Part 1 (1/2)
The A Adventures of Kavalier Clay
by Michael Chabon
PART I
The ESCAPE ARTIST
1
IN later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sareatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini ”Tocrate, they were one and the saouleme or to the editor of The Comics Journal The Comics Journal ”You weren't the same person when you caic act, you know, back when he was just getting started It was called 'Metamorphosis' It was never just a question of escape It was also a question of ”You weren't the same person when you caic act, you know, back when he was just getting started It was called 'Metamorphosis' It was never just a question of escape It was also a question of transformation” transformation” The truth was that, as a kid, Sammy had only a casual interest, at best, in Harry Houdini and his legendary feats; his great heroes were Nikola Tesla, Louis Pasteur, and Jack London Yet his account of his role-of the role of his own iination-in the Escapist's birth, like all of his best fabulations, rang true His dreams The truth was that, as a kid, Sammy had only a casual interest, at best, in Harry Houdini and his legendary feats; his great heroes were Nikola Tesla, Louis Pasteur, and Jack London Yet his account of his role-of the role of his own iination-in the Escapist's birth, like all of his best fabulations, rang true His dreams had had always been Houdiniesque: they were the drea in its blind cocoon, ht and air always been Houdiniesque: they were the drea in its blind cocoon, ht and air
Houdini was a hero to little men, city boys, and Jews; Samuel Louis Klayan: bigmouthed, perhaps not quite as quick on his feet as he liked to i to be, like many optimists, a little excitable He was not, in any conventional way, handsoe, chin pointed, with pouting lips and a blunt, quarrelsome nose He slouched, and wore clothes badly: he always looked as though he had just been ju with the hairless cheek of innocence itself, but by noon a clean shave was no more than a memory, a hoboish penuh He thought of hily, but this was because he had never seen his face in repose He had delivered the Eagle Eagle for most of 1931 in order to afford a set of duht years until his ar; polio had left his of a delicate boy He stood, in his socks, five feet five inches tall Like all of his friends, he considered it a compliment when somebody called him a wiseass He possessed an incorrect but fervent understanding of the workings of television, atoravity, and harbored the a his days on the warm sunny beaches of the Great Polar Ocean of Venus An o streak, cozy with Stevenson, London, and Wells, dutiful about Wolfe, Dreiser, and Dos Passos, idolatrous of S J Pereluilty appetite In his case the covert passion-one of theosies of blood and wonder, the pulps He had tracked down and read every biweekly issue of for most of 1931 in order to afford a set of duht years until his ar; polio had left his of a delicate boy He stood, in his socks, five feet five inches tall Like all of his friends, he considered it a compliment when somebody called him a wiseass He possessed an incorrect but fervent understanding of the workings of television, atoravity, and harbored the a his days on the warm sunny beaches of the Great Polar Ocean of Venus An o streak, cozy with Stevenson, London, and Wells, dutiful about Wolfe, Dreiser, and Dos Passos, idolatrous of S J Pereluilty appetite In his case the covert passion-one of theosies of blood and wonder, the pulps He had tracked down and read every biweekly issue of The Shadow The Shadow going back to 1933, and he ell on his way to a back to 1933, and he ell on his way to aer and and Doc Savage Doc Savage
The long run of Kavalier Clay-and the true history of the Escapist's birth-began in 1939, toward the end of October, on the night that Sa and iron knuckles of her left hand to the side of his cranium, and told him to ue Saes of his jaw In the livid light of the fluorescent tube over the kitchen sink, he e, sluainst the door frame, a disheveled pile of newspapers pinned under one arm, the other thrown as if in sha Sammy a helpful shove toward the wall, was Josef Kavalier, her brother Eht on a Greyhound bus, all the way from San Francisco
”What's the matter with him?” Sammy said He slid over until his shoulders touched cold plaster He was careful to take both of the pilloith him ”Is he sick?”
”What do you think?” said hisnow at the vacated expanse of bedsheet, as if to scatter any offending particles of hiht have left behind She had just coraveyard rotation at Bellevue, where she worked as a psychiatric nurse The stale breath of the hospital was on her, but the open throat of her uniforave off a faint whiff of the lavender water in which she bathed her tiny frary ss ”He can barely stand on his oo feet”
Saet a better look at poor Josef Kavalier in his baggy tweed suit He had known, dimly, that he had Czech cousins But histo visit, let alone to share Sammy's bed He wasn't sure just how San Francisco fitted into the story
”There you are,” his ain, apparently satisfied at having driven Sammy onto the easternmost five inches of the mattress She turned to Josef Kavalier ”Corabbed hold of his ears as if taking a jug by the handles, and crushed each of his cheeks in turn with her lips ”You ht,” said her nephew He did not sound convinced
She handed him a washcloth and went out As soon as she left, Sammy reclaimed a few precious inches ofat his mauled cheeks After a ht in the kitchen, and they were left in darkness Sammy heard his cousin take a deep breath and slowly let it out The stack of newsprint rattled and then hit the floor with a heavy thud of defeat His jacket buttons clicked against the back of a chair; his trousers rustled as he stepped out of them; he let fall one shoe, then the other His wristwatch chihtstand Then he and a gust of chilly air got in under the covers, bearing with the sweet and soic that Sammy presently identified as the sot of his mother's ”special” meatloaf-prunes were only a small part of what made it so very special-which he had seen her wrap like a parcel in a sheet of wax paper and set on a plate in the Frigidaire So she had known that her nepheould be arriving tonight, had even been expecting hi about it to Saainst the mattress, cleared his throat once, tucked his ared, stopped eted nor even so htstand ticked loudly Josef's breathing thickened and slowed Sa if anyone could possibly fall asleep with such abandon when his cousin spoke
”As soon as I can fetch so, and leave the bed,” he said His accent was vaguely German, furroith an odd Scots pleat
”That would be nice,” Salish”
”Thank you”
”Where'd you learn it?”
”I prefer not to say”
”It's a secret?”
”It is a personalin California?” said Sammy ”Or is that confidential infor over from japan”
”japan!” Saone farther on his soda-straw legs than Buffalo, never undertaken any crossing reen ribbon that separated Brooklyn from ManhattanIsland In that narrow bed, in that bedroom hardly wider than the bed itself, at the back of an apart on Ocean Avenue, with his grand trolley, Saht and transformation and escape He drea himself into a major American novelist, or a famous smart person, like Clifton Fadih practice and sheer force of will, the ive him a preternatural control over the hearts and minds of men In his desk drawer lay - and had lain for soraphical novel to be entitled either (in the Perelh Abe Glass, Darkly or (in the Dreiserian) or (in the Dreiserian) American Disillusionment American Disillusionnorant) He had devoted an e number of hours of mute concentration-brow furrowed, breath held-to the development of his brain's latent powers of telepathy and mind control And he had thrilled to that (a subject of which he was still by and large ignorant) He had devoted an e number of hours of mute concentration-brow furrowed, breath held-to the development of his brain's latent powers of telepathy and mind control And he had thrilled to that Iliad Iliad of medical heroics, of medical heroics, The Microbe Hunters, The Microbe Hunters, ten times at least But like most natives of Brooklyn, Saeneral his escape plans centered around the attainment of fabulous sums of money ten times at least But like most natives of Brooklyn, Saeneral his escape plans centered around the attaine of six, he had sold seeds, candy bars, houseplants, cleaning fluids, azine subscriptions, unbreakable combs, and shoelaces door-to-door In a Zharkov's laboratory on the kitchen table, he had invented almost functional button-reattachers, tandem bottle openers, and heatless clothes irons In more recent years, Sammy's commercial attention had been arrested by the field of professional illustration The great commercial illustrators and cartoonists- Rockwell, Leyendecker, Rayeneral i board, abut alter the very texture and tone of the national mood In Sammy's closet were stacked dozens of pads of coarse newsprint, filled with horses, Indians, football heroes, sentient apes, Fokkers, nyrizzlies, studies of the folds in wohts in hurasp of perspective was tenuous, his knowledge of human anato thief He clipped favorite pages and panels out of newspapers and comic books and pasted them into a fat notebook: a thousand different exemplary poses and styles He hada counterfeit Terry and the Pirates Terry and the Pirates strip called strip called South China Sea, South China Sea, drawn in faithful ireat Caniff He had knocked off Ray he called drawn in faithful ireat Caniff He had knocked off Ray he called Pimpernel of the Planets Pimpernel of the Planets and Chester Gould in a lockjawed G-man strip called and Chester Gould in a lockjawed G-man strip called Knuckle Duster Doyle Knuckle Duster Doyle He had tried swiping froe Herriar He kept his sample strips in a fat cardboard portfolio under his bed, waiting for an opportunity, for his arth and Lee Falk, froar He kept his sample strips in a fat cardboard portfolio under his bed, waiting for an opportunity, for his ain, reeling at the exotic Caniffian perfuain, reeling at the exotic Caniffian perfu there?” there?”
”Mostly I was suffering from the intestinal complaint,” Josef Kavalier said ”And I suffer still Particular in the night”
Sammy pondered this information for a moment, then moved a little nearer to the wall
”Tell me, Samuel,” Josef Kavalier said ”How many examples must I have in my portfolio?”
”Not Samuel Sammy No, call me Sam”
”Sam”
”What portfolio is that?”
”My portfolio of drawings To show your eated to leave behind all of ue, but I can very quickly do ood”
”To showin his own confusion the persistent trace of hisabout?”
”Your et a job in the company where you work I aain Sammy envied his cousin This was a statement he hi his fraudulent gaze to his shoe tops ”My mother told you I was an artist?”
”A commercial artist, yes For the Empire Novelties Incorporated Company”
For an instant Sammy cupped the tiny flame this secondhand compliment lit within hih her hat,” he said
”Sorry?”
”She was full of it”
”Full of?”
”I'm an inventory clerk Sometimes they let me do pasteup for an ad Or when they add a new iteet to do the illustration For that, they pay me two dollars per”
”Ah” Josef Kavalier let out another long breath He still had not moved a muscle Sammy couldn't decide if this apparent utter motionlessness was the product of unbearable tension or a marvelous calm ”She wrote a letter to ns of superb new inventions and devices”