Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier And Clay

Fourth Estate

$36.95

Review: John McCrystal*

A picture of serenity. Outside, the mercury is nudging 30 deg C and the inhabitants of a city thinly disguised as Auckland are enjoying the sunshine.

Meanwhile, in his troglodytic lair deep in the suburbs, a pasty figure hunches over a glowing computer monitor. Who could it be? The nimble defender of the virtual universe, PlayStation Guy, or that champion of masochists everywhere, Black Caps Fan?

No! It's the Reviewer! Sworn to defend the reading public of the nation, the Reviewer tirelessly sniffs out thin plots, shabby characterisation and shonky prose.

In this episode, our hero is prowling the capacious precincts of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by young American Michael Chabon. It's 700 pages and it takes something pretty special to get the reader to the other end of a book of this size.

It is the story of Josef Kavalier, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and his American cousin, Samuel Klayman, with whom he collaborates to create a comic-book superhero, the Escapist. Like that archetype of comic-book heroes, Superman, after whom he is modelled, the Escapist is a runaway success and his creators, Joe and Sammy, do very well indeed out of him.

In his Nazi-bashing adventures, the Escapist acts out the collective vengeance fantasies of an America which is waiting on the sidelines of the tensions and then the war which engulfs Europe. They are an outlet for Josef's frustrations, as he impotently dreams of rescuing his family from the ghettoes of Prague.

After the war, the Escapist's popularity fades as the American appetite for superheroes dwindles and morals campaigners begin asking questions about the sexual proclivities of muscular, masked men who wear their Y-fronts on the outside of their colourful fitting costumes and, more often than not, are accompanied by young male sidekicks. But as the tide of their creations fortunes turn, both Sammy and Joe find themselves more engaged with America than they were before.

By the end of the book the former outsiders have found their place in American society.

The book is set in New York, with the characteristic feeling that the world outside that city is unreal. This, as always, can be a little alienating.

Chabon plays the story pretty straight, although he can't resist occasional bursts of surrealism. As in his previous work, the style is assured and frequently very funny, although the underlying purpose is serious. All in all, the Reviewer decides, deploying his super powers of reasoning, well worth the prolonged reading effort necessary.

* John McCrystal is an Auckland freelance writer.