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The novel begins in 1939 with the arrival of 19-year-old Josef "Joe" Kavalier as a refugee in New York City, where he comes to live with his 17-year-old cousin Sammy Klayman. Joe escaped from Prague with the help of his teacher Kornblum by hiding in a coffin along with the inanimate Golem of Prague, leaving the rest of his family, including his younger brother Thomas, behind. Besides having a shared interest in drawing, Sammy and Joe share several connections to Jewish stage magician Harry Houdini: Joe (like comics legend Jim Steranko) studied magic and escapology in Prague, which aided him in his departure from Europe, and Sammy is the son of the Mighty Molecule, a strongman on the vaudeville circuit.
When Sammy discovers Joe's artistic talent, Sammy gets Joe a job as an illustrator for a novelty products company, which, due to the recent success of Superman, is attempting to get into the comic-book business. Under the name "Sam Clay", Sammy starts writing adventure stories with Joe illustrating them, and the two recruit several other Brooklyn teenagers to produce Amazing Midget Radio Comics (named to promote one of the company's novelty items). The pair is at once passionate about their creation, optimistic about making money, and always nervous about the opinion of their employers. The magazine features Sammy and Joe's character the Escapist, an anti-fascist superhero who combines traits of (among others) Captain America, Harry Houdini, Batman, the Phantom, and the Scarlet Pimpernel. The Escapist becomes tremendously popular, but like talent behind Superman, the writers and artists of the comic get a minimal share of their publisher's revenue. Sammy and Joe are slow to realize that they are being exploited, as they have private concerns: Joe is trying to help his family escape from Nazi-occupied Prague, and has fallen in love with the bohemian Rosa Saks, who has her own artistic aspirations, while Clay is battling with his sexual identity and the lackluster progress of his literary career.
For many months after coming to New York, Joe is driven almost solely by an intense desire to improve the condition of his family, still living under a regime increasingly hostile to their kind. This drive shows through in his work, which remains for a long time unabashedly anti-Nazi despite his employer's concerns. In the meantime, he is spending more and more time with Rosa, appearing as a magician in the bar mitzvahs of the children of Rosa's father's acquaintances, even though he sometimes feels guilty at indulging in these distractions from the primary task of fighting for his family. After multiple attempts and considerable monetary sacrifice, Joe ultimately fails to get his family to the States, his last attempt having resulted in putting his younger brother aboard a ship that sank into the Atlantic. Distraught and unaware that Rosa is pregnant with his child, Joe enlists in the navy, hoping to fight the Germans. Instead, he is sent to a lonely, cold naval base in Antarctica, from which he emerges the lone survivor after a series of deaths. When he makes it back to New York, ashamed to show his face again to Rosa and Sammy, he lives and sleeps in a hideout in the Empire State Building, known only to a small circle of magician-friends.
Meanwhile, Sam battles with his sexuality, shown mostly through his relationship with the radio voice of The Escapist, Tracy Bacon. Bacon's movie-star good-looks initially intimidate Clay, but they later fall in love. When Tracy is cast as The Escapist in the film version, he invites Clay to move to Hollywood with him, an offer that Clay accepts. But later, when Bacon and Clay go to a friend's beach house with several other gay men and couples, the company's private dinner is broken up by the local police as well as two off-duty FBI agents. All of the men are arrested, except for two who hid under the dinner table, one of whom is Clay. The FBI agents each claim one of the men and grant them their freedom in return for sexual favors. After this episode, Clay decides that he can't live with the constant threat of being arrested, ridiculed, and judged because of his sexuality. He does not go with Bacon to the West Coast. Some time after Joe leaves, Sammy marries Rosa and moves with her to the suburbs, where they raise her son Tommy in what outwardly appears to be a typical traditional nuclear family.
Sammy and Rosa cannot hide all their secrets from Tommy, however, who manages to take private magic lessons in the Empire State Building from Joe for the better part of year without anyone else's knowledge. Tommy is instrumental in finally reuniting the Kavalier and Clay duo, which works with renewed enthusiasm to find a new creative direction for comics. Joe moves into Sammy and Rosa's house. Shortly afterwards, Sammy's homosexuality is revealed on public television. This further complicates the attempts of Rosa, Sammy, and Joe to reconstitute a family.
Many events in the novel are based on the lives of actual comic-book creators including Jack Kirby (to whom the book is dedicated in the afterword), Stan Lee, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Joe Simon, Will Eisner, and Jim Steranko. Other historical figures play minor roles, including Salvador Dalí, Al Smith, Orson Welles, and Fredric Wertham. The novel's time span roughly mirrors that of the Golden Age of Comics itself, starting from shortly after the debut of Superman and concluding with the Kefauver Senate hearings, two events often used to demarcate the era.
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Previews available in: English Russian French
Subjects
American Humorous stories, Arte de escribir, Artists, Artists in fiction, Authorship, Bildungsromans, Cartoonists, Checo-americanos, Comic books, strips, Comic books, strips, etc. in fiction, Cuentos humorísticos, Czech Americans, Czech Americans in fiction, Ficción, Fiction, Heroes in mass media, Heroes in mass media in fiction, Humorous stories, Héroes en los medios de comunicación masiva, Jewish youth, Jóvenes (Hombres), Muñequitos, tiras cómicas, Young men, Young men in fiction, gay, Technique, Heroes and heroines, Coming of age, Mass media, Humorous fiction, Fiction, humorous, Authors, fiction, New york (n.y.), fiction, Man-woman relationships, Triangles (Interpersonal relations), American fiction, Fiction, humorous, general, Fiction, coming of age, Héros dans les médias, Romans, nouvelles, Américains d'origine tchèque, Jeunes hommes, Caricaturistes, Fiction, general, Caricatures and cartoonsTimes
1940's and 50'sEdition | Availability |
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01
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2017, HarperCollins Publishers Limited
in English
0008229244 9780008229245
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02
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
Jun 10, 2014, Brilliance Audio
mp3 cd
1491536209 9781491536209
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03
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Aug 20, 2013, Brilliance Audio
audio cd
1480537209 9781480537200
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04
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Aug 20, 2013, Brilliance Audio
audio cd
1480537187 9781480537187
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05
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Feb 18, 2012, Random House Trade Paperbacks
paperback
0812983580 9780812983586
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06
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2012, Random House, Incorporated
in English
129909578X 9781299095786
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07
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: Library Edition
Oct 01, 2012, Brilliance Audio
preloaded digital audio player
146922853X 9781469228532
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08
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2012, HarperCollins Publishers Limited
in English
0007480377 9780007480371
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09
Die unglaublichen Abenteuer von Kavalier & Clay
May 20, 2010, Kiepenheuer & Witsch GmbH
paperback
346204205X 9783462042054
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10
The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay: a novel
2010, Fourth Estate
in English
1841154938 9781841154930
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11 |
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12
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
January 3, 2005, Brilliance Audio on CD Lib Ed
Audio CD
in English
- Abridged Library edition
1597371580 9781597371582
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13
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2005, RB Large Print
in English
1419339591 9781419339592
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14
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
January 3, 2005, Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD
MP3 CD
in English
- Abridged edition
1597371599 9781597371599
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15
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
January 3, 2005, Brilliance Audio on CD
Audio CD
in English
- Abridged edition
1597371572 9781597371575
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16
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The
January 3, 2005, Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD Lib Ed
MP3 CD
in English
- Abridged edition
1597371602 9781597371605
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17
Les extraordianires aventures de Kavalier & Clay
2003, Robert Laffont, 10 X 18
226403873X 9782264038739
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18
Les Extraordinaires aventures de Kavalier & Clay
2003, Robert Laffont
Paperback
in French
222109414X 9782221094143
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19
Die unglaublichen Abenteuer von Kavalier und Clay.
August 1, 2002, Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Hardcover
in German
3462031368 9783462031362
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20
Las asombrosas aventuras de Kavalier y Clay
2002, Mondadori
in Spanish
- 1a ed.
8439708327 9788439708322
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21
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Rgg Pack of 15 (Reading Group Guides)
May 2002, Picador USA
Paperback
in English
0312421494 9780312421496
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22 |
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23 |
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24 |
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25
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
2001, Fourth Estate
Paperback
in English
- printing (3)
1841154938 9781841154930
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26 |
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27 |
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28 |
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29
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2000, HarperCollins Publishers Limited
in English
1841155608 9781841155609
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30
The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay: a novel
2000, Fourth Estate
in English
184115492X 9781841154923
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31 |
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32
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2000, Random House
Hardcover
in English
0679450041 9780679450047
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33
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay: a novel
2000, Random House
in English
- 1st ed.
0312282990 9780312282998
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34 |
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35
Las asombrosas aventuras de Kavalier Y Clay/ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Publisher unknown
Paperback
in Spanish
8497932951 9788497932950
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36 |
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