The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Chabon's writing style inspires me to no end, and pushes me to pursue reading and writing more.
I just finished reading one of the best novels I have ever read. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is at once an epic and moving tale of the beauty and cruelty the trials and tribulations of life have to offer and an inspiring piece of masterful, elegant, intelligent and profound prose. Characters are described, developed and explored in a way that connects the reader fundamentally with their issues and concerns. Settings grow out of their candid and metaphorical descriptions, situations flow from character and setting interaction, and page after page new phrasings and compelling verbiage give rise to literary inspiration. As I read this book I realized that many of the words used were new to me, and still others were old friends I hadn't thought of in quite some time. As I encountered a new or interesting word, I wrote it down in my notebook for reference later. I'm including this list below in the hopes that you will expand or entice your vocabulary as well, thanks to Michael Chabon. They are organized according to their order of appearance throughout the book:
residuum, moldering, autoliberation, claustrophobe, purloined, consecrate, crepuscular, taciturn, protectorate, reduplication, demarcate, testamentary, circumspect, exophthalmic, gelid, wan, retrograde, afire, agglomeration, endocrine, rueful, spavined, susurrant, quixotically, mucilage, demonology, admonitory, execrable, recapitulation, precipitous, compendious, parturition, sartorial, veracity, rascality, unstintingly, unassuageable, dreadnought, recalcitrant, inchoate, carapace, disgorge, diaphanous, vouchsafed, peroration, extemporizing, incantatory, limned, simian, mendacious, insalubrious, inquietude, anachronistic, querulous, incandesce, exigencies, mien, prosaic, laconic, argot, anathema, profligate, discompose, vainglorious, scabrous, corpulent, erudite, raffish, doff, dyspeptic, miasma, lilting, verdigris, grandiloquent, rheumy, expatiation, wrest, prognathous, lupine, pugilistic, discomfited, ramshackle, dossier, exegesis, reticence, rubicund, convivial, concur, bauble, mottled, truculent, aquiline, peremptory, perfidions, probity, glibbed, alacrity, epinephrine, midden, numinous, obdurate, interstice, inveterate, heliotrope, aubergine, malcontent, aeons, parturition, incipient, prurient, compunction, chimeras, pomposity, harangued, lithe, trayf, stippled, impel, sardonic, internecine, bricoleur, libidinous, foolscap, reconnoiter, obverse, entropy, languid, verisimilitude, aetataureate, expatiate, efflorescence, clandestine, parquetry, tergiversations, chiromantic, luftmensch, cheminations, suppurating, rumination, recalcitrant, opprobrium, equipoise, surcease, viridian, expiation, excoriating, detritus, topiary, irascible, voluble, nefarious, abstruse, premonitory, senescent, accede, simulacrum, sere, moniker, febrile, orotund, lurid, lacunae, admixture, simulacra, voluble, equine, abject, lucubrations, enmity, immurement, amalgamation, eponymous.
I've since purchased Wonder Boys, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and A Model World. Chabon's writing style inspires me to no end, and pushes me to pursue reading and writing more. I have a feeling I'll look back on this novel as the catalyst responsible for rekindling my love-affair with literature. And my, am I excited.