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escapegrace's review against another edition
4.0
Reading this collection of essays is like spending time with a smart, charming writer friend whose obsessive tastes don't quite align with mine, but listening to him hold court is a fine way to spend an afternoon.
drewjameson's review against another edition
3.0
A collection of pop-scholarship on (not exactly in defense of) "pop-literature" or genre fiction and writers, including himself, whose work straddles the artificial border between "serious fiction" and "pulp/genre fiction". It's hard to know what to do with these essays. Some resemble personal narratives providing back story into his inspirations for his novels, but without a huge depth of detail or insight, and others resemble scholarly essays sans vital background information or evidence for his arguments. So far, it reads like auto-biographic Cliffnotes to Michael Chabon's own oeuvre.”
erin_boyington's review against another edition
4.0
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon writes about genres, comics, fan fiction, tricksters, writing, maps, and golems in this engaging collection of essays.
I'm a sucker for books about books, books about reading, books about writing. So it's no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of his accessible nonfiction essays. Along the way he stops to argue with the scorn heaped on genre fiction, read some comic books, discuss ghost stories and Sherlock Holmes, and talk about a controversial article on Yiddish that was the germ of his magical realist novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union (see the NYT article for more details).
I especially liked "On Daemons & Dust", where Chabon discusses Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy with great insight (it's a trilogy I have mixed feelings about and was happy to read a thoughtful analysis of - I acknowledge the greatness of its inventions, particularly daemons and the alethiometer, but the third book was venomously anti-Christian and spoiled my enjoyment of the series). I was also drawn in by the final essay "Golems I Have Known, or, Why My Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon" where Chabon mixes truth and fiction and ties the themes of the book together.
One tiny quibble: this is the librarian speaking in me, but I am a little sad there's no index to help me re-find some of the many authors and books he mentions in passing.
Chabon's love of literature shines through clearly, and those who want a good introduction to his work should check out his 2001 Pulitzer novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or his most recent book, Telegraph Avenue. For more great essays on reading and literature, I highly recommend Francis Spufford's The Child That Books Built.
Quotable:
"A mind is not blown, in spite of whatever Hollywood seems to teach, merely by action sequences, things exploding, thrilling planetscapes, wild bursts of speed. Those are all good things; but a mind is blown when something that you always feared but knew to be impossible turns out to be true; when the world turns out to be far vaster, far more marvelous or malevolent than you ever dreamed; when you get proof that everything in connected to everything else, that everything you know is wrong, that you are both the center of the universe and a tiny speck sailing of its nethermost edge." - 94
"The mass synthesis, marketing, and distribution of versions and simulacra of an artificial past, perfected over the last thirty years or so, has ruined the reputation and driven a fatal stake through the heart of nostalgia. Those of us who cannot make it from one end of the street to another without being momentarily upended by some fragment of outmoded typography, curve of chrome fender, or whiff of lavender oil from the pate of a semi-retired neighbor are compelled by the disrepute into which nostalgia has fallen to mourn secretly the passing of a million marvelous quotidian things." - 135
I'm a sucker for books about books, books about reading, books about writing. So it's no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of his accessible nonfiction essays. Along the way he stops to argue with the scorn heaped on genre fiction, read some comic books, discuss ghost stories and Sherlock Holmes, and talk about a controversial article on Yiddish that was the germ of his magical realist novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union (see the NYT article for more details).
I especially liked "On Daemons & Dust", where Chabon discusses Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy with great insight (it's a trilogy I have mixed feelings about and was happy to read a thoughtful analysis of - I acknowledge the greatness of its inventions, particularly daemons and the alethiometer, but the third book was venomously anti-Christian and spoiled my enjoyment of the series). I was also drawn in by the final essay "Golems I Have Known, or, Why My Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon" where Chabon mixes truth and fiction and ties the themes of the book together.
One tiny quibble: this is the librarian speaking in me, but I am a little sad there's no index to help me re-find some of the many authors and books he mentions in passing.
Chabon's love of literature shines through clearly, and those who want a good introduction to his work should check out his 2001 Pulitzer novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or his most recent book, Telegraph Avenue. For more great essays on reading and literature, I highly recommend Francis Spufford's The Child That Books Built.
Quotable:
"A mind is not blown, in spite of whatever Hollywood seems to teach, merely by action sequences, things exploding, thrilling planetscapes, wild bursts of speed. Those are all good things; but a mind is blown when something that you always feared but knew to be impossible turns out to be true; when the world turns out to be far vaster, far more marvelous or malevolent than you ever dreamed; when you get proof that everything in connected to everything else, that everything you know is wrong, that you are both the center of the universe and a tiny speck sailing of its nethermost edge." - 94
"The mass synthesis, marketing, and distribution of versions and simulacra of an artificial past, perfected over the last thirty years or so, has ruined the reputation and driven a fatal stake through the heart of nostalgia. Those of us who cannot make it from one end of the street to another without being momentarily upended by some fragment of outmoded typography, curve of chrome fender, or whiff of lavender oil from the pate of a semi-retired neighbor are compelled by the disrepute into which nostalgia has fallen to mourn secretly the passing of a million marvelous quotidian things." - 135
pearseanderson's review against another edition
4.0
A fine essay collection about the power and role of literature/storytelling. Surprised that it was credited as fiction in the copyright page. I like Chabon's style of writing: argumentative, rich in aesthetic, calming. He rolls with the punches yet commands an academic wind to his work. Can't say I got much out of some of these, but I'm happy, and it was a great $2 find.
survivalisinsufficient's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who generally loves the type of scifi books often disguised as otherwise (even though it pisses me off), this quote was my favorite part of this book:
"For even the finest writer of horror or SF or detective fiction, the bookstore, to paraphrase the LA funk band War, is a ghetto. From time to time some writer, through a canny shift in subject matter or focus, or through the coming to literary power of his or her lifelong fans, or through sheer, undeniable literary chops, manages to break out. New, subtler covers are placed on these writers' books, with elegant serif typefaces. In the public libraries, the little blue circle with the rocket ship or the magnifying glass is withheld from the spine."
"For even the finest writer of horror or SF or detective fiction, the bookstore, to paraphrase the LA funk band War, is a ghetto. From time to time some writer, through a canny shift in subject matter or focus, or through the coming to literary power of his or her lifelong fans, or through sheer, undeniable literary chops, manages to break out. New, subtler covers are placed on these writers' books, with elegant serif typefaces. In the public libraries, the little blue circle with the rocket ship or the magnifying glass is withheld from the spine."
dfolivieri's review against another edition
3.0
At it's best, this book is just so witty you won't want to let it out of your hands. The language is just so freaking witty and fun that you only pause to envy this Chabon guy. But the language also carries weight, telling us about the joys of reading while at the same time giving us those joys of reading. At it's worst, reading this book feels like going to a class where you didn't read the book you were assigned. Even at its worst, though, it's never bad.
I recommend you read some of the essays and skip others. Here is my list of how much I liked them, in descending order:
1) Trickster in a Suit of Lights
2) Ragnarok Boy
3) Maps & Legends
4) My Back Pages
5) Diving into the Wreck
6) Kids' Stuff
7) The Recipe for Life
8) Dark Adventure
9) Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes
10) On Daemons & Dust
11) Golems I have Known
12) Landsman of the Lost
13) The Other James
14) Imaginary Homelands
15) Thoughts on the Death of Will Eisner
16) The Killer Hook
I recommend you read some of the essays and skip others. Here is my list of how much I liked them, in descending order:
1) Trickster in a Suit of Lights
2) Ragnarok Boy
3) Maps & Legends
4) My Back Pages
5) Diving into the Wreck
6) Kids' Stuff
7) The Recipe for Life
8) Dark Adventure
9) Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes
10) On Daemons & Dust
11) Golems I have Known
12) Landsman of the Lost
13) The Other James
14) Imaginary Homelands
15) Thoughts on the Death of Will Eisner
16) The Killer Hook
shnuggs's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. Chabon and I share many of the same preoccupations. I even purchased the D'Aulaire book after reading this. Plus the book jacket is so charming!
nikkivrc's review against another edition
2.0
I have to admit it was a bit of a chore reading this book. If this had been a novel I would have given up on it long ago, but I kept reading because I kept hoping that other essays further in the book would interest me. Sadly, this didn't happen. I'm not saying this is a bad book or a badly written one, it's just that literally none of the essay topics interested me in the slightest. I don't like short stories, science fiction, His Dark Materials or Cormac McCarthy. I am not interested in Judaism or what it's like to be a writer. I also like a good dose of humor in my essays, but sadly I couldn't detect any here.