I returned a couple days ago from a little trip to Miami, and between a few plane rides, airport delays (which seem almost inevitable these days, but I still feel JetBlue owes me something), and leisurely vacation reading time, I am on page 473. Rather trying to condense my thoughts to this point, or trying to remember back for piece mail posts, my plan is to respond to your posts as they come along.
Ryan, thank you for illuminating the rebirth motif that continually surfaces with escapes, magic acts, Houdini, and its relation to personal rebirths and large-scale rebirths. It is certainly interesting to think about and keep in our minds as we continue on. I wonder if the Escapist undergoes a rebirth, and if so, how is it significant?
As for the Golem, I too did a little research but turned up nothing more than you. It seems this figure was sculpted from river mud, became animate for a time and helped the Jews of Prague, and now is inanimate again. Perhaps this will play into the rebirth motif.
I am certainly enjoying the book. At times, I have found it a little slow, but then I ask myself how slow could it really be for me to plow through 500 pages in a few days? Chabon’s style is detailed and expansive, but (unlike McCarthy) I never find myself at the end of a paragraph wondering what was just said or why.
It goes without saying that the subject matter of a book will probably go a long way toward deciding whether you like it or not, regardless of the quality of the writing. For instance, anglers are much more likely than non-anglers to find Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea a remarkable and exciting book (the non-anglers are foolish and wrong, but that is not the point). Jake and I may like a novel because the characters are fly fisherman, even if the writing is not fantastic. The Brothers K by David James Duncan will absolutely blow the mind of a baseball fan, whereas other just may regard it more casually.
If you are comic book fan, and especially if you are a true connoisseur, I would guess that you would enjoy this novel about as much as it is possible for somebody to enjoy a book. As I mentioned in the introduction, I am not a comic book aficionado, but Chabon's descriptions of their history and their development are very interesting. While I still do not anticipate getting into comic books after I finish this book, in my eyes Chabon has validated them as an art form.
Until Next Time-
Matt
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