutely indentifies with, having the particularity to allow him/her to "feel" and understand their most profound and recondite emotions, differences, frustrations, etc.
The novel is also very original and appealing concerning to the way it cross "serious" and dramatic themes and issues, such as the nazi holocaust and war, sexual orientation, religion, corporate greed and putting them through the perspective of a graphic novel and the eyes of the comic heroes as well from those he sets free from the iniquities of "evil". In fact this battle between the "good" and the "bad", where justice is the final goal, where for every super hero there's a super villain, told by the simple and redeeming language of a comic, is the most exciting and distinguish accomplish of the novel; Chabon masters this two universes (reality and the imaginary world of the Escapist) so well, in such a sublime and terrific way, that in my opinion this is one of the main reasons that the novel as a whole, seems to end up being a little disappointed.

Since the beginning till the "golden age" part, the narrative is absolutely flawless, a real page turner, a vivid and colorful writing of the amazing adventures of Kavalier, Clay, Rose, the Escapist, the real villains of the world and also the imaginary ones, but after that, so suddenly as the break of sales of the comic books in the end of the 40's, also the life of our heroes loses the flair, joy and charisma of the youth, turning towards to a sad predictability that at the beginning seemed to be exactly what Chabon wanted to avoid and struggle against to, decided to make a subtle (and artistic) but powerful statement of all the dark forces and inhuman actions that still haunt and blind the human spirit. But maybe after all there is some point in this "adult" transformation, as something being part of the growing process and the loss of innocence, the conclusion that in real life there aren't omnipresent heroes with all the super powers, only average people trying to struggle the best they can against the adversities of life...but for any reason that doesn't seems to fit so well the positive, fresh and always coherent description of character's truthful nature, at least towards their friendship, one of the most important ideas as a concept of the all novel.


if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. , 11 May 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.

The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.

The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.


Original and engaging, 17 Nov 2008
I did enjoy this book although I think it could have been better. The idea is original and Chabon has successfully created from his imagination a unique world. Like others I thought it lacked a glossary and footnotes - not just of the invented words but also to some of the other historical or contextual and factual details - ie Tzaddik Ha Dor, the significance of a red heifer. Without these I have every sympathy with reveiwers who feel they just couldnt get into the book - I also struggled. It took me a few pages to work out a sholem was his gun and not some sort of talisman! Despite its length and some of the long descriptive passages that are very atmospheric he has been rather selective in what and who is given this treatment which is a shame.

Despite the above I would recommend this book and will read other books by this author.


Tedious, 10 Nov 2008
I tried to like this book, I really did, but by page 100 I gave up. The premise is good - with no homeland in the form of Israel, there is a Jewish settlement in Sitka Alaska and it is about to revert to American rule and the settlers must apply for residency or leave.

Unfortunately almost every character is just a cipher for different styles of Judaism. Rather than progress the plot, Chabon provides endless details on how character X wears his yarmulke or how character Y feels uneasy about playing chess on the Sabbath. The main language is Yiddish and sometimes characters are explicitly stated to be speaking American. I soon got bored of every few words being self-consciously Yiddish (Chabon rams this down the reader's throat, presumably in case we forget the premise of the book).

By 100 pages, I really didn't care whodunnit nor why. The only impression the book left me with was that I am not going to bother with any of Chabon's other works, no matter how highly The Guardian rates them.

I gave it 1 star because there wasn't a "no stars" option.

Oy! Fun but Frustrating, 30 Oct 2008
Chabon apparently never met a metaphor he didn't like. He piles them one atop another to the point that they obscure rather than clarify the action. Indeed, I had to go to Wikipedia after finishing the book to make sense of the ending. What's more, the showy language never lets us forget that we're reading a book, that Landsman and Bina and the others aren't people but merely characters who are the invention of an inventive but infuriating writer.
All of which is especially frustrating because the concept and conceit of the book--an alternative history in which Jews were settled in a part of Alaska rather than settled in Israel--is brilliant, as are all the details. I wanted to be swept away by Chabon's vision, but his language kept getting in the way.

410 pages too long, 12 Oct 2008
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was, in my opinion 410 (paperback)
pages too long. To read this you have to know UK Yiddish,(I do)
USA Yiddish & USA police slang & street slang. How many of the
reviewers are this qualified? I think the newspaper reviews were
edited as I don't think the reviewers come into all the above
catorgories.I don't know any of my contemporary Jewish friends
who would call another a YID. I guess he has a loving mother
who purchased all his other work?

Yes, it went on too long, 07 Oct 2008
Yes, it went on too long. Like a movie that can't seem to end without going down still a few more hairpin curves, this novel keeps piling on the adventures. But the novel has already said what it had to say about halfway through.

This is a very much overrated book by an overrated author. The premise is only partly original, as most of the plot is borrowed from other good and not so good mysteries, and the whole idea, of a temporary Jewish state in Alaska, is only mildly amusing. The author does not do enough with it. He does not do enough to IMAGINE this alternate universe very well. What does the Jewish Sitka really feel like and look like, and what does the existence of a homeland in exile really mean for people like the one the novel supposes would live in Sitka -- about these things we learn next to nothing. By the middle of the book we have even run out of Jewish jokes.

I wish Chabon had written a funnier book, and I wish at the same time that he had taken the book he was writing more seriously.

In a word, this book is a potboiler for the postmodern set, and nothing more.

Emotional start, dull middle, great ending!, 26 Dec 2008
The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don't often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.


It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe's escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin's flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I'm really glad that I didn't though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.


An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 4.5 or 5 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.


Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section - it is worth it in the end!



Epic Adventure, 30 Sep 2008
There are books that are easy to read and have gripping stories full of suspence and there are books that are beautifully written with rich characters, flowing prose and deep emotional involvement. There are rarely books that are both but this is one.
If I were a writer, I'd want to write like this. Charm, wit, love for his characters and a fantastic turn of phrase.
Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight novel in scope and theme. It's easy fo forget this and think of it as simply a well-written page-turner but that would be to miss out on the complex emotional centre.
If only all great novels were so accessible...

All Tell and no Show, 26 Jul 2008
Perhaps the Amazing in the title gave me false expectations but I didn't find anything amazing about this book at all. It never connected with either of the main characters enough for us to care deeply about them - we are expected to understand Clay's struggle with homosexuality but we are never shown any of this - we are told that Joe is mourning for his brother but he doesn't give any convincing evidence of this. And literally nothing Amazing happens - unless you count the implausible method of Joe's escape from Prague in the first place.

The only thing I found interesting was the insight into the comic book world, but even that failed to convince.

Decent enough, but hardly lives up to the Amazing hype.

(3.5 *) Anyway, a worth and entertaining reading, 22 May 2008
Casualties of II WW and tragic events back in the late 30's, places escapism arts apprentice, Joe Kavalier in a troubled but successful trip directly from Praga to Brooklyn, to the home of an unknown and distant cousin, the young and ambitious cartoon artist Sam Clay. It doesn't take too long for the two boys to know each other and their own creative talents and the accidental encounter between them, not only is the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship but also a popular and successful future team of innumerous stories and characters in the world of the classical comic books.

Michael Chabon creates a very intimate, magical and imaginative world largely due to the perfect portrait of Clay and Kavalier as individuals; this are really two well crafted characters with a very complex personality that the reader absolutely indentifies with, having the particularity to allow him/her to "feel" and understand their most profound and recondite emotions, differences, frustrations, etc.
The novel is also very original and appealing concerning to the way it cross "serious" and dramatic themes and issues, such as the nazi holocaust and war, sexual orientation, religion, corporate greed and putting them through the perspective of a graphic novel and the eyes of the comic heroes as well from those he sets free from the iniquities of "evil". In fact this battle between the "good" and the "bad", where justice is the final goal, where for every super hero there's a super villain, told by the simple and redeeming language of a comic, is the most exciting and distinguish accomplish of the novel; Chabon masters this two universes (reality and the imaginary world of the Escapist) so well, in such a sublime and terrific way, that in my opinion this is one of the main reasons that the novel as a whole, seems to end up being a little disappointed.

Since the beginning till the "golden age" part, the narrative is absolutely flawless, a real page turner, a vivid and colorful writing of the amazing adventures of Kavalier, Clay, Rose, the Escapist, the real villains of the world and also the imaginary ones, but after that, so suddenly as the break of sales of the comic books in the end of the 40's, also the life of our heroes loses the flair, joy and charisma of the youth, turning towards to a sad predictability that at the beginning seemed to be exactly what Chabon wanted to avoid and struggle against to, decided to make a subtle (and artistic) but powerful statement of all the dark forces and inhuman actions that still haunt and blind the human spirit. But maybe after all there is some point in this "adult" transformation, as something being part of the growing process and the loss of innocence, the conclusion that in real life there aren't omnipresent heroes with all the super powers, only average people trying to struggle the best they can against the adversities of life...but for any reason that doesn't seems to fit so well the positive, fresh and always coherent description of character's truthful nature, at least towards their friendship, one of the most important ideas as a concept of the all novel.


if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. , 11 May 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.

The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.

The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.


Original and engaging, 17 Nov 2008
I did enjoy this book although I think it could have been better. The idea is original and Chabon has successfully created from his imagination a unique world. Like others I thought it lacked a glossary and footnotes - not just of the invented words but also to some of the other historical or contextual and factual details - ie Tzaddik Ha Dor, the significance of a red heifer. Without these I have every sympathy with reveiwers who feel they just couldnt get into the book - I also struggled. It took me a few pages to work out a sholem was his gun and not some sort of talisman! Despite its length and some of the long descriptive passages that are very atmospheric he has been rather selective in what and who is given this treatment which is a shame.

Despite the above I would recommend this book and will read other books by this author.


Tedious, 10 Nov 2008
I tried to like this book, I really did, but by page 100 I gave up. The premise is good - with no homeland in the form of Israel, there is a Jewish settlement in Sitka Alaska and it is about to revert to American rule and the settlers must apply for residency or leave.

Unfortunately almost every character is just a cipher for different styles of Judaism. Rather than progress the plot, Chabon provides endless details on how character X wears his yarmulke or how character Y feels uneasy about playing chess on the Sabbath. The main language is Yiddish and sometimes characters are explicitly stated to be speaking American. I soon got bored of every few words being self-consciously Yiddish (Chabon rams this down the reader's throat, presumably in case we forget the premise of the book).

By 100 pages, I really didn't care whodunnit nor why. The only impression the book left me with was that I am not going to bother with any of Chabon's other works, no matter how highly The Guardian rates them.

I gave it 1 star because there wasn't a "no stars" option.

Oy! Fun but Frustrating, 30 Oct 2008
Chabon apparently never met a metaphor he didn't like. He piles them one atop another to the point that they obscure rather than clarify the action. Indeed, I had to go to Wikipedia after finishing the book to make sense of the ending. What's more, the showy language never lets us forget that we're reading a book, that Landsman and Bina and the others aren't people but merely characters who are the invention of an inventive but infuriating writer.
All of which is especially frustrating because the concept and conceit of the book--an alternative history in which Jews were settled in a part of Alaska rather than settled in Israel--is brilliant, as are all the details. I wanted to be swept away by Chabon's vision, but his language kept getting in the way.

410 pages too long, 12 Oct 2008
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was, in my opinion 410 (paperback)
pages too long. To read this you have to know UK Yiddish,(I do)
USA Yiddish & USA police slang & street slang. How many of the
reviewers are this qualified? I think the newspaper reviews were
edited as I don't think the reviewers come into all the above
catorgories.I don't know any of my contemporary Jewish friends
who would call another a YID. I guess he has a loving mother
who purchased all his other work?

Yes, it went on too long, 07 Oct 2008
Yes, it went on too long. Like a movie that can't seem to end without going down still a few more hairpin curves, this novel keeps piling on the adventures. But the novel has already said what it had to say about halfway through.

This is a very much overrated book by an overrated author. The premise is only partly original, as most of the plot is borrowed from other good and not so good mysteries, and the whole idea, of a temporary Jewish state in Alaska, is only mildly amusing. The author does not do enough with it. He does not do enough to IMAGINE this alternate universe very well. What does the Jewish Sitka really feel like and look like, and what does the existence of a homeland in exile really mean for people like the one the novel supposes would live in Sitka -- about these things we learn next to nothing. By the middle of the book we have even run out of Jewish jokes.

I wish Chabon had written a funnier book, and I wish at the same time that he had taken the book he was writing more seriously.

In a word, this book is a potboiler for the postmodern set, and nothing more.

On the road, 01 Jun 2008
Award-winner Michael Chabon usually focuses on the disaffected of the present, or at least the near past.

But he goes over a thousand years into the past for "Gentlemen of the Road," an old-fashioned adventure story with some gloriously offbeat heroes. It's a fun, quirky read (the original, fitting title was "Jews With Swords"), with lots of unique twists but the prose gets a bit purple at times.

In caravans and on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram and gawky Frank Zelikman make money however they can -- even staging mock fights. After their ruse is found out by a weary mahout, he offers to take them on as bodyguards to a sullen young prince, Filaq. Then the mahout is murdered, and the two "Gentlemen of the Road" find themselves babysitting a snotty teen with a tendency to run away.

Unfortunately, the fortress they're heading for has been destroyed, and a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram and Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, and beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... and the discovery that Filaq isn't quite who he seems to be.

There's something very classic about the flavour of "Gentlemen of the Road." Maybe it's because it was actually serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas and Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense and purple at times, which sent me spinning right off the narrative. But it does a pretty good job of evoking the dusty, harsh life of people on the march, brothels, attempted executions, ancient elephants, and the occasional mercenary joining up with the "gentlemen."

But Chabon doesn't let the story become leaden. He peppers it with wryly amusing dialogue ("Now, will you ride calmly behind me or do we need to bind you at the ankles, too?" "You had better bind my ankles") and the occasional running joke like Zelikman's mutilated hats. There's even a Norse axe humorously called "Defiler of All Mothers."

As you'd expect, Zelikman and Amram are likably rough, with some dark pasts -- one has left his home and family behind, the other has been roaming in search of his daughter for twenty years. Chabon doesn't try to make either a likable person, and that makes them even more so -- the same with Filiq, the feisty princess in drag.

"Gentlemen of the Road" is a solid adventure story, with a classic flavour and slightly overblown prose. Certainly a worthwhile read.

Wonderful Homage to Classic Adventure, 29 Apr 2008
This book should come with a big warning wrapper: "Michael Chabon's latest book is unlike his previous work, it is an homage to classic adventure writing -- your results may vary." That's because it's a book whose enjoyment depends heavily on the reader's expectations, and a number of reviewers seem to find fault with it because of this. If you're a fan of Chabon, be warned that it's miles away from his early work like Wonder Boys or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and while it shares certain themes with more recent work like Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, it's a large stylistic departure and really an experiment unto itself.

Originally written in serial chapters published in the New York Times Magazine, the story follows the stylistic and narrative conventions of the old time pulp serials. And if you've never read any old adventure classics like H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stories, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, or Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, then the heavily stylized form may throw you. Indeed, some reviewers have complained that the story is confusing and hard to follow, which frankly, baffles me. Like its literary ancestors, the plot is such that a 10-year-old could follow and recount it, so the conclusion I draw is that the genre itself is defeating some readers. Sure there are leaps of setting and time, a constant stream of new characters, and plot twists aplenty -- but it's hardly daunting stuff. Similarly, a lot of people seem put off by Chabon's use of archaic and obscure words, but that's exactly how a lot of those old adventure stories were written, and the gist of the meanings can be inferred from context in almost every case.

The story itself concerns a pair of 10th-century Jewish "gentlemen of the road" who drift around the civilized world getting by as mercenaries and grifters. Following the classic template, they are a study in opposites, one a hulking black Abyssinian, the other a reedy, pallid German. Neither fits the modern Western stereotype of what a Jew is, and that's very much part of Chabon's point. His writing has long tinkered with the notion of Jewish identity, and here it is taken to colorful but historically accurate extremes. They are classic rogues with hearts of gold (or at least silver), and the story finds them in the Khazar kingdom, a small Jewish land on the west of the Caspian Sea, resting uneasily between Christian and Muslim empires (today the area includes parts of Russia, the Ukraine, and most of the Caucuses). After a great introduction to the two heroes, the story properly kicks off when they find themselves in the company of a deposed prince. Adventure ensues as they try to help him get back home, which involves raising an army and dealing with marauding Vikings, before they even get to deal with the usurper. Violence, treachery, and humor abound, however, some of the material (rape and prostitution) is rather adult and parents should read the book before handing it over to children.

The book is nicely designed -- aside from the cover, which is a total flop (the British edition has a much more evocative cover which is a homage to classic adventure book covers). Each chapter features an illustration from legendary artist Gary Gianni, which help to set the mood and tone. A few of these feel rather hasty and unfinished compared with other work of his I've seen, but he nails the style just right. On the whole, this is a wonderful little entertainment from one of contemporary fiction's big guns, and while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it's at least worth trying.

Witty, flamboyant and fluid prose, 25 Apr 2008
Amram is a giant of a man, an African of uncertain origin, Zelikman, a Frank, tall and thin and as pale as Amram is dark; the two are travelling companions, gentlemen of the road. They make their way seeking opportunities, by cunning and deceit. Then they find themselves entrusted with the custody of Filqa, a youth who claims to be a deposed prince, and soon they are inevitably involved in helping the boy attempt to regain his kingdom.

Placed in the historical setting of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazaria (present day Ukraine) around the 10th century, it is a fascinating story with plenty of plot twists and more than a few surprises. But the real delight of the tale is Michael Chabon's inimitable prose; Chabon is here clearly indulging himself in his most flamboyant and fluid mode, creating combinations of words that simply roll of the page. The result is witty, entertaining and often very funny and a pure pleasure to read. Perhaps the one casualty of Chabon's extravagant writing is that occasionally the overall sense sometime becomes confused in the abundance of words, but that is a small price to pay for the overall enjoyment.

A departure from his more usual contemporary settings, the author himself admits in an interesting Afterword that he is on something of an adventure of his own with this book. He has certainly created yet another original and appealing work, this one beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Gary Gianni - a hint of Michael Chabon's fascination with comics?


Average, 10 Apr 2008
Not a bad book, but nothing special. Good for the younger reader. Nothing to compare with Klavier and Clay.

A 'ripping yarn' with Jews, 28 Mar 2008
Chabon says that his working title for the book was 'Jews with Swords'. There are lots of swords and swordplay, though the characters aren't terribly Jewish. I guess that's part of the point - that what we think of as Jewish is a historically constructed artifact, and it hasn't always meant the same thing as it does now. Indeed, Chabon says as much in an afterword that is almost better than the book itself - there's a great reference to the 'pirate Mottle Kamzoil'.

Anyway, this is a light and enjoyable read, but nowhere near as good as 'Yiddish Policemen', 'Kavalier and Klay' or even 'The Final Solution'. On the other hand, it's not nearly as bad as 'Wonderboys' either. If there was a further adventures of Zelikman and Amram I'd read it.

Emotional start, dull middle, great ending!, 26 Dec 2008
The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don't often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.


It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe's escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin's flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I'm really glad that I didn't though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.


An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 4.5 or 5 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.


Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section - it is worth it in the end!



Epic Adventure, 30 Sep 2008
There are books that are easy to read and have gripping stories full of suspence and there are books that are beautifully written with rich characters, flowing prose and deep emotional involvement. There are rarely books that are both but this is one.
If I were a writer, I'd want to write like this. Charm, wit, love for his characters and a fantastic turn of phrase.
Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight novel in scope and theme. It's easy fo forget this and think of it as simply a well-written page-turner but that would be to miss out on the complex emotional centre.
If only all great novels were so accessible...

All Tell and no Show, 26 Jul 2008
Perhaps the Amazing in the title gave me false expectations but I didn't find anything amazing about this book at all. It never connected with either of the main characters enough for us to care deeply about them - we are expected to understand Clay's struggle with homosexuality but we are never shown any of this - we are told that Joe is mourning for his brother but he doesn't give any convincing evidence of this. And literally nothing Amazing happens - unless you count the implausible method of Joe's escape from Prague in the first place.

The only thing I found interesting was the insight into the comic book world, but even that failed to convince.

Decent enough, but hardly lives up to the Amazing hype.

(3.5 *) Anyway, a worth and entertaining reading, 22 May 2008
Casualties of II WW and tragic events back in the late 30's, places escapism arts apprentice, Joe Kavalier in a troubled but successful trip directly from Praga to Brooklyn, to the home of an unknown and distant cousin, the young and ambitious cartoon artist Sam Clay. It doesn't take too long for the two boys to know each other and their own creative talents and the accidental encounter between them, not only is the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship but also a popular and successful future team of innumerous stories and characters in the world of the classical comic books.

Michael Chabon creates a very intimate, magical and imaginative world largely due to the perfect portrait of Clay and Kavalier as individuals; this are really two well crafted characters with a very complex personality that the reader absolutely indentifies with, having the particularity to allow him/her to "feel" and understand their most profound and recondite emotions, differences, frustrations, etc.
The novel is also very original and appealing concerning to the way it cross "serious" and dramatic themes and issues, such as the nazi holocaust and war, sexual orientation, religion, corporate greed and putting them through the perspective of a graphic novel and the eyes of the comic heroes as well from those he sets free from the iniquities of "evil". In fact this battle between the "good" and the "bad", where justice is the final goal, where for every super hero there's a super villain, told by the simple and redeeming language of a comic, is the most exciting and distinguish accomplish of the novel; Chabon masters this two universes (reality and the imaginary world of the Escapist) so well, in such a sublime and terrific way, that in my opinion this is one of the main reasons that the novel as a whole, seems to end up being a little disappointed.

Since the beginning till the "golden age" part, the narrative is absolutely flawless, a real page turner, a vivid and colorful writing of the amazing adventures of Kavalier, Clay, Rose, the Escapist, the real villains of the world and also the imaginary ones, but after that, so suddenly as the break of sales of the comic books in the end of the 40's, also the life of our heroes loses the flair, joy and charisma of the youth, turning towards to a sad predictability that at the beginning seemed to be exactly what Chabon wanted to avoid and struggle against to, decided to make a subtle (and artistic) but powerful statement of all the dark forces and inhuman actions that still haunt and blind the human spirit. But maybe after all there is some point in this "adult" transformation, as something being part of the growing process and the loss of innocence, the conclusion that in real life there aren't omnipresent heroes with all the super powers, only average people trying to struggle the best they can against the adversities of life...but for any reason that doesn't seems to fit so well the positive, fresh and always coherent description of character's truthful nature, at least towards their friendship, one of the most important ideas as a concept of the all novel.


if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. , 11 May 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.

The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.

The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.


Original and engaging, 17 Nov 2008
I did enjoy this book although I think it could have been better. The idea is original and Chabon has successfully created from his imagination a unique world. Like others I thought it lacked a glossary and footnotes - not just of the invented words but also to some of the other historical or contextual and factual details - ie Tzaddik Ha Dor, the significance of a red heifer. Without these I have every sympathy with reveiwers who feel they just couldnt get into the book - I also struggled. It took me a few pages to work out a sholem was his gun and not some sort of talisman! Despite its length and some of the long descriptive passages that are very atmospheric he has been rather selective in what and who is given this treatment which is a shame.

Despite the above I would recommend this book and will read other books by this author.


Tedious, 10 Nov 2008
I tried to like this book, I really did, but by page 100 I gave up. The premise is good - with no homeland in the form of Israel, there is a Jewish settlement in Sitka Alaska and it is about to revert to American rule and the settlers must apply for residency or leave.

Unfortunately almost every character is just a cipher for different styles of Judaism. Rather than progress the plot, Chabon provides endless details on how character X wears his yarmulke or how character Y feels uneasy about playing chess on the Sabbath. The main language is Yiddish and sometimes characters are explicitly stated to be speaking American. I soon got bored of every few words being self-consciously Yiddish (Chabon rams this down the reader's throat, presumably in case we forget the premise of the book).

By 100 pages, I really didn't care whodunnit nor why. The only impression the book left me with was that I am not going to bother with any of Chabon's other works, no matter how highly The Guardian rates them.

I gave it 1 star because there wasn't a "no stars" option.

Oy! Fun but Frustrating, 30 Oct 2008
Chabon apparently never met a metaphor he didn't like. He piles them one atop another to the point that they obscure rather than clarify the action. Indeed, I had to go to Wikipedia after finishing the book to make sense of the ending. What's more, the showy language never lets us forget that we're reading a book, that Landsman and Bina and the others aren't people but merely characters who are the invention of an inventive but infuriating writer.
All of which is especially frustrating because the concept and conceit of the book--an alternative history in which Jews were settled in a part of Alaska rather than settled in Israel--is brilliant, as are all the details. I wanted to be swept away by Chabon's vision, but his language kept getting in the way.

410 pages too long, 12 Oct 2008
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was, in my opinion 410 (paperback)
pages too long. To read this you have to know UK Yiddish,(I do)
USA Yiddish & USA police slang & street slang. How many of the
reviewers are this qualified? I think the newspaper reviews were
edited as I don't think the reviewers come into all the above
catorgories.I don't know any of my contemporary Jewish friends
who would call another a YID. I guess he has a loving mother
who purchased all his other work?

Yes, it went on too long, 07 Oct 2008
Yes, it went on too long. Like a movie that can't seem to end without going down still a few more hairpin curves, this novel keeps piling on the adventures. But the novel has already said what it had to say about halfway through.

This is a very much overrated book by an overrated author. The premise is only partly original, as most of the plot is borrowed from other good and not so good mysteries, and the whole idea, of a temporary Jewish state in Alaska, is only mildly amusing. The author does not do enough with it. He does not do enough to IMAGINE this alternate universe very well. What does the Jewish Sitka really feel like and look like, and what does the existence of a homeland in exile really mean for people like the one the novel supposes would live in Sitka -- about these things we learn next to nothing. By the middle of the book we have even run out of Jewish jokes.

I wish Chabon had written a funnier book, and I wish at the same time that he had taken the book he was writing more seriously.

In a word, this book is a potboiler for the postmodern set, and nothing more.

On the road, 01 Jun 2008
Award-winner Michael Chabon usually focuses on the disaffected of the present, or at least the near past.

But he goes over a thousand years into the past for "Gentlemen of the Road," an old-fashioned adventure story with some gloriously offbeat heroes. It's a fun, quirky read (the original, fitting title was "Jews With Swords"), with lots of unique twists but the prose gets a bit purple at times.

In caravans and on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram and gawky Frank Zelikman make money however they can -- even staging mock fights. After their ruse is found out by a weary mahout, he offers to take them on as bodyguards to a sullen young prince, Filaq. Then the mahout is murdered, and the two "Gentlemen of the Road" find themselves babysitting a snotty teen with a tendency to run away.

Unfortunately, the fortress they're heading for has been destroyed, and a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram and Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, and beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... and the discovery that Filaq isn't quite who he seems to be.

There's something very classic about the flavour of "Gentlemen of the Road." Maybe it's because it was actually serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas and Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense and purple at times, which sent me spinning right off the narrative. But it does a pretty good job of evoking the dusty, harsh life of people on the march, brothels, attempted executions, ancient elephants, and the occasional mercenary joining up with the "gentlemen."

But Chabon doesn't let the story become leaden. He peppers it with wryly amusing dialogue ("Now, will you ride calmly behind me or do we need to bind you at the ankles, too?" "You had better bind my ankles") and the occasional running joke like Zelikman's mutilated hats. There's even a Norse axe humorously called "Defiler of All Mothers."

As you'd expect, Zelikman and Amram are likably rough, with some dark pasts -- one has left his home and family behind, the other has been roaming in search of his daughter for twenty years. Chabon doesn't try to make either a likable person, and that makes them even more so -- the same with Filiq, the feisty princess in drag.

"Gentlemen of the Road" is a solid adventure story, with a classic flavour and slightly overblown prose. Certainly a worthwhile read.

Wonderful Homage to Classic Adventure, 29 Apr 2008
This book should come with a big warning wrapper: "Michael Chabon's latest book is unlike his previous work, it is an homage to classic adventure writing -- your results may vary." That's because it's a book whose enjoyment depends heavily on the reader's expectations, and a number of reviewers seem to find fault with it because of this. If you're a fan of Chabon, be warned that it's miles away from his early work like Wonder Boys or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and while it shares certain themes with more recent work like Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, it's a large stylistic departure and really an experiment unto itself.

Originally written in serial chapters published in the New York Times Magazine, the story follows the stylistic and narrative conventions of the old time pulp serials. And if you've never read any old adventure classics like H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stories, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, or Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, then the heavily stylized form may throw you. Indeed, some reviewers have complained that the story is confusing and hard to follow, which frankly, baffles me. Like its literary ancestors, the plot is such that a 10-year-old could follow and recount it, so the conclusion I draw is that the genre itself is defeating some readers. Sure there are leaps of setting and time, a constant stream of new characters, and plot twists aplenty -- but it's hardly daunting stuff. Similarly, a lot of people seem put off by Chabon's use of archaic and obscure words, but that's exactly how a lot of those old adventure stories were written, and the gist of the meanings can be inferred from context in almost every case.

The story itself concerns a pair of 10th-century Jewish "gentlemen of the road" who drift around the civilized world getting by as mercenaries and grifters. Following the classic template, they are a study in opposites, one a hulking black Abyssinian, the other a reedy, pallid German. Neither fits the modern Western stereotype of what a Jew is, and that's very much part of Chabon's point. His writing has long tinkered with the notion of Jewish identity, and here it is taken to colorful but historically accurate extremes. They are classic rogues with hearts of gold (or at least silver), and the story finds them in the Khazar kingdom, a small Jewish land on the west of the Caspian Sea, resting uneasily between Christian and Muslim empires (today the area includes parts of Russia, the Ukraine, and most of the Caucuses). After a great introduction to the two heroes, the story properly kicks off when they find themselves in the company of a deposed prince. Adventure ensues as they try to help him get back home, which involves raising an army and dealing with marauding Vikings, before they even get to deal with the usurper. Violence, treachery, and humor abound, however, some of the material (rape and prostitution) is rather adult and parents should read the book before handing it over to children.

The book is nicely designed -- aside from the cover, which is a total flop (the British edition has a much more evocative cover which is a homage to classic adventure book covers). Each chapter features an illustration from legendary artist Gary Gianni, which help to set the mood and tone. A few of these feel rather hasty and unfinished compared with other work of his I've seen, but he nails the style just right. On the whole, this is a wonderful little entertainment from one of contemporary fiction's big guns, and while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it's at least worth trying.

Witty, flamboyant and fluid prose, 25 Apr 2008
Amram is a giant of a man, an African of uncertain origin, Zelikman, a Frank, tall and thin and as pale as Amram is dark; the two are travelling companions, gentlemen of the road. They make their way seeking opportunities, by cunning and deceit. Then they find themselves entrusted with the custody of Filqa, a youth who claims to be a deposed prince, and soon they are inevitably involved in helping the boy attempt to regain his kingdom.

Placed in the historical setting of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazaria (present day Ukraine) around the 10th century, it is a fascinating story with plenty of plot twists and more than a few surprises. But the real delight of the tale is Michael Chabon's inimitable prose; Chabon is here clearly indulging himself in his most flamboyant and fluid mode, creating combinations of words that simply roll of the page. The result is witty, entertaining and often very funny and a pure pleasure to read. Perhaps the one casualty of Chabon's extravagant writing is that occasionally the overall sense sometime becomes confused in the abundance of words, but that is a small price to pay for the overall enjoyment.

A departure from his more usual contemporary settings, the author himself admits in an interesting Afterword that he is on something of an adventure of his own with this book. He has certainly created yet another original and appealing work, this one beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Gary Gianni - a hint of Michael Chabon's fascination with comics?


Average, 10 Apr 2008
Not a bad book, but nothing special. Good for the younger reader. Nothing to compare with Klavier and Clay.

A 'ripping yarn' with Jews, 28 Mar 2008
Chabon says that his working title for the book was 'Jews with Swords'. There are lots of swords and swordplay, though the characters aren't terribly Jewish. I guess that's part of the point - that what we think of as Jewish is a historically constructed artifact, and it hasn't always meant the same thing as it does now. Indeed, Chabon says as much in an afterword that is almost better than the book itself - there's a great reference to the 'pirate Mottle Kamzoil'.

Anyway, this is a light and enjoyable read, but nowhere near as good as 'Yiddish Policemen', 'Kavalier and Klay' or even 'The Final Solution'. On the other hand, it's not nearly as bad as 'Wonderboys' either. If there was a further adventures of Zelikman and Amram I'd read it.

Will disappoint fans of 'Kavalier & Clay', 22 May 2008
The story goes that Chabon composed Wonder Boys in a few weeks, after getting stuck on a 1,000 page tome. Turning his predicament around, he decided to write about being bogged down with an unfinishable 1,000 page manuscript.

I never understood why writers think writing itself, or their misdemeanours when they can't engage in it, should be of such great interest to the public. But this aside, one can't expect a work produced in a few weeks to live up to one that was matured over years; so fans of Kavalier & Clay are likely to be disappointed by Wonder Boys. The WWII, comic-book-inspired epic was a rich and deeply-felt adventure tale, but this is mostly about parties and the hangovers that follow them, and it takes the reader no further than a few miles outside the university campus. Even Chabon's normally lush, elliptical, but evocative style is only ironic in this earlier novel. And it contains minor inconsistencies. Of course, Chabon is never boring, and he doesn't fail to amuse with anecdotes and nice character portraits. But this book seemed to me atypical and unworthy of his awesome imagination.


Mid-life crisis and writers block make a fertile ground for drama here, 11 Apr 2008
A fine amalgam of several American themes into one, Wonder Boys successfully combines elements of the campus novel with those of writer's block and family get-togethers for holiday celebrations into one.
We follow the exploits of Grady Tripp, lecturer, adulterer, pot-head and sometime novelist, over a long weekend as his editor comes to town for a literary conference and he celebrates Passover with his separated wife's family. Added to that he's under pressure to finish his novel Wonder boys which is now running at 2000 pages. Basically his life is out of control, and we have a great time on the roller coaster with him. Although all this is highly amusing, Chabon does make us sympathise with Grady, which makes this a highly satisfying and witty novel.

"Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?", 21 Apr 2007
In this farcical send-up of academia and the writing life, author Michael Chabon focuses on forty-ish author Grady Tripp, an aptly named writer/professor who is so often stoned that after seven years he has written two thousand pages of a book that is not even close to being finished. Grady's book, Wonder Boys, is much like his life--lacking in focus, fixated on the moment, and completely empty of goals or a sense of direction. His third wife has walked out on him; he's been carrying on a five-year affair with Sarah Gaskell, the Chancellor of the college, who is now pregnant with his baby; his editor is pressing him for a final draft of his unfinished book; and his publisher and everyone at the college are wondering if he will ever duplicate the success of his first novel.

During a writer's conference at the college, Grady "saves" one of his students, James Leer, from a possible suicide attempt, but his "mentoring" of James leads to hilariously absurd disasters for both of them. Grady's editor Terry Crabtree, the tuba-playing transvestite "girlfriend" he has brought with him, a collector of memorabilia from the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, Grady's estranged wife, the pregnant Chancellor, and the violent owner of a car that Grady was given to settle a debt, flesh out the characters and keep the reader amused and laughing almost non-stop.

As the weekend progresses and Grady's personal life further unravels, he finds himself driving around with the transvestite's tuba, the Chancellor's fatally shot malamute, and an equally dead ten-foot boa in the car's trunk. Scenes in which he tries to prevent the trunk from being opened are worthy of the Marx Brothers.

The dialogue is snappy, the narrative speeds along, the word play and humor never flag, and the satire of academic life and the world of writers shows the stamp of familiarity and the author's own wacky sense of perspective. A grand farce which carries the bite of satire, Wonder Boys avoids the arch self-consciousness of so many novels of academia and comes across instead as pure, unadulterated fun. n Mary Whipple


Seen the film? - read the book, 14 Dec 2006
The story ostensibly centres on Prof Grady Tripp's attempts at completing his increasingly out of control follow up novel of the title, Wonder Boys; yet as is not surprising with Michael Chabon, as well as an interesting plot, it is very much about characters and relationships. Central here, in addition to Grady himself, are his editor Terry Crabtree and young student James Lear, something of a loner, as well as host of other divers characters including Grady's pregnant mistress, an adoring female student, a transvestite, a dead dog and a tuba.
The real beauty of the novel is the interaction between the various characters. Grady and carefree drug reliant Crabtree are long standing friends and this clearly comes through. Crabtree has a crush on the Grady's mysterious student, the unreliable James; Grady's beautiful student tenant has a crush on him; and Grady's third marriage is coming to an end while he pursues his mistress, the college Chancellor. His failing marriage does not prevent visiting his wife's family for Thanksgiving, and taking along James. The relationship between Grady and James is particularly well drawn; while seemingly a little detached from James, it is clear from Grady's actions and the superbly written lengthy dialogues between the two that Grady cares about James.
No one comes out of this shining, the individual characters do have their redeeming features, it would be a mistake to right them off as insincere, and one cannot help be drawn to these people for all their human failings.
Wonder Boys is very funny, enjoyable and at times moving, but above all it is the beauty of Chabon's writing that makes it an absolute must read. If you've seen the film you must read the book, there are, not surprisingly, differences.


a lush loll among louche lushes, 12 Feb 2004
What I loved about Wonder Boys is its droll expansiveness, the way our narrator manages to be hilariously self-deprecating, while Chabon himself uses extended metaphor and Homeric simile (and that`s as rare as hens` teeth in the modern novel) with extravagant relish. Just as certain actors look like they`re thoroughly enjoying themselves (Nicholson, for example), Chabon reads like he`s having a great time. All this in a novel about a man who`s trying hard (not) to finish a novel - called Wonder Boys!
This is in certain ways quite an old-fashioned novel, like a contemporary version of the 19th century picaresque tale. Oh, and it made me laugh out loud.
Pretty damn wonderful.

Emotional start, dull middle, great ending!, 26 Dec 2008
The book started off really well, and by page 35 I was so fond of the characters that I had tears in my eyes when they had to say goodbye to each other. This is a very rare event for me, as I don't often cry when reading. There are perhaps five books that have managed to move me to tears in my entire lifetime, so this just goes to show the power of the writing in this book.


It continued well, and I loved the detail of the magic tricks, and Joe's escape from Prague in 1939 to his cousin's flat in America. Then everything went wrong. There were about 200 pages of boring details about life in a comic book office. I completely lost interest in the book, and at one point I nearly gave up on it. I'm really glad that I didn't though, as the last third of the book was as good as the beginning. The plot was clever, the vivid characters were back and the ending was very satisfying.


An amazing book, with a long, dull bit in the middle. It could easily have had 4.5 or 5 stars if the boring bit had been condensed to about 10 pages.


Recommended, as long as you are able to get through a long slow section - it is worth it in the end!



Epic Adventure, 30 Sep 2008
There are books that are easy to read and have gripping stories full of suspence and there are books that are beautifully written with rich characters, flowing prose and deep emotional involvement. There are rarely books that are both but this is one.
If I were a writer, I'd want to write like this. Charm, wit, love for his characters and a fantastic turn of phrase.
Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight novel in scope and theme. It's easy fo forget this and think of it as simply a well-written page-turner but that would be to miss out on the complex emotional centre.
If only all great novels were so accessible...

All Tell and no Show, 26 Jul 2008
Perhaps the Amazing in the title gave me false expectations but I didn't find anything amazing about this book at all. It never connected with either of the main characters enough for us to care deeply about them - we are expected to understand Clay's struggle with homosexuality but we are never shown any of this - we are told that Joe is mourning for his brother but he doesn't give any convincing evidence of this. And literally nothing Amazing happens - unless you count the implausible method of Joe's escape from Prague in the first place.

The only thing I found interesting was the insight into the comic book world, but even that failed to convince.

Decent enough, but hardly lives up to the Amazing hype.

(3.5 *) Anyway, a worth and entertaining reading, 22 May 2008
Casualties of II WW and tragic events back in the late 30's, places escapism arts apprentice, Joe Kavalier in a troubled but successful trip directly from Praga to Brooklyn, to the home of an unknown and distant cousin, the young and ambitious cartoon artist Sam Clay. It doesn't take too long for the two boys to know each other and their own creative talents and the accidental encounter between them, not only is the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship but also a popular and successful future team of innumerous stories and characters in the world of the classical comic books.

Michael Chabon creates a very intimate, magical and imaginative world largely due to the perfect portrait of Clay and Kavalier as individuals; this are really two well crafted characters with a very complex personality that the reader absolutely indentifies with, having the particularity to allow him/her to "feel" and understand their most profound and recondite emotions, differences, frustrations, etc.
The novel is also very original and appealing concerning to the way it cross "serious" and dramatic themes and issues, such as the nazi holocaust and war, sexual orientation, religion, corporate greed and putting them through the perspective of a graphic novel and the eyes of the comic heroes as well from those he sets free from the iniquities of "evil". In fact this battle between the "good" and the "bad", where justice is the final goal, where for every super hero there's a super villain, told by the simple and redeeming language of a comic, is the most exciting and distinguish accomplish of the novel; Chabon masters this two universes (reality and the imaginary world of the Escapist) so well, in such a sublime and terrific way, that in my opinion this is one of the main reasons that the novel as a whole, seems to end up being a little disappointed.

Since the beginning till the "golden age" part, the narrative is absolutely flawless, a real page turner, a vivid and colorful writing of the amazing adventures of Kavalier, Clay, Rose, the Escapist, the real villains of the world and also the imaginary ones, but after that, so suddenly as the break of sales of the comic books in the end of the 40's, also the life of our heroes loses the flair, joy and charisma of the youth, turning towards to a sad predictability that at the beginning seemed to be exactly what Chabon wanted to avoid and struggle against to, decided to make a subtle (and artistic) but powerful statement of all the dark forces and inhuman actions that still haunt and blind the human spirit. But maybe after all there is some point in this "adult" transformation, as something being part of the growing process and the loss of innocence, the conclusion that in real life there aren't omnipresent heroes with all the super powers, only average people trying to struggle the best they can against the adversities of life...but for any reason that doesn't seems to fit so well the positive, fresh and always coherent description of character's truthful nature, at least towards their friendship, one of the most important ideas as a concept of the all novel.


if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed. , 11 May 2008
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was an instant popular and critical success when it came out in 2000 being nominated for a raft of awards. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001 and Hollywood has been sniffing around it ever since. Michael Chabon the author wrote the only known screenplay, which struggled to reduce a 635-page book to a 2-hour film. At one point, the cast was Toby Maguire (Peter in Spiderman) to play Sam Clay, Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) to play Rosa Saks and Jude Law to play Joe Kavalier.

The difficulties for the film is what makes the book a joy as it starts in 1938 as Superman bursts on the scene and ends in 1954 as the Kefauver Senate hearings delivers the death blow to a declining comic book industry. A central theme is the roles of the Jews in the comic book industry: it explored the mythology of comic hero and its impact Joe and Sam own struggles and personal journeys form the stories of the Escapist which in turn shape their lives. Sam struggling to come to terms with being Gay and Joe trying to rescue his family stuck in an increasingly bleak Nazi run Prague. It also explores the historical rip off the artists and writers of the period. Superman's creators did not come into the real money until the blockbuster Superman movies and a court case prised the money out of Hollywood's coffers. Historical characters from the period from the comic industry and the movie, art and political world some in and out of the story. The Escapist also draws on Joe Kavalier's training and experience of magic and Houdini type tricks and the impact this has on his life.

The writing is a tour deforce so that you hear, touch and smell the period. Each character has their own voice and even minor characters when they enter the story in a few paragraphs you have their back-story and motives seamlessly woven in so they become real characters. The point of view moves from character to character and no easy option or resolution is allowed as the story builds to the magic trick ending. Scenes are comic one minute and bitterly tragic the next as you join in the roller coaster of their lives. Yes I am going say it...if you only have the chance to read one book this year make it this one, you wont be disappointed.


Original and engaging, 17 Nov 2008
I did enjoy this book although I think it could have been better. The idea is original and Chabon has successfully created from his imagination a unique world. Like others I thought it lacked a glossary and footnotes - not just of the invented words but also to some of the other historical or contextual and factual details - ie Tzaddik Ha Dor, the significance of a red heifer. Without these I have every sympathy with reveiwers who feel they just couldnt get into the book - I also struggled. It took me a few pages to work out a sholem was his gun and not some sort of talisman! Despite its length and some of the long descriptive passages that are very atmospheric he has been rather selective in what and who is given this treatment which is a shame.

Despite the above I would recommend this book and will read other books by this author.


Tedious, 10 Nov 2008
I tried to like this book, I really did, but by page 100 I gave up. The premise is good - with no homeland in the form of Israel, there is a Jewish settlement in Sitka Alaska and it is about to revert to American rule and the settlers must apply for residency or leave.

Unfortunately almost every character is just a cipher for different styles of Judaism. Rather than progress the plot, Chabon provides endless details on how character X wears his yarmulke or how character Y feels uneasy about playing chess on the Sabbath. The main language is Yiddish and sometimes characters are explicitly stated to be speaking American. I soon got bored of every few words being self-consciously Yiddish (Chabon rams this down the reader's throat, presumably in case we forget the premise of the book).

By 100 pages, I really didn't care whodunnit nor why. The only impression the book left me with was that I am not going to bother with any of Chabon's other works, no matter how highly The Guardian rates them.

I gave it 1 star because there wasn't a "no stars" option.

Oy! Fun but Frustrating, 30 Oct 2008
Chabon apparently never met a metaphor he didn't like. He piles them one atop another to the point that they obscure rather than clarify the action. Indeed, I had to go to Wikipedia after finishing the book to make sense of the ending. What's more, the showy language never lets us forget that we're reading a book, that Landsman and Bina and the others aren't people but merely characters who are the invention of an inventive but infuriating writer.
All of which is especially frustrating because the concept and conceit of the book--an alternative history in which Jews were settled in a part of Alaska rather than settled in Israel--is brilliant, as are all the details. I wanted to be swept away by Chabon's vision, but his language kept getting in the way.

410 pages too long, 12 Oct 2008
The Yiddish Policemen's Union was, in my opinion 410 (paperback)
pages too long. To read this you have to know UK Yiddish,(I do)
USA Yiddish & USA police slang & street slang. How many of the
reviewers are this qualified? I think the newspaper reviews were
edited as I don't think the reviewers come into all the above
catorgories.I don't know any of my contemporary Jewish friends
who would call another a YID. I guess he has a loving mother
who purchased all his other work?

Yes, it went on too long, 07 Oct 2008
Yes, it went on too long. Like a movie that can't seem to end without going down still a few more hairpin curves, this novel keeps piling on the adventures. But the novel has already said what it had to say about halfway through.

This is a very much overrated book by an overrated author. The premise is only partly original, as most of the plot is borrowed from other good and not so good mysteries, and the whole idea, of a temporary Jewish state in Alaska, is only mildly amusing. The author does not do enough with it. He does not do enough to IMAGINE this alternate universe very well. What does the Jewish Sitka really feel like and look like, and what does the existence of a homeland in exile really mean for people like the one the novel supposes would live in Sitka -- about these things we learn next to nothing. By the middle of the book we have even run out of Jewish jokes.

I wish Chabon had written a funnier book, and I wish at the same time that he had taken the book he was writing more seriously.

In a word, this book is a potboiler for the postmodern set, and nothing more.

On the road, 01 Jun 2008
Award-winner Michael Chabon usually focuses on the disaffected of the present, or at least the near past.

But he goes over a thousand years into the past for "Gentlemen of the Road," an old-fashioned adventure story with some gloriously offbeat heroes. It's a fun, quirky read (the original, fitting title was "Jews With Swords"), with lots of unique twists but the prose gets a bit purple at times.

In caravans and on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram and gawky Frank Zelikman make money however they can -- even staging mock fights. After their ruse is found out by a weary mahout, he offers to take them on as bodyguards to a sullen young prince, Filaq. Then the mahout is murdered, and the two "Gentlemen of the Road" find themselves babysitting a snotty teen with a tendency to run away.

Unfortunately, the fortress they're heading for has been destroyed, and a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram and Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, and beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... and the discovery that Filaq isn't quite who he seems to be.

There's something very classic about the flavour of "Gentlemen of the Road." Maybe it's because it was actually serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas and Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense and purple at times, which sent me spinning right off the narrative. But it does a pretty good job of evoking the dusty, harsh life of people on the march, brothels, attempted executions, ancient elephants, and the occasional mercenary joining up with the "gentlemen."

But Chabon doesn't let the story become leaden. He peppers it with wryly amusing dialogue ("Now, will you ride calmly behind me or do we need to bind you at the ankles, too?" "You had better bind my ankles") and the occasional running joke like Zelikman's mutilated hats. There's even a Norse axe humorously called "Defiler of All Mothers."

As you'd expect, Zelikman and Amram are likably rough, with some dark pasts -- one has left his home and family behind, the other has been roaming in search of his daughter for twenty years. Chabon doesn't try to make either a likable person, and that makes them even more so -- the same with Filiq, the feisty princess in drag.

"Gentlemen of the Road" is a solid adventure story, with a classic flavour and slightly overblown prose. Certainly a worthwhile read.

Wonderful Homage to Classic Adventure, 29 Apr 2008
This book should come with a big warning wrapper: "Michael Chabon's latest book is unlike his previous work, it is an homage to classic adventure writing -- your results may vary." That's because it's a book whose enjoyment depends heavily on the reader's expectations, and a number of reviewers seem to find fault with it because of this. If you're a fan of Chabon, be warned that it's miles away from his early work like Wonder Boys or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and while it shares certain themes with more recent work like Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, it's a large stylistic departure and really an experiment unto itself.

Originally written in serial chapters published in the New York Times Magazine, the story follows the stylistic and narrative conventions of the old time pulp serials. And if you've never read any old adventure classics like H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stories, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, or Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, then the heavily stylized form may throw you. Indeed, some reviewers have complained that the story is confusing and hard to follow, which frankly, baffles me. Like its literary ancestors, the plot is such that a 10-year-old could follow and recount it, so the conclusion I draw is that the genre itself is defeating some readers. Sure there are leaps of setting and time, a constant stream of new characters, and plot twists aplenty -- but it's hardly daunting stuff. Similarly, a lot of people seem put off by Chabon's use of archaic and obscure words, but that's exactly how a lot of those old adventure stories were written, and the gist of the meanings can be inferred from context in almost every case.

The story itself concerns a pair of 10th-century Jewish "gentlemen of the road" who drift around the civilized world getting by as mercenaries and grifters. Following the classic template, they are a study in opposites, one a hulking black Abyssinian, the other a reedy, pallid German. Neither fits the modern Western stereotype of what a Jew is, and that's very much part of Chabon's point. His writing has long tinkered with the notion of Jewish identity, and here it is taken to colorful but historically accurate extremes. They are classic rogues with hearts of gold (or at least silver), and the story finds them in the Khazar kingdom, a small Jewish land on the west of the Caspian Sea, resting uneasily between Christian and Muslim empires (today the area includes parts of Russia, the Ukraine, and most of the Caucuses). After a great introduction to the two heroes, the story properly kicks off when they find themselves in the company of a deposed prince. Adventure ensues as they try to help him get back home, which involves raising an army and dealing with marauding Vikings, before they even get to deal with the usurper. Violence, treachery, and humor abound, however, some of the material (rape and prostitution) is rather adult and parents should read the book before handing it over to children.

The book is nicely designed -- aside from the cover, which is a total flop (the British edition has a much more evocative cover which is a homage to classic adventure book covers). Each chapter features an illustration from legendary artist Gary Gianni, which help to set the mood and tone. A few of these feel rather hasty and unfinished compared with other work of his I've seen, but he nails the style just right. On the whole, this is a wonderful little entertainment from one of contemporary fiction's big guns, and while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it's at least worth trying.

Witty, flamboyant and fluid prose, 25 Apr 2008
Amram is a giant of a man, an African of uncertain origin, Zelikman, a Frank, tall and thin and as pale as Amram is dark; the two are travelling companions, gentlemen of the road. They make their way seeking opportunities, by cunning and deceit. Then they find themselves entrusted with the custody of Filqa, a youth who claims to be a deposed prince, and soon they are inevitably involved in helping the boy attempt to regain his kingdom.

Placed in the historical setting of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazaria (present day Ukraine) around the 10th century, it is a fascinating story with plenty of plot twists and more than a few surprises. But the real delight of the tale is Michael Chabon's inimitable prose; Chabon is here clearly indulging himself in his most flamboyant and fluid mode, creating combinations of words that simply roll of the page. The result is witty, entertaining and often very funny and a pure pleasure to read. Perhaps the one casualty of Chabon's extravagant writing is that occasionally the overall sense sometime becomes confused in the abundance of words, but that is a small price to pay for the overall enjoyment.

A departure from his more usual contemporary settings, the author himself admits in an interesting Afterword that he is on something of an adventure of his own with this book. He has certainly created yet another original and appealing work, this one beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Gary Gianni - a hint of Michael Chabon's fascination with comics?


Average, 10 Apr 2008
Not a bad book, but nothing special. Good for the younger reader. Nothing to compare with Klavier and Clay.

A 'ripping yarn' with Jews, 28 Mar 2008
Chabon says that his working title for the book was 'Jews with Swords'. There are lots of swords and swordplay, though the characters aren't terribly Jewish. I guess that's part of the point - that what we think of as Jewish is a historically constructed artifact, and it hasn't always meant the same thing as it does now. Indeed, Chabon says as much in an afterword that is almost better than the book itself - there's a great reference to the 'pirate Mottle Kamzoil'.

Anyway, this is a light and enjoyable read, but nowhere near as good as 'Yiddish Policemen', 'Kavalier and Klay' or even 'The Final Solution'. On the other hand, it's not nearly as bad as 'Wonderboys' either. If there was a further adventures of Zelikman and Amram I'd read it.

Will disappoint fans of 'Kavalier & Clay', 22 May 2008
The story goes that Chabon composed Wonder Boys in a few weeks, after getting stuck on a 1,000 page tome. Turning his predicament around, he decided to write about being bogged down with an unfinishable 1,000 page manuscript.

I never understood why writers think writing itself, or their misdemeanours when they can't engage in it, should be of such great interest to the public. But this aside, one can't expect a work produced in a few weeks to live up to one that was matured over years; so fans of Kavalier & Clay are likely to be disappointed by Wonder Boys. The WWII, comic-book-inspired epic was a rich and deeply-felt adventure tale, but this is mostly about parties and the hangovers that follow them, and it takes the reader no further than a few miles outside the university campus. Even Chabon's normally lush, elliptical, but evocative style is only ironic in this earlier novel. And it contains minor inconsistencies. Of course, Chabon is never boring, and he doesn't fail to amuse with anecdotes and nice character portraits. But this book seemed to me atypical and unworthy of his awesome imagination.


Mid-life crisis and writers block make a fertile ground for drama here, 11 Apr 2008
A fine amalgam of several American themes into one, Wonder Boys successfully combines elements of the campus novel with those of writer's block and family get-togethers for holiday celebrations into one.
We follow the exploits of Grady Tripp, lecturer, adulterer, pot-head and sometime novelist, over a long weekend as his editor comes to town for a literary conference and he celebrates Passover with his separated wife's family. Added to that he's under pressure to finish his novel Wonder boys which is now running at 2000 pages. Basically his life is out of control, and we have a great time on the roller coaster with him. Although all this is highly amusing, Chabon does make us sympathise with Grady, which makes this a highly satisfying and witty novel.

"Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?", 21 Apr 2007
In this farcical send-up of academia and the writing life, author Michael Chabon focuses on forty-ish author Grady Tripp, an aptly named writer/professor who is so often stoned that after seven years he has written two thousand pages of a book that is not even close to being finished. Grady's book, Wonder Boys, is much like his life--lacking in focus, fixated on the moment, and completely empty of goals or a sense of direction. His third wife has walked out on him; he's been carrying on a five-year affair with Sarah Gaskell, the Chancellor of the college, who is now pregnant with his baby; his editor is pressing him for a final draft of his unfinished book; and his publisher and everyone at the college are wondering if he will ever duplicate the success of his first novel.

During a writer's conference at the college, Grady "saves" one of his students, James Leer, from a possible suicide attempt, but his "mentoring" of James leads to hilariously absurd disasters for both of them. Grady's editor Terry Crabtree, the tuba-playing transvestite "girlfriend" he has brought with him, a collector of memorabilia from the marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, Grady's estranged wife, the pregnant Chancellor, and the violent owner of a car that Grady was given to settle a debt, flesh out the characters and keep the reader amused and laughing almost non-stop.

As the weekend progresses and Grady's personal life further unravels, he finds himself driving around with the transvestite's tuba, the Chancellor's fatally shot malamute, and an equally dead ten-foot boa in the car's trunk. Scenes in which he tries to prevent the trunk from being opened are worthy of the Marx Brothers.

The dialogue is snappy, the narrative speeds along, the word play and humor never flag, and the satire of academic life and the world of writers shows the stamp of familiarity and the author's own wacky sense of perspective. A grand farce which carries the bite of satire, Wonder Boys avoids the arch self-consciousness of so many novels of academia and comes across instead as pure, unadulterated fun. n Mary Whipple


Seen the film? - read the book, 14 Dec 2006
The story ostensibly centres on Prof Grady Tripp's attempts at completing his increasingly out of control follow up novel of the title, Wonder Boys; yet as is not surprising with Michael Chabon, as well as an interesting plot, it is very much about characters and relationships. Central here, in addition to Grady himself, are his editor Terry Crabtree and young student James Lear, something of a loner, as well as host of other divers characters including Grady's pregnant mistress, an adoring female student, a transvestite, a dead dog and a tuba.
The real beauty of the novel is the interaction between the various characters. Grady and carefree drug reliant Crabtree are long standing friends and this clearly comes through. Crabtree has a crush on the Grady's mysterious student, the unreliable James; Grady's beautiful student tenant has a crush on him; and Grady's third marriage is coming to an end while he pursues his mistress, the college Chancellor. His failing marriage does not prevent visiting his wife's family for Thanksgiving, and taking along James. The relationship between Grady and James is particularly well drawn; while seemingly a little detached from James, it is clear from Grady's actions and the superbly written lengthy dialogues between the two that Grady cares about James.
No one comes out of this shining, the individual characters do have their redeeming features, it would be a mistake to right them off as insincere, and one cannot help be drawn to these people for all their human failings.
Wonder Boys is very funny, enjoyable and at times moving, but above all it is the beauty of Chabon's writing that makes it an absolute must read. If you've seen the film you must read the book, there are, not surprisingly, differences.


a lush loll among louche lushes, 12 Feb 2004
What I loved about Wonder Boys is its droll expansiveness, the way our narrator manages to be hilariously self-deprecating, while Chabon himself uses extended metaphor and Homeric simile (and that`s as rare as hens` teeth in the modern novel) with extravagant relish. Just as certain actors look like they`re thoroughly enjoying themselves (Nicholson, for example), Chabon reads like he`s having a great time. All this in a novel about a man who`s trying hard (not) to finish a novel - called Wonder Boys!
This is in certain ways quite an old-fashioned novel, like a contemporary version of the 19th century picaresque tale. Oh, and it made me laugh out loud.
Pretty damn wonderful.

On the road, 01 Jun 2008
Award-winner Michael Chabon usually focuses on the disaffected of the present, or at least the near past.

But he goes over a thousand years into the past for "Gentlemen of the Road," an old-fashioned adventure story with some gloriously offbeat heroes. It's a fun, quirky read (the original, fitting title was "Jews With Swords"), with lots of unique twists but the prose gets a bit purple at times.

In caravans and on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram and gawky Frank Zelikman make money however they can -- even staging mock fights. After their ruse is found out by a weary mahout, he offers to take them on as bodyguards to a sullen young prince, Filaq. Then the mahout is murdered, and the two "Gentlemen of the Road" find themselves babysitting a snotty teen with a tendency to run away.

Unfortunately, the fortress they're heading for has been destroyed, and a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram and Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, and beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... and the discovery that Filaq isn't quite who he seems to be.

There's something very classic about the flavour of "Gentlemen of the Road." Maybe it's because it was actually serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas and Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense and purple at times, which sent me spinning right off the narrative. But it does a pretty good job of evoking the dusty, harsh life of people on the march, brothels, attempted executions, ancient elephants, and the occasional mercenary joining up with the "gentlemen."

But Chabon doesn't let the story become leaden. He peppers it with wryly amusing dialogue ("Now, will you ride calmly behind me or do we need to bind you at the ankles, too?" "You h