SOURCE: A review of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, in World & I, Vol. 16, No. 2, February, 2001, p. 213.

In the following review, Deignan provides an overview of Chabon's literary career up to the publication of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

The greatest difference between Michael Chabon's latest novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and his previous two is the book's grand scope. His first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988)—seen largely as a somewhat flawed yet undeniably impressive debut—was a coming-of-age tale, told over the course of one summer. Chabon's second novel, Wonder Boys (made into a much-acclaimed movie starring Michael Douglas and directed by L.A. Confidential's Curtis Hanson), told the story of a shaggy, aging professor whose once-promising literary career is mired in yet another bad marriage, an unexpected pregnancy, too much pot, and a behemoth, unfinishable novel.

Wonder Boys (1995) is set over...