Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel focuses on Josef (Joe) Kavalier and Sammy Clay (né Klayman), two artistically gifted cousins who create the masked comic-book hero, The Escapist, modeled on Superman, in New York City just before, during, and after World War II. Both subject matter and language celebrate the triumph of creativity and human relationships in the face of the evils and Adolf Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust.
Chabon, frequently compared to such writers as John Cheever and Vladimir Nabokov, has been praised for his lyrical use of language, his historical accuracy, and his ebullient characters. Like those of Horatio Alger, they overcome anguish and tragedy to become successful immigrant achievers of the American dream. The originality of the novel lies not only in the vibrant, sympathetic protagonists but also in Chabon’s use of the Golden Age of Comics in mid-20th-century American history and myth. The Escapist becomes metaphoric not only of individual freedom but the liberation of victims of tyranny everywhere.
The novel opens in Brooklyn, New York, as Ethel Klayman, Sammy’s mother, awakens him to announce the arrival of his cousin Josef from Prague, Czechoslovakia. With the help of magician and escape artist Bernard Kornblum, a mentor inspired by Harry Houdini, Joe has escaped Czechoslovakia by hiding in a box with the Jewish golem bound for Lithuania.
Michael Chabon
The golem, mystical symbol of Jewish faith, a sort of superman fashioned of earth and clay (which Sammy’s surname is surely intended to recall), becomes symbolically affiliated with the American comic-book heroes (Batman, Spiderman, and, of course, Superman) so admired by Joe and Sammy.
Chabon told journalist David Colton that he sees Superman as an immigrant who achieved success in America, and Colton agrees: “Substitute war-shattered Europe for exploded Krypton, and Superman is just another refugee. Except, of course, he can fly” (Colton).
As numerous critics and readers point out, the theme of escape is significant to this novel. Even the golem who helped with Joe’s European escape seems awakened from dormancy each time a character needs to transform his life.
Sammy, who has “the usual Brooklyn dreams of transformation and escape” (Kavalier and Clay, 12), decides to leave behind his stockroom job at Empire Novelty Company, collaborate with Joe, and create their own masked hero. With Sammy as writer and Joe as artist, Sammy’s boss agrees to give them their chance (without a pay increase).
In a New York vivified by period detail, they invent The Escapist, and, in their first issue, the hero “delivers a powerhouse punch to Hitler’s bloody jaw” (Merritt) and continues to be the vehicle through which Joe and Sammy fight the Nazis and try to persuade the United States to enter the war.
Joe, who never rests from his efforts to bring his brother, Tommy, to the United States, finds a small measure of comfort in their Nazi-fighting Escapist. In an interview with Dave Welch, Chabon explicitly states, “There was something about the golem which tied in with Superman and the superhero figure, the messianic figure who would redeem the suffering and helpless of the world”; moreover, “the creators of all these golden age comic books, many of them were Jewish kids” (Welch).
For a time, the pair enjoys their newfound fame and fortune, mingling with such luminaries as Spanish artist Salvador Dalí and British film director Orson Welles. Joe falls in love with Rosa Luxembourg Sax, a talented artist, while Sammy takes on a gay lover, Tracy Bacon.
Rosa, in fact, inspires Joe to invent the comic-book superwoman Luna Moth, “with the legs of Dolores Del Rio, black witchy hair and breasts each the size of her head” (Kavalier and Clay, 132).
These days are abruptly halted, however, by the Nazi sinking of the Ark of Miriam, the ship carrying Tommy Kavalier. With the death of his last remaining family member, Joe gives up Rosa (pregnant with their child, although Joe does not know), Sammy, and their comic empire to join the navy.
He is stationed in Antarctica, where he kills the last remaining Nazi, is wounded in the fight, is awarded the Navy’s highest medal, and returns to New York a genuine hero. For some dozen years he resists returning to Bloomburg (the fictitious Levittown) on Long Island and his friend Sammy (who married the pregnant Rosa) or to Rosa and his son, Tommy, named after Joe’s brother.
Atop the Empire State Building, in a complex blending of the novel’s major themes and settings—magic, heroism, escapism, liberation, love, friendship—Joe reveals himself to his son, Tommy, and realizes that he still loves Rosa, while Sammy, now free to admit openly his preference for men, heads for Los Angeles. In a final act of generosity, Joe, who learns that an overlooked savings account has earned more than $1 million, rescues Sammy from poverty by buying him the Empire comic-book company.
Chabon, who seems to embrace rather than resist labels, told interviewer Stuart Eskinazi in 2003 that he considers himself “an American writer, a Jewish writer, and a Jewish-American writer,” as well as a postmodernist; when he was mistakenly identified as a gay writer as well, he quietly corrected the mistake, but pronounced himself happy with the loyal following of gay readers.
Among the novel’s concerns are numerous grim facts of 20th-century history, including bigotry against Jews, gays, and women. Rising above it all, however, are the brave modern heroes who insist on their freedom of expression and individuality. Against the accusations of “escapism” aimed at comic books, Chabon successfully illuminates the positive meanings of escape and liberation in both art and real life.
Source
Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. New York: Random House, 2000.
Other
Buzbee, Lewis. “Michael Chabon: Comics Came First.” The New York Times on the Web (September 24, 2000).
Colton, David. “Comics history ‘Unmasked’.” USA Today (6/23/03).
Eskinazi, Stuart. “Nextbook: Insights into the Jewish Soul through Literature.” Seattle Times (11/11/2003).
Merritt, Byron. Review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
Kalfus, Ken. “The Golem Knows.” The New York Times on the Web (September 24, 2000).
Siciliano, Jana. Review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
Welch, Dave. “Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures.”
Categories: Jewish Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis
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