kavalier and clay

i finished reading the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay yesterday. it is a well-written historical fiction novel in which michael chabon, the author, deals with themes prevalent in his earlier works. loss, sexual identity, and estrangement were corners in the foundation for wonderboys and the mysteries of pittsburgh as well. i had trouble getting through the last section. it read like a horror story to me. the call of duty, routine above freedom is, in my mind, one of the stages of hell. needless to say the story affected me and i consider that to be the mark of a great novel. the writing style is familiar to any chabon reader but, in my opinion, the run on sentences and liberal use of the comma and hyphen detracted from the book, which, i think -- nay i know – was not as good as mysteries. yes, this novel won the pulitzer prize and mysteries is considered a poor-man’s catcher in the rye. but both the sentences themselves and their content are sharper and fresher in the latter. when i win the pulitzer i shall set this straight during my speech.