THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY (Michael Chabon) - January 1/12

Man oh man. This unreasonably overlong and overwritten novel has a few admittedly decent stretches, but for the most part, Chabon bogs it down in frustratingly descriptive flashbacks and the like. The decent middle gives way to an absolutely interminable final 40%, with the stuff involving Joe's exploits during the war especially dull and pointless. I honestly don't understand the praise for this book. It's got strong characters and a few good twists, but it just goes on and on and on. It's like, we get it, Chabon; you're a good writer! Now how about entertaining us instead of yourself? When they refer to self-indulgent works as masturbation they could use this as a dictionary definition. *1/2 out of ****