Review by New York Times Review
MICHAEL CHABON'S first collection of nonfiction commences as an argument for inclusion, promoting horror stories, comic art, fantasy and science fiction. Devotees of the comic book innovator Will Eisner and the fantasist Philip Pullman will find sustenance here. The uninitiated will be introduced to M. R. James, the writer of "one of the finest short stories ever written" and, like the far more famous author whose surname he shares, a master of the psychologically rigorous ghost story. As Chabon combs through his obsessions and affinities in what he sometimes calls the borderlands, "the boundary lines, the margins, the secret shelves between the sections in the bookstore" where literature rubs up against genre, he takes a swipe or two at the shibboleths of high culture. An appreciation of Arthur Conan Doyle leads Chabon to alter Harold Bloom's notion of the "anxiety of influence" into the slogan "influence is bliss." The critic's darling Walter Benjamin is shunted aside for Lewis Hyde, whose "Trickster Makes This World" occupies a central place in Chabon's critical pantheon. Chabon's sharp, expansive reading of Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" places the work squarely in the post-apocalyptic science fiction tradition. This essay opens with an evocation of Charlton Heston happening upon the Statue of Liberty in the movie "Planet of the Apes," underscoring with fond humor Chabon's point that pop culture and literature are not mutually exclusive. Chabon is a careful guide to his favored artistic outposts, maintaining reassuring ties to more proximate lands. Howard Chaykin, the influential author of the comic book "American Flagg!," draws comparison to Paul Simon and Orson Welles. Ben Katchor's comic serial "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer" receives the kind of explication typically reserved for conventional literature: "His polished, terse and versatile prose, capable, in a single sentence strung expertly from a rhythmic frame of captions, of running from graceful elegy to police-blotter declarative to Catskill belly rumble, lays down the barebones elements, the newspaper-lead essentials of his story." Even "D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths," a Chabon childhood favorite, receives a brief, loving tribute. Its fanciful illustrations put Chabon in mind of "Pre-Raphaelite friezes as cartooned by Popeye's creator." As readers of Chabon's fiction might expect, the essays come complete with well-turned, pithy phrases. Pullman has "a deep, pulpy fondness for plot." Pop perfection is defined as "heartbreaking beauty that moves units." The autobiographical essays that close the collection bring the author's curious and disparate tastes to bear on his own works. Taking us in more or less chronological order through the geneses of his novels, these essays illuminate the mental and physical landscapes out of which Chabon's increasingly impressive fictions emerge. Thus in "My Back Pages" we learn that he began writing his first novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," at a desk he could reach only by balancing a folding chair on top of a steamer trunk. "The Recipe for Life" pays tribute to the Jewish scholar Gershom Scholem, whose essay "The Idea of the Golem" helped with Chabon's conception of "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay." And the wide-ranging "Imaginary Homelands," turning on a controversy surrounding a magazine article Chabon wrote about the phrase book "Say It in Yiddish," unearths the root materials out of which his immensely entertaining recent novel "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" sprang. And entertainment, as Chabon argues in this collection's opening essay, is what literary art all boils down to. As in all his books, there's plenty of it to be had in "Maps and Legends." Mark Kamine has written for The Times Literary Supplement and other publications.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
Chabon declares, I read for entertainment, and I write to entertain. Period. But of course there's much more to his vivid and mischievous literary manifesto in 16 parts than that. A writer of prodigious literary gifts, Chabon brings the velocity, verve, and emotional richness intrinsic to the best of short stories to his exceptionally canny and stirring essays. Musing over the various literary traditions he riffs on in his many-faceted novels, he concludes, All novels are sequels; influence is bliss. Chabon zestfully praises the many allures of genre fiction and celebrates writers, among them Vonnegut and Byatt, who infuse their fiction with the Trickster spirit of genre-bending and stylistic play. He offers a fresh and affecting take on Arthur Conan Doyle and pays witty and provocative tribute to M. R. James, a seemingly serene British author of superb horror and ghost stories. Norse myths, Will Eisner, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and Cormac McCarthy's The Road are all are interpreted with acuity and vigor. And then there are Chabon's hilarious and puckish personal essays about his early writing misadventures and evolving sense of Jewishness. A writer so versatile he seems to be a master of disguises, Chabon provides invaluable keys to his frolicsome creativity and literary chutzpah in this truly entertaining collection.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
You would hardly think, reading Chabon's new book of essays, that he won the Pulitzer Prize for a book about comics. Rather, he is bitter and defensive about his love for genre fiction such as mysteries and comic books. Serious writers, he says, cannot venture into these genres without losing credibility. "No self-respecting literary genius... would ever describe him- or herself as primarily an `entertainer,' " Chabon writes. "An entertainer is a man in a sequined dinner jacket, singing `She's a Lady' to a hall filled with women rubber-banding their underwear up onto the stage." Chabon devotes most of the essays to examining specific genres that he admires, from M.R. James's ghost stories to Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic work, The Road. The remaining handful of essays are more memoir-focused, with Chabon explaining how he came to write many of his books. Chabon casts himself as one of the few brave souls willing to face ridicule-from whom isn't entirely clear, though it seems to be academics-to write as he wishes. "I write from the place I live: in exile," he says. It's hard to imagine the audience for this book. Chabon seems to want to debate English professors, but surely only his fellow comic-book lovers will be interested in his tirade. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In his first work of nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) tells readers of some of the books that have helped shape his writing career. Among his loves: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and various comic strips and ghost stories. Chabon argues that there's a place for both high and low art in literature and that what really makes a reader is a love for the story. Chabon's 16 essays are seemingly organized from the least personal ("Trickster in a Suit of Lights, Thoughts on the Modern Short Story") to the most personal ("Golems I Have Known; Or, Why My Elder Son's Middle Name Is Napoleon") and argue the merits of reading, writing, and storytelling, breaking down the barriers between so-called genre writing and "serious" literature. Affectionate and funny; a welcome and necessary addition to all collections.-Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
