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A review by bryce_is_a_librarian
Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon
4.0
"Every book is a sequel, influence is bliss."
A passionate collection of work "In defense of entertainment." (mostly). That incisively examines pop culture and the inbred desire to put it down as something to be moved passed. When people complain about Chabon it's often his tendency to bite off a shitload more then he can chew that gets their knives out. Part of the charm of maps and legends is just how slight the essays are. They're not about charting America, mapping the psyche, or symbolism behind Little Lulu. They're content to be good solid pieces of intelligent criticism on everything from the pleasures of Sherlock Holmes and Cormac McCarthy, to the comic's industries abandonment of children and the sad sure decline in quality of Philip Pullman.
Unfortunately Chabon does end the book with some essays about his Jewish heritage and history. This is of course not to suggest that Chabon doesn't have the right to do so. Indeed the strong Jewish identity is what makes much of Chabon's work so unique. It's just that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the essays. Imagine you're reading a cook book, and find that the final third of it is excerpts from Tolstoy. That's very nice and pleasant. But it just doesn't fit. It's like Chabon wanted to give the book an extra seventy five pages and just figured, why the hell not.
Still a this is a very minor quibble, and I have a feeling when I visit those essays separately they'll work much better.
A passionate collection of work "In defense of entertainment." (mostly). That incisively examines pop culture and the inbred desire to put it down as something to be moved passed. When people complain about Chabon it's often his tendency to bite off a shitload more then he can chew that gets their knives out. Part of the charm of maps and legends is just how slight the essays are. They're not about charting America, mapping the psyche, or symbolism behind Little Lulu. They're content to be good solid pieces of intelligent criticism on everything from the pleasures of Sherlock Holmes and Cormac McCarthy, to the comic's industries abandonment of children and the sad sure decline in quality of Philip Pullman.
Unfortunately Chabon does end the book with some essays about his Jewish heritage and history. This is of course not to suggest that Chabon doesn't have the right to do so. Indeed the strong Jewish identity is what makes much of Chabon's work so unique. It's just that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the essays. Imagine you're reading a cook book, and find that the final third of it is excerpts from Tolstoy. That's very nice and pleasant. But it just doesn't fit. It's like Chabon wanted to give the book an extra seventy five pages and just figured, why the hell not.
Still a this is a very minor quibble, and I have a feeling when I visit those essays separately they'll work much better.