SOURCE: Cryer, Dan. “Bittersweet and Savory Stories of Love and Loss.” Newsday (8 April 1991): B46.

In the following review, Cryer calls Chabon a gifted young writer, and applauds his fresh style, lyrical use of language, unexpected plot twists, and sense of humor in A Model World.

Michael Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was one of the literary delectations of 1988 and offered a number of surprises. A charming coming-of-age tale, the book held up heterosexual and homosexual love as worthy equals. Emerging from a university writing program, it eschewed the fashionable minimalism of the young. And, I swear, the novel really did invest Pittsburgh, that gray workhorse of cities, with an aura of the fabulous. Most significant, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh signaled the emergence of a powerfully gifted young writer, enthralling in his ability to turn language into song. Scott Fitzgerald, with good reason, was the name on...