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  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

  • By: Michael Chabon
  • Narrated by: David Colacci
  • Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (403 ratings)
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay cover art

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

By: Michael Chabon
Narrated by: David Colacci
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Summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2001

It's 1939, in New York City. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat: smuggling himself out of Hitler's Prague. He's looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a partner in creating the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book.

Inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapist, the Monitor, and the otherworldly Mistress of the Night, Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. The golden age of comic books has begun, even as the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a stunning novel of endless comic invention and unforgettable characters, written in the exhilarating prose that has led critics to compare Michael Chabon to Cheever and Nabokov. In Joe Kavalier, Chabon has created a hero for the century.

©2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2000 Michael Chabon

Critic reviews

"Michael Chabon can write like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader with their beauty and their style." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

What listeners say about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining and deeply moving

I love this book for the wonderful characters, richly-textured plot and the themes that develop in surprising ways throughout the book. The first time I read it I missed it terribly when it was over and became very cranky because I couldn't stand not having it in my life. I re-read it after 3 weeks. Since then, I've re-read parts of it numberless times and enjoy reading certain sections aloud to my friends. The audiobook is terrific. The variety of characters all sound authentic and it is in every way an experience that lives up to the quality of writing.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

it's a coherent long story & the narrator excels

lt's useful in illustrating the terrible experiences of Jewish families caught in the claws of Naziism, not just caught but unable to escape. That horror and, very importantly, how it came about (this book does not address the causes [the Book Thief does a better job of adressing how a leading modern educated society fell into Naziism] but looks at the awful effects) must never be forgotten. You experience how it seemed to one who had escaped to New York to watch in safety as the net closed on his immediate family. You also get an idea of what it may have felt like to be a survivor who lost... everyone.
It's a novel. It isn't too heavy or too dark. If you want Jewish humour, its there. If you want New York society during the 40s & 50s, this may be for you. Likewise if you want a better understanding of the comic book world, this might appeal. For me, l had difficulties with the characters & the prose is just too prolix. For me this book didnt work. Having said that, l did finish it

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not as interesting as it should have been

After 3 and a half hours I gave up. There were some interesting parts but there was too much that was just filler and I was bored. The narration didn’t work for me either. There was no intrigue or subtlety. I found myself just listening to it as background noise rather than to the story itself.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story - both moving and funny

I didn't like the look of the title and it was only through reading reviews that I gave it a go. Really glad I did. It is a super story, unusual, moving and funny. I like longer books and especially those that don't repeat themselves but keep the pace flowing - this is one of those. Interesting the unabridged is cheaper than the shorter abridged! Give it a go i'm sure you won't be disappointed.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best books I have ever read

Any additional comments?

The scope of the story the timeline and the craft going into the people who populate this book is amazing

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great!

Loved the book when I read it, this is a great audio book too - narration is spot on. An amazing adventure indeed.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Why did I come so late to this?

What made the experience of listening to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay the most enjoyable?

The whole place and time, New York 1939-53 comes fresh through this book,so near and yet so far and strange. It's a comic book evocation of a world we almost know.

What did you like best about this story?

The Prague Jews of the book are my family, and this might have been my world if my mother hadn't landed up in the UK instead of the US. But the awful parts of the book, the concentration camps and German occupation of Prague are both tragic and bearable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not possible to listen to this enormous book at one sitting, but such fun, so exciting to go from cliff-hanger to cliff -hanger.

Any additional comments?

I wouldn't have the time to sit and read it, and so invest it with my own voice, which was a small sorrow, given how important to me the book turned out to be. But given that, I absolutely adored David Colacci's reading and it's done now. This reading is an essential part of the book to me.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I miss them

Finding a life affirming story from the holocaust Chabon gives us characters to love and admire. The end of the book leaves you missing them and wanting to know what happens next. Not bad for a book this long. It keeps you hooked. Sometimes laughing out loud sometimes deeply sorrowful.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

So well written, excellent plot something is always happening. And the colloquial language is spot on I love love love this book. READ IT

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A touching refugee story set during the golden age of comic books

Fran recommended this book to me. I resisted it for a while (probably because it was over 26 hours long) but I ended up really enjoying it. It’s set between 1939 and 1954, during the golden age of comic books, mostly in New York City. It took a while for me to get into it, but I was hooked by the time Joe saw “Citizen Kane” and was inspired to adopt some of the cinematic techniques into his comics; and also started fighting Germans and breaking into the office of the Aryan-American League. My favourite part was when Joe was stationed in Antarctica after he joined the Navy to kill some Germans. The isolation and dangerous climate are highly evocative and made me want to read more about Antarctica. The parts I found most touching were the suburban, domestic scenes towards the end of the novel. And I also learned a lot about the explosion of superhero comics as a genre during the Second World War.

The audiobook narration by David Colacci makes it easy to tell the characters apart and is easy to follow. It made for very good company while I was doing my jigsaw in this bleak January.

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