The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef "Joe" Kavalier as a refugee in New York City, where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin Sammy Klayman. Joe escaped from Prague with the help of his teacher Kornblum by hiding in a coffin along with the inanimate Golem of Prague, leaving the rest of his family, including his younger brother Thomas, behind. Besides having a shared interest in drawing, Sammy and Joe share several connections to Jewish stage magician Harry Houdini: Joe (like comics legend Jim Steranko) studied magic and escapology in Prague, which aided him in his departure from Europe, and Sammy is the son of the Mighty Molecule, a strongman on the vaudeville circuit. When Sammy discovers Joe's artistic talent, Sammy gets Joe a job as an illustrator for a novelty products company, which, due to the recent success of Superman, is attempting to get into the comic-book business. Under the name "Sam Clay", Sammy starts writing adventure stories with Joe illustrating them, and the two recruit several other Brooklyn teenagers to produce Amazing Midget Radio Comics (named to promote one of the company's novelty items). The pair is at once passionate a
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In 1939, Joe Kavalier escapes Prague hidden in a coffin and arrives at his cousin Sammy Clay's Brooklyn bedroom. Together they invent the Escapist, a comic book superhero, while Joe schemes to rescue his family from the Nazis.
Yes. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Michael Chabon also won the Hugo Award for The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
Yes. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is around 640 pages, spanning the comic book industry from 1939 to 1953 and the lives of two cousins who create a comic book hero. The novel rewards readers willing to commit to the length.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was written by Michael Chabon, published in 2000 by Random House.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is 639 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay takes most readers 10 to 14 hours to finish.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a standalone novel by Michael Chabon, not part of a series.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
