A review by alisonjfields
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

3.0

So I tend to quietly revise opinions when I revise opinions, but this book really fell apart for me upon reflection. A couple of times I've overestimated a thing on initial wave and though this is not the worst case (that would be my first impression of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom," which I have since come to near-despise) my early feelings about "Telegraph Avenue" stood in rather stark contrast to the widely held notion that this book was a travesty of some kind. It wasn't, in my opinion. Even now I don't think it was as horrible as its reputation. Moments are rapturously written and richly imagined. There are the bones of something ambitious amid the clutter and kitsch. But great? No. not at all.