An exercise in contextual understanding and historical serendipity

I'm reading a new book, titled "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", by Michael Chabon. I've had this book recommended to me multiple times over the past two years, and it's proving to be an excellent read. Very exciting, very interesting, very well-written. It is also an intellectual lesson.

Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, when I read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", by Joyce, I went through an experience that happens sometimes when one reads a well-written, but complex, book. I found myself barely hanging on, as it were. I was almost unable to keep track of the flow of the story, almost unable to stay with the narrative. I had to consciously remind myself of where I was in the story, who was speaking, and...well, basically what was going on at all times. Now, I don't think there is anything wrong with that, so to speak. I find a challenge to be invigorating. However, "Kavalier and Clay" is an entirely different kind of challenge.

Chabon has got to possess the most expansive vocabulary of any author I've yet to read. I find myself, nearly every paragraph, wanting to stop to look up at least a couple of words I don't know. It isn't that he's using words I know in a new way; he's using words I've never heard before, I've never read before....heck, I think he's making some of them up! (And, not to be conceited, but I don't think I have that limited a vocabulary at my disposal, although my ability to spell those words when I'm publishing my writing for a vast audience--such as this blog--certainly leaves something to be desired...). So, this book has challenged me in a new way, a way that, to be quite honest, hasn't been challenged in some time. I find that I simply press on, and Chabon's use of the words, his context, helps me through the text most of the time. To me, that is the mark of an excellent author. (Chabon, if you happen to google your name, and this comes up....Way to Go!!! (c;)

Ok, now on to the second part of my title: Historic Serendipity.

About a month and a half ago, I read a book on the Science of Super Heroes called, "The Science of Super Heroes". In this book, which was really quite interesting, I found out that, prior to the US involvement in WWII, comic book authors, and their lead characters, went to Europe to fight the forces of evil well before we wised up. I thought that was interesting--that, cheesy, child's play stuff, schlock in most people's opinions, was in the forefront, the vanguard.

Now, just a month or so later, I'm reading "Kavalier and Clay", which is about a Jewish man from Prague who escapes to to America, and creates a comic book--well before the US involvment in the war--about a super hero who fights the forces of evil abroad. It's basically a fictitious account of how the war was fought in the hearts of individuals in America before it was fought in Europe.

Good stuff....

Any books that you've read that were especially challenging? (I'm thinking, Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"?)

And, hey...thanks for reading.

(And, thanks to all my spelling narcs who made me so self-conscious that I spell checked every "iffy" word in this post!!!!)

Tommy