Critical Essay | Critical Review by Michael Dirda

Critical Review by Michael Dirda

SOURCE: A review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, in Washington Post Book World, September 17, 2000, p. 15.

In the following review, Dirda offers a positive assessment of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

Just how amazing [is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay], you ask? Well, consider: A teenager named Joseph Kavalier escapes from Nazi-occupied Prague by hiding in a sealed coffin that also contains the legendary Jewish monster, the Golem. Yet another young man, gimpy-legged Tom Mayflower, discovers that he has been chosen by the mystic League of the Golden Key to become the scourge of injustice and savior of the oppressed, none other than the blue-suited superhero the Escapist. About the same time, a bespectacled librarian, Miss Judy Dark, “Under Assistant Cataloguer of Decommissioned Volumes,” finds herself unexpectedly metamorphosed (electric wire, ancient artifact) into, yes, that darkly radiant Mistress of the Night,...
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