Book club 101: discussion questions for Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

June 22, 9:44 PMSacramento Book Club ExaminerShelley Blanton-Stroud

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Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a great book club pick

If it’s your turn to pick your book group’s reading selection this month (or if you want to join the Arden Dimick Open Book Club in our discussion this week) choose a little escapist fiction in the form of Bay Area author Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the critically and popularly acclaimed, 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winner for fiction. Chabon tells an epic story based on his own love of comic books, and inspired by two real-life Midwestern Jewish boys, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, who sold their Superman character to DC Comics for $130.

Though comic books have obviously been beloved for quite some time, the medium is enjoying a mainstream resurgence now, with titles such as Watchmen, Maus and Persepolis read widely even by non-aficionados, and assigned in college literature, history and sociology classes. Kavalier and Clay gives a little peak into that world’s artists, writers, readers and unlikely heroes.

A nice, fat summer read, this WWII era novel puts cousins Sammy Clay and Joe Kavalier at its center, along with their invented comic book hero – The Escapist – but also introduces a variety of supporting characters, each with his or her own journey: an incompetent white-supremicist, the talented daughter of a famous critic, a gorgeous, heart-throb actor, attempting to maintain his pop idol status while accepting his homosexuality. At one point or another, the novel’s characters bump up against the likes of Salvador Dali, Orson Wells and Adolf Hitler. Though the wide-ranging, active plot itself makes the novel a good choice for summer, the believable universe of characters seals the deal.

Here are some questions to get your group going.

1. Do Kavalier and Clay model their heroes on their own characteristics? Are they inspired by their heroes to become more heroic themselves?
2. Is Joe emotionally helped or hurt by his immersion in comic books and their violent plot points?
3. Why does the story focus so much on escape? Where do you see it in the story? Is it because of the WWII period in which it is set, or because the desire to escape is a necessary element of adventure?
4. Is escape via television or movies different from escape through books? Do we judge it differently? To what degree do we need art or literature itself to provide escape? Why?
5. What do you think Chabon implies about the process of writing/painting/creating generally?
6. If you have ever read graphic novels or memoirs, like Watchmen, Persepolis or Maus, what connections do you see between The Escapist and these other works?
7. Chabon conscientiously embeds a great deal of historically accurate people, events and places into his novel. Why? What is the effect?
8. What role does family play in the novel? What makes a family for these characters? What role do parents play?
9. What does the author imply about love relationships? How does this compare to work relationships? Why?
10. Why does the novel’s beginning focus on the golem? Why is it so valued? Do you agree or disagree with this value? Why?
11. What does Chabon appear to believe about talking and teamwork and why?
12. What is a superhero? Why are young men in particular drawn to them? Why are young men the largest market for comic strips and graphic novels?
13. The Escapist is full of anti-heroes and villains. What is the difference? How does Chabon characterize Carl Henry Ebling and why? Why does he focus more on Ebling than on Hitler?
14. Sammy loves the actor Tracy Bacon, who plays the Escapist on the radio. Why are they attracted to each other? Why does Sammy give Tracy up? What does it suggest about Sammy that he does?
15. How do you compare Joe’s view of the characters and plot line of The Escapist to Sammy’s? What kind of character is Sammy? What kind of character is Joe?
16. What about the views of Sheldon Anapol or George Deasey? What does Chabon imply about idealism versus cynicism?
17. What about Rosa’s relationship with Joe? What is her role in his life? Is she his muse, a helpmate? A leading character of her own?
18. Does reading this book about the making of comic books affect your view of those books themselves or those who generally read them?
19. There is a tension in the novel on the difference between high and low art. How do you explain this tension? How do others react to you when they see you are reading a graphic novel? Why?
20. Why does Joe experience near-death, by drowning, more than once? What are the circumstances surrounding these events? What does it mean that he almost dies this way? What does it mean that he survives?