His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America – the comic book. Joe Kavalier, a young Jewish artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay And now I’m working on my magnum opus, which is (if you recall), a potentially ill-fated combination of Star Wars, Hitchhiker’s Guide, Hamlet, and Paradise Lost.ġ. I realized that my particular style was better for that than YA or adult fiction or anything else. However, as I read more of his work, the more I began to realize that it was his specific style that I loved–and that I should write to my strengths and my own specific style, which led me to write the novel that I am currently querying to agents, a middle-grade fantasy novel. I desperately wished, as a writer since I was eight (I recently was told by a friend that a writer is just someone who writes, so I should take the bull by the horns and take myself seriously) and a writer of novels since I was thirteen, that I could write like he did. He cut right to the heart of the human experience. He managed to evoke everything I wanted to evoke. When I began to read Chabon books at an unprecedented speed (first The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, then Wonder Boys, then Telegraph Avenue, then…), I was envious of his style. I’ve read nine of these, but honestly, the sooner I read the rest, the better. To date, Chabon has produced nine novels, two short fiction collections, one children’s book, five comics, and six nonfiction works. When his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was published in 1988, it became a bestseller, and thus his career took off.

He’s got four kids, a laundry list of notable awards, and immeasurable wit. So today, in the spirit of my appreciation for the talent that Chabon brings to this world, I’ll be ranking his books.īorn in 1963 in the one and only Washington, D.C., Chabon now makes his residency in Berekeley, California. Two years ago I read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and since then, I’ve been hooked. Never once have his books failed me, and never before have I wanted to read one person’s writing forever. Now, there are other authors I admire greatly (Daniel Kraus, Rainbow Rowell, Robyn Schneider), but there are none who have quite so managed to grasp my imagination or hold it quite as tight. If you’ve been on this blog for ten minutes or so, then there’s something you’ve probably cottoned onto: I love Michael Chabon.

Michael chabon grandfather