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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2002)
5, 2002 26 T he A m azing A dventures K avalier and C lay by Michael Chabon. Picador U SA , 2000; $15 softcover. M arcel P roust by Edmund White. Viking Penguin, 1999; $19.95 hardcover. of ichael Chabon, author of The Wonder Boys, took home a Pulitzer for his lat est, which traces the lives, loves, fears and dreams of two titular Jewish cousins, immigrant Josef Kavalier and Brix)k- lynite Sammy Clay, as they make it big creating comic bcx>ks during the medium’s golden age (roughly from the end of the Depression through the end of World War 11). Like Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, this novel is profound, epic and rich with true, relevant, stirring themes. Its authors evident love of language doesn’t prevent it from being that rarity— literary, serious and an exciting, funny page-turner. Also, like Franzen, Chabon pulls off the con siderable feat of depicting a gay lead character in a tender yet wholly realistic light. His treatment of Sammy’s homosexu ality is exemplary in that the (straight) author is clearly well informed and enlight ened on the subject while avoiding defining this endearing and high ly original character by his orientation. Kavalier and Clay is now available in a portable, beach- and air- plane-friendly trade paper back edition. — Christopher M cQuain c 7 % e m e t k er tine a take th i or ?ome a lon g v ju ? t C ) ut to ut hook stam p y H m / h e a d in g qou r e m ou n tain ? d of e the / heach, han w ith approva " ■>' - v i ¿ A.novti by t s * * m rt tom» ****** i¿ .V A > «***r r*’v> «i ^ » V r? « ■ .... ^ w . 1^. ». -* r..— ^ illation, Didion pushes P lay I t as I t L ays pill by Joan Didion. Noonday popping, booze- Press reprint edition, guzzling, bed-hopping, anything- 1990; $13 softcover. goes Hollywood ennui to the point of brutally gorgeous existential clarity. ritics tend to rag Play It as It Lays relates the down on this fine, ward spiral of an actress named Maria, addictive 1970 her estranged husband, her lovers and novel, seemingly because her only real friend, a married bisexual it’s an “unliterary" story called BZ who, despite his expertly jaded by a “literary" writer. It’s front, is less capable than the protago A Pulitzer Prize winner and basically Valley of the nist of handling the wearying emotional adorable to boot: Michael Dolls, except instead of endurance test that is their weightless, going for exploitative tit- Chabon should have been gay pointlessly privileged showbiz existence. Casual Elegance For Dess Listener Negotiator Educator Homeowner h \ \ I jasmine@bndgetownrealty com f . O ut professionals unfC arrange your delivery /.</') l . / i /tfg 1 )ocs l l j p p c n 5 0 3 /8 1 7 .0 0 7 2 | Ua wim CWJ ey&tsides jtoAÀ&b a sm in e B ^ jS r ^ WN d i t i 1 IT v i Hi BZ and Maria are like Ingmar Bergman’s Southern Cal ver sion of Will and Grace; they’re kindred spirits and central characters because they’re the only ones who’ve had to learn what “nothing” means. The author’s style is so perfectly anti-psycho- logical— thoroughly and willfully uncluttered by distracting analyses— that by the time you’ve made it to the defiant release of tension on the last page, you may actually crave a value judg ment. Didion doesn’t patronize her characters or us with that, but she does offer us Maria’s choice, and she’s arranged it beautifully, so that it feels like a fairy-tale ending for fatalists. -C M Miss. J a s m i n e R u th d o tter Associate Broker illi arcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, the gargantuan novel published between 1917 and 1927, was widely considered throughout the second half of the past century as the greatest novel of its time. Form-shattering and avant-garde, it neverthe less retains the ageless qualities of beauty and meaning that endear a work of art to the public. Indeed, Proust has been so constantly and reverentially discussed that, though few have actually read all of Remembrance’s seven vol umes (comprising upward of 4,000 pages), the term “Proustian" is widely used to refer to his overarching theme of involuntary recall— the concept that the slightest stimulation of the senses can trigger the most deeply buried memories. Marcel Proust, a diminutive biography by Edmund White, is dwarfed by comparison to Proust’s signature work. However, the celebrated gay writer makes the most of every word, smoothly and evenly covering the novel ist’s short, eventful life in a manner both succinct and thor ough. White approach es Proust with the skill of an experienced sur geon— making the smallest, most precise incisions for minimal excess and maximum impact. Revealed are Proust’s decidedly bourgeois child hood; an adolescence spent attending France’s most exclusive schools; the discovery and development of his literary gifts; his wasted young adult days as an intermittent writer and full-time playboy with a sycophantic, social-climbing streak; his constantly denied but freely practiced homosexuality; and, finally, the grueling and thankless task of writing his master piece. White also makes brief, tantalizing men tions of Proust’s meetings with other famous gay culture heroes—Oscar Wilde and Jean Cocteau. Proust’s poor health and ambivalence Don Duncan ow ner M Teleflora (503) 642-9992 1-800-356-1884 Aloha M arket Centre 2 0 4 5 5 SW TV Highway www. westsideflori st. net 602 SE 38th Ave. Portland, OR 97214 503.231.39zz Wed - Sat P R U L M IT C H E L L
