Review of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
K&C is the winner of several prizes, by the same author who wrote Wonder Boys. It's a story about two boys who create a pulp comic book character in the 1940s, and their lives after that. It's modelled on Seigel and Shuster to an extent, and Jack Kirby is obviously Joe Kavilier, but it's a nice read even as I felt a little lost in the time period. The book is strongest at character definitions and language, but the plot hooks can be seen from miles away; after going through a few John Irving novels, it gets pretty obvious when a character is set up purely as a plot device to jumpstart another character into action. I could have done with far more exploration of Rosa, the woman who lives with these crazy people and a comic book world which is obviously not her own... she never really gets her …
K&C is the winner of several prizes, by the same author who wrote Wonder Boys. It's a story about two boys who create a pulp comic book character in the 1940s, and their lives after that. It's modelled on Seigel and Shuster to an extent, and Jack Kirby is obviously Joe Kavilier, but it's a nice read even as I felt a little lost in the time period. The book is strongest at character definitions and language, but the plot hooks can be seen from miles away; after going through a few John Irving novels, it gets pretty obvious when a character is set up purely as a plot device to jumpstart another character into action. I could have done with far more exploration of Rosa, the woman who lives with these crazy people and a comic book world which is obviously not her own... she never really gets her own story and she suffers for it, having to build a life out of the choices made by people around her.