Books by author: Michael Chabon

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is worthy of the critical praise it has received. This was my first exposure to Chabon's deft writing, and in my opinion, this novel places him in the front ranks of contemporary literary fiction writers. His prose is not as clever as Richard Powers's, but his story is less convoluted. One need not be a fan of comic books to appreciate this wonderful tale — it stands on its own as outstanding work of modern fiction.

The premise of this collection is interesting: gather a bunch of good writers, both mainstream and not, and have them put aside their literary pretensions and write ripping good yarns. If only it lived up to that promise.

I didn't finish reading this collection so much as I gave up on it. I read all but three of the pieces in their entirety, but I couldn't be bothered reading more than ten pages of the Eggers, Moody, and Chabon stories. If you are going to write a short story, make sure that you've engaged the reader within the first few pages. I'm sometimes willing to give a novel 100-150 pages to grab hold, but short works have to have something going for them right from the beginning. (To be fair, Moody's entry grabbed hold at the start, but started dragging its heels after a few pages.)

Some of the shorter pieces in this collection are pretty good. I particularly liked Glen David Gold's contribution (and I heartily recommend his novel Carter Beats the Devil).

I also want to mention the aesthetics of the book itself. It's pretty much the standard trade paperback size, but for some unknown reason, the publisher/editor decided to print two narrow columns on each page, making the text nearly unreadable. Also, there are missing words and misprints in almost every story.

Bottom line: steer clear.