Telegraph Avenue

Michael Chabon LOVES words.  He is one of those authors that completely indulges his love of language and if you love language AND a good story, you will love his books.  His latest novel, Telegraph Avenue, is chock full of dizzyingly descriptive flights of language: metaphors, wordplay, run-on (and on and on) sentences, and dialogue. And the plot? Well, there are several, and almost all of them are engaging.

Chabon is most popularly known for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.  I absolutely fell in love with his writing at that time. Kavalier and Clay is set in the post-World War II years and unfolds against the history of early comics. It's also a terrific love story! I similarly enjoyed The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which he wrote a few years later.

Telegraph Avenue is firmly rooted in the 1970s against a background of jazz, blaxploitation films, midwifery, and a very distinctive neighborhood in Oakland, California.  I wondered if Telegraph Avenue was a "real" place and Wikipedia supplied the answer: "Among some Berkeley residents, especially Cal students, Telegraph Avenue refers mainly to a four-block section just south of the university, from Bancroft Way (which borders the campus) to Dwight Way. As a center of campus and community life, this section of Telegraph Avenue is home to many restaurants, bookstores, and clothing shops, along with street vendors occupying its wide sidewalks. Telegraph attracts a diverse audience of visitors, including college students, tourists, artists, street punks, eccentrics, and the homeless."

That description definitely matches the picture that Chabon colorfully draws in his latest effort.  There are many characters in Telegraph Avenue and that can seem a bit overwhelming at times.  However, as the story progresses, Chabon does a very effective job of acquainting the reader with this diverse crowd.  Since I felt confident that I was in the hands of a great author, I decided to not stress over the number of characters I was meeting.  I figured whoever was important to the story would reappear at the right time and place, and for the most part, that turned out to be the case. 

While there are a number of plots (and a few loose threads left dangling), I think Chabon's themes stayed tight and steady throughout the story.  Fatherhood or father/son relationships would have to be at the top of that list.  The hero, Archy Stallings, was abandoned by his father and carries many scars to prove it.  Ironically, to Archy as well, it turns out (early in the story and pretty clearly foreshadowed) that he abandoned a son, too.  This painful truth takes its sweet time to seep into Archy's soul and inevitably wreak the havoc that it must.  Archy also has another son, soon to be born, and he is reluctant to accept his role of father to that child as well, much to the disappointment and frustration of his wife, Gwen.  Gwen is a midwife who practices in the Telegraph Avenue neighborhood that Chabon so lavishly describes and is partners with Aviva Jaffe, married to Archy's partner in the record store business, Nat.  Archy and Nat's record store, aka their dream, is about to be blown away by a huge mega-business and a mighty struggle to survive/accept/revolt against ensues. 

While learning much about jazz and the record collecting business, I also enjoyed the midwifery subplot.  Chabon dives deep into whatever area he is writing about: comics, jazz, midwifery, kung fu, Tarantino films.  The reader comes away with head slightly spinning but knowing that you've just been given a glimpse into worlds heretofore not well acquainted with. 

Chabon is not for the impatient reader; Telegraph Avenue is a story (and it's a GREAT story) that could easily be cut in half and still told effectively.  Chabon takes his sweet time and seems to  have tremendous FUN telling the story.  To enjoy it with him, the reader needs to just sit back and go along for the ride.  FYI: I think some of his wittiest writing is buried deeply within these meandering sidetrips: "... everything good in life was either synthesized in transgenic cyborg vats or shade-grown in small batches by a Buddhist collective of blind ex-Carmelite Wiccans." I love these laugh-out-loud moments!

Resist the temptation to skim (yes, even the twelve-page-long single sentence detailing an escaped parrot's very insightful flight).  These sometimes laugh-out-loud,  sometimes thought-provoking detours   make the trip worthwhile.  Enjoy!