Bingo Row 2 – TBR
I’ve attempted to read the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay a few times over the years. Something always happens, including two instances where my cat opened my bedside table and ripped the book to shreds.
Eventually I gave up. It seemed I was not meant to read it.
But when I recently saw it at a bookstore, I decided to try again because I believe in coincidences and don’t believe that fate has destroyed multiple copies of this book.
And I read it! The front cover got a rip (99% of the time, I leave the books I read in the same condition I got them). But I actually finished it on what I think was my 5th attempt.
At this point, there’s not really anything new to say about the book. Joe Kavalier, a Jewish boy, escapes Nazi Europe to live with his aunt and cousin in New York. Desperate to save the family he left in Czechoslovakia, he and Sam Clay (the cousin) create a successful comic book about their superhero, the Escapist. With the premise established, real life history guides the rest of the story. I generally know what happened to European Jews during World War 2 and I generally know how Golden Age comic creators ended up. So I knew what would probably happen to Joe’s family and to the creators of the Escapist.
These dual stakes made it hard to care about the comic book drama. I wanted to see if Joe’s beloved brother would get out of Europe, not if Kavalier and Clay got royalties from the Escapist radio show. And that made it hard to be invested in Clay. But maybe that’s the point. The mysterious and alluring Kavalier is going to upstage anyone he’s standing next to, including his reliable closeted cousin – who he wouldn’t have gotten far without.
Now, thanks to the author’s notes, I have a new little list of comic history books to add to my TBR list.