michael chabon the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay 2000

Kavalier comes to stay with the Brooklyn-born Clay, who’s tasked with getting Kavalier a job at the magazine where he works.

The story follows young artist Josef Kavalier and his enterprising cousin Samuel Klayman (known to most as Sammy Clay) in the years following Kavalier’s flight from Nazi-controlled Prague in the late 1930s. Chabon’s characters are men - and a singular lead woman - who become comic book-esque heroes in a story that grabs you from the very beginning. In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2001, novelist Michael Chabon offers not only a roots tale of the comic-book genre, but the genesis of the creators themselves. We hope for our own superhero transformation. Everyone comes from somewhere, and perhaps we, mere mortals, are drawn to this oft-used plot device because we strive to see ourselves in those humble beginnings. What unites all of the greatest comic heroes is found in the quintessential comic book storyline: the origin story. Folks of all ages, genders, races, nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds find a home within the pages of comic books - especially in the past two decades as publishers, editors, writers and artists have made a conscious effort to increase the diversity of their heroes and other characters. It’s hard to put my finger on the pulse of comic readers because the depth and breadth of this group is so vast. It wasn’t until just after I graduated from Notre Dame, when I became a managing editor for the now-defunct and started a column called “Comic Virgins.” Each week or two, I’d read a few new comics from a particular series and write up my thoughts.

Michael chabon the amazing adventures of kavalier & clay 2000