Rather than continue with my weekly column on the social science of crime and crime prevention, I thought I’d take a time out to write a book review.
Unlike most of the books I find myself reading, Chabon’s Kavalier & Clay is a work of fiction; and a brilliant one at that, winning the Pulitzer prize in
2000.
Chabon’s tale begins with two young boys in New York City during the 1930s. Sam Clay and his rather mysterious cousin Joseph Kavalier embark on a journey
to take the comic book business by storm. Together they create “The Escapist,” a truly dazzling, tights wearing, criminal-thumping superhero that
seeks to break the chains of oppression wherever he goes.
As Chabon takes us through the trials and tribulations of being a young comic book artist, the fictional superheroes penned by the boys begin to reflect
many of their own real world personality traits. As Joseph continues his struggle to get his family out of Nazi occupied Prague, The Escapist finds
himself clashing with the forces of evil that bare a striking resemblance to the Nazi’s. In this sense, the story is as much about art and its close
relationship with the artist as it is about a budding and shrewd entertainment industry just before the war.
Of course, a classic tale such as this would be incomplete if love did not rear its sometimes beautiful and sometimes ugly head. Chabon carefully
introduces Rosa Saks, a bright, energetic young woman who eventually finds herself in the middle of Kavalier and Clay’s strangely sureal antics, only to
fall in love.
As the comic book business begins to take a slide with the onset of war, Chabon takes the reader to, of all places, the polar ice caps where Kavelier
becomes stationed with the military after signing up to fight the Germans. While Joseph fights his inner demons on ice, Sam Clay confronts his own back in
New York.
The story ends with each character coming to terms with their own inner, yet hidden, truths; the very traits and sentiments that routinely spilled onto the
pages of The Escapist at Empire Comics during the comic craze shortly before the war.
The book covers the entire gamut of themes. From revenge to love, from action to romance, Chabon creates a stunning novel with a truly unpredictable
trajectory. His ability to develop characters is often astounding and his willingness to explore often difficult social themes is to be commended. The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was, without a doubt, the best book of fiction I have read this year. Allow yourself to escape.
