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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
3.0
My local library does not take reserves on new books; you have to be there when they open on the day a book is released to get it. So I was there at opening itching to grab "Telegraph Avenue," which I was really looking forward to. I got it! Rushed home and sat down to indulge.
But I gave up. Too geeky by half. Trading cards, blacksploitation or however you spell it cinema, jazz, baseball, I sank under the minutiae of it all. Another reviewer astutely noted that sentence by sentence, "Telegraph Avenue" is great and I agree; it's just when you put all the sentences together that the novel becomes a huge slog.
I did enjoy "Kavalier & Clay" which suffered from some of the same strange stuffing of stuff, but then it seemed fresh. I remember nothing about "The Yiddish Policemen" except the basic concept. This is a very talented writer who reviewers love but readers are starting to find a snore. You can turn this around, Michael. There must be a way for your style to engage readers without flattening them under endless detail. Come on, you can do it.
But I gave up. Too geeky by half. Trading cards, blacksploitation or however you spell it cinema, jazz, baseball, I sank under the minutiae of it all. Another reviewer astutely noted that sentence by sentence, "Telegraph Avenue" is great and I agree; it's just when you put all the sentences together that the novel becomes a huge slog.
I did enjoy "Kavalier & Clay" which suffered from some of the same strange stuffing of stuff, but then it seemed fresh. I remember nothing about "The Yiddish Policemen" except the basic concept. This is a very talented writer who reviewers love but readers are starting to find a snore. You can turn this around, Michael. There must be a way for your style to engage readers without flattening them under endless detail. Come on, you can do it.