Jon's Reviews > The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

What i liked about it

Its a Quirky book this one, I was going to say a quirky little book ..only its not. At 639 pages its one of the longest ive read (i know its no Cristo but there we are!). That in itself became on of the things i liked... it was a novelty to me to have so long to get to know the characters and live with a book for a bit longer.

Its a hard book to describe, its got everything from, the American comic book industry, superhero stories, escapists and escapism, stage magicians, the plight of the Jews in the war, Jewish legends, guilt, loss, revenge, comedy, tragedy, and even a gay sub-plot (which incidentally was nicely woven in as not being a huge deal and not sensationalised). They even went to the premiere of Citizen Kane in the book and spent 2 pages discussing it, which i loved as its an amazing film. If i were smarter, im sure theres loads of symbols and themes packed into the book too. The 3 main characters are thoroughly likable and interesting and have a great relationship with each other.

The best thing about the book though is the writing style, its often upbeat, witty and whimsical, its a joy to read. The darker parts of the book are still in that lighthearted unusual style. He has some great turns of phrase.

Quote:
'He had constantly thought of her over the years of his flight, but had neglected to dab in the freckles with which she was so prodigiously stippled, and now he was startled by their profusion. They emerged and faded against her skin with the inscrutable cadence of stars on the night sky. They invited the touch of fingers as painfully as the nap of velvet or the shimmer of a piece of watered silk'


What I didnt like

It was quite often hard to work out just where the book was heading, as described above there's so many facets to it, from the first half of the book it could have been heading anywhere. There were bits that were definately slower. For much of the book it would have been heading for a 3 star but that last third as well as some great stand outs earlier on and the general tone and unusual style pushed it up to a happy 4 from me.