Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Josef Kavalier is a young Jewish refuge, dislocated to America thanks to the encroaching viciousness of the Nazi regime in his home country of czechoslovakia. Sammy Klayman is his cousin, a dreamer, a thinker, a boy who lives more in the world of his imagination than he does in the city of New York, his home. Kavalier meets Clay one quiet night, when the refuge arrives in New York scared, lonely and desperately missing his parents and brother, Thomas. They share a bed and form a friendship, sensing a kinship of souls that will soon reveal itself as a complex, compassionate and loving relationship that extends from their work into their personal lives.

While the book does chronicle the adventures of Kavalier & Clay as they struggle from being lowly workers at a novelty store, to creators of some of the most popular comic book heroes during WWII, the true hero of the novel is Josef Kavalier, Joe. We are 'inside' his head through most of the chapters, it is for him that we have the most compassion because of his immigration, his Jewish heritage - which Sammy does share, but his religious beliefs are certainly secondary - and his almost obsessive love for his lost brother Tommy, and his young love, Rosa Saks.

Josef is an interesting character. He studied under a magician, an escapist, for a time whilst in Europe, learning the tricks of the trade: Card tricks, picking locks, escaping. Through a number of - unfortunate - story telling contrivances, he is forced, again and again, to draw upon these skills. More positively, the first very comic character that the two create - The Escapist - is based upon the skills Josef has learned. This is a satisfying use of his background, I felt, rather than the sloppy device of yet another lock to pick or person to steal from.

Apart from this, though, is his love from his brother. For the better part of the novel, he is driven to succeed, purely so that he can save up enough money to get his brother out of Europe, and into the safety of America. When he is enjoying life - such as when he falls in love - he rails at himself, arguing that he should not experience fun, laughter, happiness, until Tommy is in America, and not a second before. When he does fall in love with Rosa Saks - the inspiration for Luna Moth, another famous creation of Kavalier and Clay - he is torn between his duty to his family, and the first flowerings of his love. To watch this is a fascinating experience, and possibly one of the highlights of the novel.

Another highlight is the way the story is told. While Josef is the focus, the narrative is able to step back from him and observe other characters in varied situations. The narrator, while never too personalised, is an omniscient, declarative chronicler. He mentions events in the future to further reinforce the current situation. He speaks of Kavalier and Clay with reverence, and when he is 'merely' discussing the actual people behind the team, he is no less respectful. As stated above, I did not feel that the language was this amazing: '...sentences so cozy they'll wrap you up and kiss you goodnight', but they were enjoyable. There is a never a sense of over achieving, or trying too hard, or anything like that. No, the prose is confident of its limits and its abilities, and works within that. Throughout the novel, I felt that Chabon was aware of what he could and could not do, and I felt confident in where he would take me and how he would get me there. This is as much a strength as the floweriest of prose, I believe.

Apart from Josef, there is Sammy, the other member of the great comic team. He is not in the spotlight very often, but nor would he want to be. Sammy, like the boy helpers he loves to create for his superheroes, is content as a sidekick. Another theme of the novel is him coming to terms with his homosexuality, and this is played out in a delicate enough manner right until the very end, when crudity takes over. Sammy is not a homosexual character, he is a character who happens to be a homosexual, and that, in my opinion, is the best way to handle him. Take away his sexuality - which is developed naturally, especially considering the difficulties imposed upon a young gay man in the 40s - and he is as deep and vibrant as any other. For a very long time, he is the ideas man of the two, the pusher, the confidence man, the kid who wants to be a man atop the mountain. Without Clay, Kavalier would never have extended his art into comics; he probably would have languished, sad and alone, never drawing for anyone but himself.

After the partnership of Kavalier & Clay crumbles, unfortunately so to does the story. We jump years, introducing new characters never fully developed, speeding through plots and ideas, dropping some and ignoring others. An interesting side story about comics as a negative medium is picked up, but then used in probably the most crude display of plot advancement I have ever seen, then dropped. Based on the quality of the rest of the novel, this was unforgiveable. The fact that it set in motion the ending was worse.

But, a few grave misgivings aside, this novel was very enjoyable. There is a lot of comic book history, a raft of interesting characters, and Chabon, I think, captures the way a young Jewish refuge would feel as he enters the vast world of American opportunity.

Links

Wikipedia
Amazon
Michael Chabon's homepage

Categories

American Authors