MICHAEL CHABON

(born 1963)

​Chabon, who was born in Washington, D.C., said he knew he wanted to be a writer when, at the age of ten, he wrote his first short story for a class assignment. When the story received an A, he thought, “That’s it. That’s what I want to do. I can do this.” Since then he has never had any second thoughts or doubts.

Chabon discovered a box of comic books from his childhood and reawakened his love of comics. That, along with memories of his Brooklyn-born father telling hime stories about “the middle years of the twentieth century in America. …the radio shows, movies, and music of that era,” inspired him to begin work on a new novel.

Published in 2000, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a historical novel that takes place during New York City’s Golden Age of Comic Books in the early 1940’s just before the outbreak of WWII. A young escape artist named Joe Kavalier escapes Nazi-occupied Prague and arrives at the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, American kids are turning the new fad of superhero comics into a booming business.
And in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy starts to write and Joe begins to draw, beginning a journey that will take them both deep into the center of Manhattan, and the heart of American ambition. The novel received nearly unanimous praise, eventually winning the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Michael Chabon believes that three things are required for success as a novelist: talent, luck, and discipline. As he says, “Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.” Chabon’s hope and trust certainly paid off.

Since many events in this featured novel are based on the lives and times of actual comic-book creators, including Jack Kirby, I thought it would be fun and challenging to try and mimic the style of “King” Kirby in my interpretation of Sammy and Joe’s character The Escapist.
With the plot of this novel containing some of my greatest loves (New York City, world history and comic books) it was one of the most exciting first reads I have ever experienced. How wonderful it feels to finally have found the time and the confidence to add this author and his amazing book to my gallery of Authors in Ink!