KAVALIER & CLAY

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I'm about 2/3 of the way through, and it's the first non-graphic novel (i.e. a comic without pictures) that I've read in 3 months (which, of course, was also comics-related, and come to think of it, the last novel I'd read before that, Midnight's Children (in Aug. 04), also was heavily comics-inflected). It's really good!

But I put this question to you history buffs: is the historical stuff -- e.g. Eisner getting the hammer brought down on him for ripping off of Supes, or the trend towards pomo'ness as early as the 50s -- accurate?

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 26 September 2005 18:25 (twenty years ago)

I'd advice picking up Gerard Jones' Men Of Tomorrow if you want the real scoop. Eisner's book The Dreamer is apparently a semi-autobiographical work also.

― Vic Fluro, Monday, 26 September 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

See the thing is, I didn't think either of them were Eisner, I thought they were Lee and Kirby. Er, transported through time. Though Martin Skidmore set me straight on them being a lot of different types mixed together.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 26 September 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

Eisner is actually referred to in the book! (I was on the pop of writing "comic.")

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 26 September 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

they're lee and kirby plus siegel and shuster, shurely?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 26 September 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

Is Eisner in, or referred to in, the coffee shop after the "suddenly, years pass" bit?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 26 September 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

don't know why I can't find the thread where we were discussing Howard Chaykin, but I just picked up for free off the street the Mcsweeney's pulp story collection that Michael Chabon edited and lo-and-behold the cover and insides are illustrated by Chaykin.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

Eisner is referred to sometime before The Escapist becomes a radio serial.

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, that Chaykin cover to the McSweeney's thing was rad. I love lion tamers. That was a pretty fun anthology.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

I like the whimsical Chris Ware ads on the back of the Escapist comics.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 14:40 (twenty years ago)

I finally read this a couple of weeks back, it was pretty good.

― O'so Krispie (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 27 September 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

I've just bought this on the strength of recommendations here. I will read it when I finally finish the brick that is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

― chap who would dare to kill all the threads (chap), Monday, 3 October 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

I just finished it, last night. Fortuitous. It's very good, though I'd like someone to explain the ending for me.

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 3 October 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

What part of the ending?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

He's gay, Leeeeee.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

It's just the set-up for INFINITE CLAY.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Tuesday, 4 October 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

SPOILER
SPOILER

Was the card that Sammy left for Rosa and Joe a repudiation of his life in the burbs, acquiescing his place with Rosa (who retained his last name as a reminder of those 10-something years) to Joe, or was it a bittersweet reminder of the simpler and headier days of his and Joe's partnership?

― Leeeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 5 October 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

A wonderful book, great characters loads of heart. I didn't realise the Golden Age creators worked so damn hard.

― chap who would dare to tell uninteresting celeb spotting stories (chap), Monday, 21 November 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

SPOILER

Who sent Joe the Golem's remains, do you reckon?

― chap who would dare to tell uninteresting celeb spotting stories (chap), Monday, 21 November 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

The last quarter was kind of terrible, wasn't it? Some of those last chapters are just painful to read, paragraphs and paragraphs of description and exposition for no good reason. But it was absolutely fantastic right up to Joe leaving - very much in the vein of Chabon's previous novels. A McCarthy-homophobia-suburban hell subplot was completely superfluous.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 4 June 2006 05:33 (nineteen years ago)

I loved the Antarctic chapter, which leaves me in the minority, I think. The fade-out in the last 150 pages is gratuitous, yes, but Chabon just (just) about earns reader's goodwill.The only other novel I've read of his, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, also has a horrible collapsed ending, much worse than K&C. The Sherlock-goes-Holocaust novella is wretched, too.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Sunday, 4 June 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

The Antarctica bit's great.

I'm currently reading Summerland, his book for teenagers, and it's fun and well written, if a little heavy on the whimsy.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Sunday, 4 June 2006 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

Wonder Boys is great all the way through (and was a pretty good movie too)

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Sunday, 4 June 2006 12:18 (nineteen years ago)

I loved the Antarctica bit, too. But then, I love anything Polar.
I barely made it through the opening bit of M of P.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 4 June 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

It's great for the first 100 pages and then turns into "WHAT IF... Mario Puzo wrote The Great Gatsby?" And then it's, um, less good.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Sunday, 4 June 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

the antarctic bit is about as rivetting as anything I've ever read.

but then, the entire book is magnificent.

― veronica moser (veronica moser), Monday, 5 June 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

I stand pleasantly corrected!

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Monday, 5 June 2006 17:02 (nineteen years ago)

ILC /= a majority

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 5 June 2006 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fa

― chap, Thursday, 9 October 2008 13:02 (seventeen years ago)

Sorry, I meant:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fact_chabon?currentPage=1

― chap, Thursday, 9 October 2008 13:03 (seventeen years ago)

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