My Reaction to the First Half of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

I cannot say that I have ever read a book quite like this one before. The plot starts off as an adventure of sorts as Joe escapes to America, transforming into a story encompassing the American Dream as Sam and Joe rise to success, and then to a romance as Joe falls in love with Rosa Saks and Sam questions his own sexual interests. The constant chronological jumps add even more variety to this mix, creating an unpredictable nature to the novel. Overall, despite its staggering length, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay manages to keep the plot interesting by constantly introducing new elements frequently.

The characters themselves are interesting, and each undergo development at different stages of the novel. Initially, the clear focus of the story is Joe, and Sam is more of a background element. Once Joe is fleshed out to a satisfying degree, the book focuses more on the more mysterious Sam, as his mind is not really taken into account until he starts feeling lonely in the shadow of Joe, who now has a girlfriend that he frequently sees. Backing up the main characters is an equally well thought out supporting cast. The American Nazi Carl Ebling is a minor character that Joe simply meets by chance, after destroying his office in anger. In an attempt to exact revenge, Ebling gives the Empire Building a fake bomb scare, that Joe doesn't buy. The event is so much as mentioned in the news paper. Ebling later takes this desire for revenge way too far, becoming the Saboteur, the opposite of the Escapist, as he claims that he is a master of infiltration. He attempts to injure Joe with a pipe bomb, but the plan backfires, and Ebling himself takes the blunt of the explosion. His inclusion as a character is both humorous and depressing, as his actions yield no positive results for him, but the degree to which he works himself up is quite comical. The other characters are as or more complex and interesting, and it is a joy to watch them interact with each other. While the beginning of the novel is more event based, it gradually shifts to a character centric story, focusing on the frequent and interesting interactions between several well crafted characters. I simply enjoy reading this book, because much like Ebling, it is serious, but it has comical overtones. The plot never stays in the same groove to the point of becoming stale, and overall, it was a very interesting read, that stimulated many thoughts as I read it.