Maps and Legends
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- € 6,99
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- € 6,99
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A collection of essays on books and why they matter by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY and WONDER BOYS.
MAPS AND LEGENDS is a love song in sixteen parts – a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around ‘serious’ literature in favour of a wide-ranging affection. His own fiction, meanwhile, is explored from the perspective of personal history: post-collegiate desperation sparks his debut, THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH; procrastination and doubt reveal the way towards WONDER BOYS; a love of comics and a basement golem combine to create the Pulitzer Prize-winning THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY; and an enigmatic Yiddish phrasebook unfurls into THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION.
Reviews
Praise for Michael Chabon:
‘Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer.' Washington Post
‘The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabon’s writing is matched by dazzling wit.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘His talent is undisputable. Chabon’s novels are warm, witty, a little whimsical, always beautifully written. He is that rare and precious beast: a literary writer with crossover appeal…’GQ
‘Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words…Chabon's ornate prose makes (Raymond) Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plain…He writes like a dream’ Guardian
'He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer.' Philip Hensher, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’
About the author
Michael Chabon is the author of two collections of short stories, ‘A Model World’ and ‘Werewolves in their Youth’, the novels ‘The Mysteries of Pittsburgh’, ‘Wonder Boys’, ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’, ‘The Yiddish Policemen’s Union’ and ‘Telegraph Avenue’, and the non-fiction books ‘Maps and Legends and Manhood for Amateurs’. ‘Wonder Boys’ has been made into a film starring Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. and ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’ won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and their four children.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
You would hardly think, reading Chabon's new book of essays, that he won the Pulitzer Prize for a book about comics. Rather, he is bitter and defensive about his love for genre fiction such as mysteries and comic books. Serious writers, he says, cannot venture into these genres without losing credibility. "No self-respecting literary genius... would ever describe him- or herself as primarily an 'entertainer,' " Chabon writes. "An entertainer is a man in a sequined dinner jacket, singing 'She's a Lady' to a hall filled with women rubber-banding their underwear up onto the stage." Chabon devotes most of the essays to examining specific genres that he admires, from M.R. James's ghost stories to Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic work, The Road. The remaining handful of essays are more memoir-focused, with Chabon explaining how he came to write many of his books. Chabon casts himself as one of the few brave souls willing to face ridicule from whom isn't entirely clear, though it seems to be academics to write as he wishes. "I write from the place I live: in exile," he says. It's hard to imagine the audience for this book. Chabon seems to want to debate English professors, but surely only his fellow comic-book lovers will be interested in his tirade.
