Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands by Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon's sparkling first book of nonfiction is a love song in 16 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 favor 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 toward 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 Policeman's Union.

I hope people aren't getting tired of my buddy reviews, but here is another one! Today is the very first one with Carrie from Books and Movies. She is a new blogging friend in the last couple months, so I am excited to be doing a review with her! We interviewed each other. Below you will find her answers to my questions and then on her blog you will read my answers to hers. Enjoy!

1. Was this your first experience with Chabon? Will you read more from him based on the experience?

This was my first experience with his work. I tried to listen to The Yiddish Policemen's Union on audio, but I didn't like the narrator, so couldn't get past the first few minutes. I definitely plan to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay this summer for a group read, and I am planning to listen to his other essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son on audiobook soon.

2. What was your favourite essay in the collection? Were there any that you didn't like?

I really loved the ones about his early writing experiences, "My Back Pages" and "Diving into the Wreck" - but I think my very favorite was the first one, "Trickster in a Suit of Lights: Thoughts on the Modern Short Story." His comments that most modern short fiction is written as "the contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story" made me laugh and nod my head in agreement. I love short fiction - but short fiction that is unique and about various things.

I used to subscribe to "The New Yorker" specifically for their short fiction until the stories all started to seem the same. The ones that were unusual and entertaining were few and far between. I do believe that fiction should be used to demonstrate the truth about life, but the truth about life isn't always hopeless and depressing! Fiction should also be used to show the other sides of human experience and to entertain us - to make us laugh out loud, shiver with terror, or cry for happiness. I liked his thoughts on how popular short fiction used to run the gamut of genres: horror, western, comedy, fantasy, science fiction. It made me want to read some of his short stories.

There weren't really any essays that I didn't like, but I wasn't that interested in the ones about the history of comic books, simply because I'm new to graphic novels, and so knew nothing about the people he was writing about.

3. What did you take away from the collection overall?

When I read books about writing written by brilliant authors, it makes me want to write! And to write brilliantly, like they do. :) Mostly it just made me realize that all the bloggers who have been saying Chabon is a genius are right.

4. Did you add any books written by authors other than Chabon to your to-read list?

I definitely want to look up some older short story fantasy collections (recommendations welcome), and he made me want to read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, when I had previously been uninterested. I also want to do a re-read of McCarthy's The Road soon.

5. What did you think about the cover and title? Did you find that they suited the collection well?

I really love the cover of the paperback P.S. edition that I own. And I do think the title suited the collection, especially the idea of being on the "borderlands" both in terms of writing outside of a specific genre and in searching for his identity as a Jewish author.

Don't forget to head to Carrie's blog to read my answers!

Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon

A shy manifesto, an impractical handbook, the true story of a fabulist, an entire life in parts and pieces, Manhood for Amateurs is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of America's most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own: as a series of reflections, regrets and re-examinations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past. What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as--simply because--it goes on being written every day. As a devoted son, as a passionate husband and above all as the father of four young Americans, Chabon renders his memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, as a theme played--on different instruments, with a fresh tempo and in a new key--by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.

If I look on my TBR pile I will see two books by Michael Chabon. He is an author that I really wanted to read and never seemed to get around to! Then, this book came out and I was doing the Essay Reading Challenge, so I decided to give it a try. I received it as a review copy from Harper Collins and I am very happy that I did because I finally have read Chabon and I love him! Since completing this book I have also read his other essay collection and will be reviewing it soon. Later in the year I hope to give his fiction a try.

Today's review is a buddy review with Chris from Stuff as Dreams are Made On. It's the first one we have done in 2010, but hopefully it will not be our last. He asked me three questions which I answered below, and then if you visit his blog you can see his answers to my three questions.

1. Do you think the book is applicable to just the experiences of men, or to humanity as a whole?
I think if this book only worked for men I wouldn't like it at all. He might be talking about his experiences as a father, husband, and son, but he talks about things that everyone faces a lot of the time, so anyone can relate to the experiences in the book. There are a few times where it is a 'manly' book and I didn't really relate to what he was talking about, but that was rare. I think by talking about what it is to be a man in many situations, he is also touching on what it is like to be a human.

2. What did you think of the structure of the book (divided into a series of short essays)?
I really liked the way this book worked. It was like one big book, though, because all the essays related to each other and flowed in such a way that it didn't feel like a different experience every time. I am always impressed by authors that can do that. Every essay was written so well, too. While I liked some more than others, I can't think of a single one that I didn't like at all. Another mark of a good author, I would say!

3. What did you take away from the book as a whole?
Honestly, that I am terrible for waiting so long to read Michael Chabon. Instead of collecting his books to gather dust I should have been READING them. Strange concept, I know! It made me think about my own life, too. I am a few years younger than him, but it makes you wonder what you will think when you look back over your life. Can you look at it like he does as a lesson for others, or will you just see things as giant fails. It's a thinking book and I think every experience with it can easily be different depending on where you are in your own life while reading it.

Thanks so much for another buddy review, Chris! I look forward to the next one. Be sure to head over to his blog to read his answers to the questions I asked him. Enjoy!

This book also counts for the Essay Reading Challenge.

Oh, and my thanks to Harper Collins Canada for the review copy of this book!