Book review: Kavalier & Clay
Kavlier & Clay is another book by Michael Chabon who wrote Wonder Boys and Werewolves in their Youth, both of which Mozza gives a big rap too. I liked Wonder Boys, still often think of its lovable chaos and good use of the "crazy house guests on a weekend genre"*. I thought I'd try something else by Chabon, and was attracted by the era that Kavalier & Clay was set in, being all into the WW1; mid wars, WW2 and post war/Cold War periods. (K& C set in 1939 to 1954)
Whilst I wouldn't have considered myself into comics, in truth I don't mind them. I liked Ghost World, have read a few graphic novels including one about American teenagers in the 1970s (you'll notice my terrible memory for this blog, can't name a thing!), I went to the Art? Spinkelman? exhibition at the SA Migration Museum a few years ago (unknown name is for the NY cartoonist who depicts his parents survival of the Holocaust by drawing them as mice) and now regularly chuckle at toothpaste for dinner which I got off seagreen . Plus I spent my childhood sitting around my friends family sunroom reading his cool auntie and uncles hand me down copies of The Archies, secretly wanting to be Veronica. Really loved the details of the book, what was going on behind the scenes and inspiring the imagination of the comic drawers, how new characters and things got put together as fillers, to appeal to adults, the female market etc. It was amazing.
Chabon also really depicted well that slightly claustrophic period of NY, the refugees, crowded tenements, Greenwich Village, it being radically liberal compared to the mid west, the influence of different ethnic groups in close proximity, of being on the cusp of a technology explosion that would just exceed what they could imagine, the power of war to drive that technology expansion and profit making after the devastation caused by depression and the butchering in WW1 (So many advances in medicine & surgery occurred because WW1 was the first war to so badly butcher but leave alive soldiers). The other thing that comes out of war era literature written by Pat Barker and now Chabon, is the scrutiny of intense friendships between same sex; the idea that intense platonic love on one hand is necessary to maintain and preserve the camaraderie of the war effort but on the other hand threatens the moral order that helps preserve the status quo of politicans (parental age) sending solders (their children) to war.
The whole legacy of the war on New York City and its burroughs is fascinating: planned communities in Bronx and Long Island and you can pick up the legacy that lightly underpins other fiction such as the female writer that wrote about her childhood being brought up by her 2 uncles (Mozza knows who I'm talking about) and Judy Blumes fiction. You can even pick up the influence on childrens detective solving series such as Trixie Belden or Encyclopaedia Brown, the idea of kids being mini adults trying to explore the great free country that is the US.
Kavalier was quite a heart breaking and mesmerising character. There were amusing descriptions of him being an induldged but neglected teenager absorbed by the cult of magic in Prague. Despite all his trauma (Kavalier is the only family member that can secure a visa and escape the Jewish ghettoes of Prague that precede the death camps) he was never a victim but quite charismatic. He reminded me of Helmut Newton, the photographer that began his career in post war Melbourne. In his biography he recalls his idle rich Berlin youth as a budding playboy, how he escapes the Jewish persecution by migrating to Australia via China, spends times in refugee and internment camps until finally he can do what he wants, which is photograph beautiful women. He is an adult with absolutely no bitterness and a good ability to enjoy the adventures he went through
* examples of crazy house guests over a weekend genre: that Rob Altman movie set in England that has Ryan Philippe in it; the F book by Toby Litt; the episode of Family Ties when Alex is in charge of the house and turns it into a hotel to take advantage of a weekend convention that has left all the real hotels full (Skippy is the bell hop and Jennifer is the overworked maid); countless college/university reunion dramas that I probably watched at boarding school
Whilst I wouldn't have considered myself into comics, in truth I don't mind them. I liked Ghost World, have read a few graphic novels including one about American teenagers in the 1970s (you'll notice my terrible memory for this blog, can't name a thing!), I went to the Art? Spinkelman? exhibition at the SA Migration Museum a few years ago (unknown name is for the NY cartoonist who depicts his parents survival of the Holocaust by drawing them as mice) and now regularly chuckle at toothpaste for dinner which I got off seagreen . Plus I spent my childhood sitting around my friends family sunroom reading his cool auntie and uncles hand me down copies of The Archies, secretly wanting to be Veronica. Really loved the details of the book, what was going on behind the scenes and inspiring the imagination of the comic drawers, how new characters and things got put together as fillers, to appeal to adults, the female market etc. It was amazing.
Chabon also really depicted well that slightly claustrophic period of NY, the refugees, crowded tenements, Greenwich Village, it being radically liberal compared to the mid west, the influence of different ethnic groups in close proximity, of being on the cusp of a technology explosion that would just exceed what they could imagine, the power of war to drive that technology expansion and profit making after the devastation caused by depression and the butchering in WW1 (So many advances in medicine & surgery occurred because WW1 was the first war to so badly butcher but leave alive soldiers). The other thing that comes out of war era literature written by Pat Barker and now Chabon, is the scrutiny of intense friendships between same sex; the idea that intense platonic love on one hand is necessary to maintain and preserve the camaraderie of the war effort but on the other hand threatens the moral order that helps preserve the status quo of politicans (parental age) sending solders (their children) to war.
The whole legacy of the war on New York City and its burroughs is fascinating: planned communities in Bronx and Long Island and you can pick up the legacy that lightly underpins other fiction such as the female writer that wrote about her childhood being brought up by her 2 uncles (Mozza knows who I'm talking about) and Judy Blumes fiction. You can even pick up the influence on childrens detective solving series such as Trixie Belden or Encyclopaedia Brown, the idea of kids being mini adults trying to explore the great free country that is the US.
Kavalier was quite a heart breaking and mesmerising character. There were amusing descriptions of him being an induldged but neglected teenager absorbed by the cult of magic in Prague. Despite all his trauma (Kavalier is the only family member that can secure a visa and escape the Jewish ghettoes of Prague that precede the death camps) he was never a victim but quite charismatic. He reminded me of Helmut Newton, the photographer that began his career in post war Melbourne. In his biography he recalls his idle rich Berlin youth as a budding playboy, how he escapes the Jewish persecution by migrating to Australia via China, spends times in refugee and internment camps until finally he can do what he wants, which is photograph beautiful women. He is an adult with absolutely no bitterness and a good ability to enjoy the adventures he went through
* examples of crazy house guests over a weekend genre: that Rob Altman movie set in England that has Ryan Philippe in it; the F book by Toby Litt; the episode of Family Ties when Alex is in charge of the house and turns it into a hotel to take advantage of a weekend convention that has left all the real hotels full (Skippy is the bell hop and Jennifer is the overworked maid); countless college/university reunion dramas that I probably watched at boarding school
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