Cannonball Read - Book 22

I am officially behind. I should have read 25 books by the end of March in order to be on track for 100 by the end of the year. I'm only a little concerned. I plan to do lots of read on my next mini-vacay, coming up in two weeks.

To the matter at hand: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. Chabon is the author of one of the books on my top-ten-of-all-time list (which, by the way, I intend on writing about one of these days), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And as every good pageant queen knows, you shouldn't judge one contestant in comparison to another - each should be judged solely on the criteria set forth and how she rates, not on how she rates next to someone else. But as every good pageant queen also knows, this is next to impossible. Try as they might, judges inevitably compare one girl to another; it might be subconscious, but it happens.

So. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. It was quite good. Chabon is a hell of a writer. There was a moment that made me stop reading, say "Wow," then re-read the phrase two more times, because it was that beautiful. Taken independently, this could easily get an A. But I couldn't help comparing it to Kavalier and Clay. It didn't grab me as hard; at times I found the characters unbelievable in their hipness - it was sort of like Juno in that way. Actually, now that I stop and think about it, I never really rooted for most of the characters. And while there were some beautifully written moments, there weren't as many as in Kavalier and Clay. I shouldn't compare the two, but I did, and M of P came up short... but only a little.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - A-