Is it weird to review a book that's like 7 years old? I'm gonna do it anyway, because maybe this will help somebody else who missed it. I'm gonna write as if everybody's read the book though, because I think I'm probably the last one to do so.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Thomas recommended TAAoK&C when I needed a book for the plane, and once I got back to Seattle Divya seconded it. Both warned me that the ending was the best part, but I really enjoyed the whole thing.

Chabon takes the theme of escapism and really runs with it. Everything that happens in the novel is somebody trying to escape from something (overtly or otherwise), and the parallels run deep and strong. Remarkably, the majority of these attempts are ultimately successful but the book still has suspense and conflict.

What Chabon makes you realize is that every superhero power is about escape, and taking it further, that every fantasy is about escape. Flight, immortality, wealth, invisibility, professional success, mind-control, health, precognition... all daydreams are about escaping responsibility, consequences, gravity, fear, failure. By the end it's hard to imagine why there hasn't been an explicit Escapist superhero in the real world.

(The current popularity of the well-done Heroes spends a lot of voice-over time speculating about the place heroes have in society. The difference there is that very few of the characters manage to escape from anything at all, or end up getting in more trouble as they escape.)

Anyway, I love the nerdiness and nearly sci-fi attributes of TAAoK&C. It makes me realize I should venture into mainstream fiction more often.

Look for more a bit more review-style writing as I try to get the ol' words flowing again.

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