I am thrilled and honored to be singing in tonight’s Metropolitan Opera premier of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY. Bringing your novel to life on the Met’s stage has been an incredible and moving experience, from our first music rehearsal to last week’s final dress. The excitement in the house while creating this work has resonated differently than other premieres at the Met, and I feel grateful to have been a part of it. Happy 25th and congratulations to you, Michael!
Also "in bocca al lupo" (into the wolf's mouth) is another phrase. I will be listening to the live stream of the opera tonight. Anyone can hear it by going to metropolitanopera.org or on the SiriusXM Metopera channel.
Cannot wait for Friday night’s performance. As a long-time comic book guy, but newly minted Met subscriber - it could not be more thrilling to see this book brought to life. Kavailer and Clay always had an operatic scope. To see it on that scale is life affirming.
It’s hard to believe you doubted yourself about what became your magnum opus, I loved it from my first read and subsequently gifted it to everyone that year for their birthday and I continue to recommend and share it if I discover someone has not had the privilege of reading it, and it is a serious work of profound beauty and power
I was having a look through my copies of Kavalier (have an original first edition paperback and a 14th printing paperback from 2005) and I found my ticket for your talk with Ayelet on 3 November 2015 at the Sydney Writer’s Festival - it was a great talk, hope you and Ayelet can come back this way soon - in the meantime will track down a first edition signed copy of Kavalier and re-read again
Thank you for the excellent account, Michael, which for me is, as well, a summoning up of a great and fun time in my own (ye gods, 25 years ago?) career. I will always remember two things above all: all the hours that you and I got to spend on the phone going over the pages, and how there wasn't a comma you weren't eager to discuss if I wanted to ask you about it, and, as well, my loping in to your aforementioned editor's office (more than once, I want to say) to say "There actually is such a thing as the Great American Novel, and this is it." And I was right.
I didn’t read it for a long time because I had zero interest in comic books. Then, for whatever reason (too long ago to remember), I did read it and oh my god. Brilliant! And that opening sentence? I held it up as evidence of perfection in classes I taught in sentence-level editing.
I came at Kavalier and Clay from the other way -> I am a genre reader who occasionally accepts literary intentions. I make no apologies for preferring genre to literature, but this novel transcends both
I finished K and C last week but the story and its characters are still living in my head. I loved this book so much and was excited to see the new opera on HD, but alas, they are not streaming it live. So sad. But congratulations to you on the opera. Moonglow is next up on my nightstand.
This is one of my favorite novels of all time; it could have been twice as long and I would have read it endlessly. Also, we saw the opera last week in dress rehearsal and it was magnificent and moving and visually thrilling.
That was astonishing, as loaded with humanity as anything I’ve read on this site. I’m going to save it to help me through the troughs sure to come my way down the road. Kavalier and Clay was my first encounter w you, leading to a magnificently ensuing quest, and this post just added much value, enough I will likely read it again soon.
Just for the heck, here’s a couple pics from a cool bookstore I ran into yesterday. Oops, don’t see that I can attach.,sorry.
I read it when it came out, and though I have never been a comic book reader (go figure), it instantly became one of my favorite novels ever. Its genius, of course, is that it's the story of America. As such, it resonates now, in our time.
I’m now gonna reread the book, which is already on my shelf among my top favorite books ever and I’ve never been able to exactly explain why…! Thank you for the backstory.
This having been before the ubiquity of the Internet, I’d had no idea K&C was on the way, but only a few days after it was released (three weeks or so after my 19th birthday) my Dad saw it in a bookstore on his way home from work (in Brooklyn, fittingly), and bought me copy, knowing I was a fan of your work. Dad was not really a “surprise gifts” guy and our relationship at the time was, on occasion, tense and distant (which was, of course, entirely his fault, but I was amazed at how much smarter and more reasonable he got over the next few years) (see above re: my being 19), but this was, for whatever reason, an exception.
If my house was on fire and my wife and dog (Grady, named for Professor Tripp) were safe, that hardcover copy of K&C is what I’d grab before making a run for it.
I loved — and admired — this novel when I finally read it, having perversely avoided it for a long time, the way one sometimes does with a much-praised and much-beprized recent book. May I say that one tiny detail — the image (or whatever the equivalent is for sound) of the ”lowing” of a train as it passes far away — has remained one of my favorite images in fiction for all of these years since?
I stumbled on your book, I can’t even remember how, and was enthralled from the start. Then I put it in my classroom library and watched boy after now, especially, pick it up, start reading…and they were hooked. That book is pure magic and made readers out of reluctant farm boys in small town Indiana. Thank you so much!
I’m a cartoonist, and you should know that your book has been fervently passed around amongst us for decades. Where else would I have learned about the Gollum, and the antidote to helplessness that superheroes provide? You deserve every success.
I am thrilled and honored to be singing in tonight’s Metropolitan Opera premier of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY. Bringing your novel to life on the Met’s stage has been an incredible and moving experience, from our first music rehearsal to last week’s final dress. The excitement in the house while creating this work has resonated differently than other premieres at the Met, and I feel grateful to have been a part of it. Happy 25th and congratulations to you, Michael!
Thank you! Is “break a leg” the appropriate wish in operaworld?
Also "in bocca al lupo" (into the wolf's mouth) is another phrase. I will be listening to the live stream of the opera tonight. Anyone can hear it by going to metropolitanopera.org or on the SiriusXM Metopera channel.
Crepi il lupo!
Yes it is, thank you 💖 - and “Toi! Toi! Toi!” will make you sound like an opera-insider! 👏🏼
Thank you, Marie, for bringing this opera to my attention!
Cannot wait for Friday night’s performance. As a long-time comic book guy, but newly minted Met subscriber - it could not be more thrilling to see this book brought to life. Kavailer and Clay always had an operatic scope. To see it on that scale is life affirming.
It’s hard to believe you doubted yourself about what became your magnum opus, I loved it from my first read and subsequently gifted it to everyone that year for their birthday and I continue to recommend and share it if I discover someone has not had the privilege of reading it, and it is a serious work of profound beauty and power
Thank you!
Is the tv show still being developed or have things gone into development hell again?
Extinct parrot.
I was having a look through my copies of Kavalier (have an original first edition paperback and a 14th printing paperback from 2005) and I found my ticket for your talk with Ayelet on 3 November 2015 at the Sydney Writer’s Festival - it was a great talk, hope you and Ayelet can come back this way soon - in the meantime will track down a first edition signed copy of Kavalier and re-read again
It will happen, its too good but you need a Noah Hawley,
craig mazin or Hideo Kojima
Sadly, that is not the case.
Thank you for the excellent account, Michael, which for me is, as well, a summoning up of a great and fun time in my own (ye gods, 25 years ago?) career. I will always remember two things above all: all the hours that you and I got to spend on the phone going over the pages, and how there wasn't a comma you weren't eager to discuss if I wanted to ask you about it, and, as well, my loping in to your aforementioned editor's office (more than once, I want to say) to say "There actually is such a thing as the Great American Novel, and this is it." And I was right.
I remember all of that!
I didn’t read it for a long time because I had zero interest in comic books. Then, for whatever reason (too long ago to remember), I did read it and oh my god. Brilliant! And that opening sentence? I held it up as evidence of perfection in classes I taught in sentence-level editing.
I came at Kavalier and Clay from the other way -> I am a genre reader who occasionally accepts literary intentions. I make no apologies for preferring genre to literature, but this novel transcends both
I got this in college, I don’t even remember why. I hadn’t heard of it before, and I don’t even like comic books.
But it’s the reason I read today. Have a beautiful Folio Society edition behind me. Thanks for everything.
I finished K and C last week but the story and its characters are still living in my head. I loved this book so much and was excited to see the new opera on HD, but alas, they are not streaming it live. So sad. But congratulations to you on the opera. Moonglow is next up on my nightstand.
It will eventually turn up on Great Performances at the Met.
This is one of my favorite novels of all time; it could have been twice as long and I would have read it endlessly. Also, we saw the opera last week in dress rehearsal and it was magnificent and moving and visually thrilling.
This makes me so happy!
That was astonishing, as loaded with humanity as anything I’ve read on this site. I’m going to save it to help me through the troughs sure to come my way down the road. Kavalier and Clay was my first encounter w you, leading to a magnificently ensuing quest, and this post just added much value, enough I will likely read it again soon.
Just for the heck, here’s a couple pics from a cool bookstore I ran into yesterday. Oops, don’t see that I can attach.,sorry.
I read it when it came out, and though I have never been a comic book reader (go figure), it instantly became one of my favorite novels ever. Its genius, of course, is that it's the story of America. As such, it resonates now, in our time.
Same
I’m now gonna reread the book, which is already on my shelf among my top favorite books ever and I’ve never been able to exactly explain why…! Thank you for the backstory.
An extraordinary essay, and an extraordinary, life-giving book, for which I and many members of my family are deeply grateful. x
Thank you!
This having been before the ubiquity of the Internet, I’d had no idea K&C was on the way, but only a few days after it was released (three weeks or so after my 19th birthday) my Dad saw it in a bookstore on his way home from work (in Brooklyn, fittingly), and bought me copy, knowing I was a fan of your work. Dad was not really a “surprise gifts” guy and our relationship at the time was, on occasion, tense and distant (which was, of course, entirely his fault, but I was amazed at how much smarter and more reasonable he got over the next few years) (see above re: my being 19), but this was, for whatever reason, an exception.
If my house was on fire and my wife and dog (Grady, named for Professor Tripp) were safe, that hardcover copy of K&C is what I’d grab before making a run for it.
Love this so much. Give Grady a pat from me.
I loved — and admired — this novel when I finally read it, having perversely avoided it for a long time, the way one sometimes does with a much-praised and much-beprized recent book. May I say that one tiny detail — the image (or whatever the equivalent is for sound) of the ”lowing” of a train as it passes far away — has remained one of my favorite images in fiction for all of these years since?
Please, feel free!
😊
I stumbled on your book, I can’t even remember how, and was enthralled from the start. Then I put it in my classroom library and watched boy after now, especially, pick it up, start reading…and they were hooked. That book is pure magic and made readers out of reluctant farm boys in small town Indiana. Thank you so much!
I’m a cartoonist, and you should know that your book has been fervently passed around amongst us for decades. Where else would I have learned about the Gollum, and the antidote to helplessness that superheroes provide? You deserve every success.
If there is one novel I could choose to read again for the very first time, it would be this one. Happy 25th!