Chabon, Michael, << SHAY buhn >> (1963-…), is an American author whose fiction is noted for its clever use of language. Chabon has been praised for the way he blends styles, ranging from history and a longing for the past to science fiction, fantasy, and realism. Much of Chabon’s writing reflects his Jewish heritage. Chabon won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000).
Chabon set The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The novel describes the adventures of two Jewish cousins, an American named Sammy Klayman and a Czech named Josef (Joe) Kavalier. Joe fled from Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) to the United States before World War II broke out in 1939. At the time, Czechoslovakia had come under the control of the Nazis. The cousins create a comic book series that features a superhero called The Escapist, with Sammy as the author and Joe as the artist. The series becomes a huge success, but Joe suffers from guilt and grief over the loss of his family in Europe during the war. Joe finally leaves Sammy and joins the Navy.
Chabon’s first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), tells the story of a young man named Art Bechstein. Bechstein has just graduated from college and is preparing to enjoy what he considers “the last summer” of his youth. Chabon followed the novel with a collection of short stories, A Model World (1991). His next novel, Wonder Boys (1995), is a comic story about a writer unable to finish his latest novel. Chabon’s second collection of stories, Werewolves in Their Youth, was published in 1999.
Chabon’s other novels include The Final Solution (2004), which deals with an unidentified old man in the early years of World War II. He may be the famous fictional private detective Sherlock Holmes. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007) is a detective story set among a group of European Jews living in Alaska. In the imagined world of the book, Israel did not succeed as a nation. Instead, Sitka, Alaska, became a temporary Jewish homeland. Gentlemen of the Road (2007) is an adventure tale about a pair of swindlers in Asia about the year 1000. Telegraph Avenue (2012) is set in the Oakland/Berkeley area of northern California and centers on a Black man and his white best friend who are partners in selling used phonograph records. Chabon wrote Moonglow (2016) in the form of a rambling memoir told to the author by his colorful grandfather on the old man’s death bed. The novel is highlighted by many eccentric characters who pass through the grandfather’s life mainly from the end of World War II in 1945 to the present. Chabon also wrote two stories for young readers, Summerland (2002) and The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man (2011).
Chabon was born on May 24, 1963, in Washington, D.C. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 and an M.F.A. degree from the University of California at Irvine in 1987. Chabon’s essays have been collected in Maps and Legends (2008), Manhood for Amateurs (2009), and Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces (2018).
