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Justin is Currently Reading

Justin is currently reading

American Pastoral (The American Trilogy, #1)

by Philip Roth

bookshelves: pulitzer-prize-for-fiction-winners, currently-reading

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(page 232 of 423)
— 12 hours, 12 min ago

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Justin is currently reading

Summerland

by Michael Chabon

bookshelves: audiobooked, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in September 2017

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Justin said: " I picked this book up ages ago at a used bookstore because I had just finished Michael Chabon's (a.k.a. The Word God) magnum opus ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay") and loved it.

It was sometime later that I discovered it was a YA novel, I picked this book up ages ago at a used bookstore because I had just finished Michael Chabon's (a.k.a. The Word God) magnum opus ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay") and loved it.

It was sometime later that I discovered it was a YA novel, which tickled my interest ever so much. So I decided to pick it up and give it a go.

The fact that it is categorized as a YA novel is important here. Chabon (as mentioned earlier) is a wordsmith; all of his works require a dictionary near by. While he uses words masterfully, it doesn't translate the best here. There were times that he tried to overcompensate and used words that were too "dumbed down" for the readers or over used certain words (lurched and spiky are two such examples). This also bred for dead metaphors and silly similes.

Despite all of that, he follows the blueprint of a YA fantasy novel: the preteen boy and girl best friends who don't realize they are in love yet; single parent family; abusive alcoholic father; a ragtag team of misfits and outcasts; supernatural scenery; angst.

But he uses some interesting twists here. For one, the adventure itself lends itself from both Native American lore (coyote-as-Satan) and American folklore (Sasquatch; the meeting of Paul Bunyan and John Henry). He also uses baseball, America's past time, as the catalystic equalizer.

As far as an adventure "novel" goes, however, he tends to do what Chabon does best...over plots. This book is simply too long and there were passages that went overlong. And though he treats all of his characters with pristine sacredness, there were simply too many characters. This book lends itself to at least two separate books, if not three. I did keep wanting to hear more and more about certain characters (Taffy; Cinquefoil) but each one has a back story that begs to be told. My guess is that Chabon is not really interested in universe building, but I would love to see it in some form.

If you are looking for a quick read, this is not the book for you (this is not the author for you). But, if you want to be swept away in a YA adventure story, pick this up; because he does take such delicate care of his characters it is worth it. ...more "

progress:

(page 272 of 512)
— Aug 11, 2026 09:59PM

Aug 06, 2026 10:20PM · see review