Un roman doux-amer à dévorer suivant l'histoire des comic books américain à travers l'univers de deux cousins en marge de la société, l'un à cause de son handicap physique ainsi que de son homosexualité et l'autre à cause de sa religion et de la famille qu'il a dû abandonner à Prague lors de la montée en pouvoir du parti Nazi. Un amour des comic books aide à susciter l'intérêt envers ce roman, mais n'est pas nécessaire, l'histoire de l'évolution de cette forme d'art étant une trame de fond omniprésente, mais n'étant jamais véritablement au premier plan (un peu de la même manière que l'histoire américaine lors de la Guerre froide ne sert qu'à diriger la narration de Forrest Gump sans en être l'élément central).

Je le recommande à tout amateur de littérature ayant toujours un faible pour les comic books et leur âge d'or.

Throughout reading, however illogical I seems, I found myself wondering if my time would be better spent reading the real life exploits of the comic books men of the Golden Age, rather than this original amalgamation that is maybe too close to fact than fiction. I am pretty familiar with the lives of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and to a lesser degree Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, so the story of Kavalier and Clay never really stepped out of the shadow of their real life inspirations for me. That being said , the authors’ love of the art of comics
really did shine though that at the very least makes me glad to have picked this book up.

Continuing what is becoming a streak of being underwhelmed by Pulitzer winners, I thought this book was just okay. Chabon can, incontrovertibly, write well. Some of his sentences or turns of phrase made me pause in appreciation. But, overall, the story here didn't wow me. The first 70ish% of the 640ish-page book was mostly the titular characters getting what they wanted with no real conflict (except the ultimately sort of meh scandal of their getting only a small fortune for their creativity) and nods to sad/difficult situations thrown in as needed. Even in the latter portions of the book, most conflicts are resolved in a few paragraphs or left without lasting implications. I think many aspects of this book could be seen more charitably or less depending on how you feel about it, and unfortunately, I was inclined to feel less charitably about many, leaving a feeling that many "big" moments were predictable and somewhat hollow (rather than well-developed and important to character development), many plot points were chosen out of convenience (rather than resulting naturally from the construction of the story), etc. I overall had an odd sensation of enjoying the writing without being very drawn into the story, which, especially for a decently long novel, was somewhat disappointing. That said, it is worth repeating that the writing really shines in much of this book and mentioning that the atmosphere of the era and industry were very well-crafted. Chabon clearly put in effort to add depth instead of just exploiting comic book history (though it feels like he toes the line at times). And, just because it's a pet peeve, I also feel it's worth pointing out that this falls into the category of "stories in which characters become very drunk ridiculously easily", for what it's worth.

I thought this was an amazing, creative and well written story. It is also a mix of historical facts and people with fictional characters and scenarios. The two protagonists of the work were colorful and very entertaining.

This is a story that's so full of heart. I laughed, I cried, and at times I was too horrified for words. These are the kind of characters that come alive for awhile.

I really recommend it but I'm having a hard time coming up with what to say to encompass such a lengthy, complicated, epic book.

I have been struggling with this review.
No matter what I write, it doesn't do the book justice. I tried explaining the premise to my husband and it came out sounding like a very boring book.

Two cousins start a comic book ... how can you possibly explain this book to someone.