by The Great White Gypsy

Yeah, I know, you can’t hear that title without singing Tenacious D’s catchy song. It’s all I heard in my head for the week I was reading this book, though I tried not to let it detract from the story.

As with most of his novels, Michael Chabon’s story in Wonder Boys is immediately personal and broad. The protagonist, Grady Tripp, is a college English professor in Pittsburgh who is experiencing writer’s block (7 years of it, to be exact) on his latest novel, entitled Wonder Boys. Grady’s fourth marriage is falling apart, primarily due to his affair with the Sarah Gaskell, the married Chancellor of the college. His editor, Terry Crabtree, is visiting for the week, attempting to read Grady’s “almost completed” novel. James Leer, a strange student of Grady’s, is attempting to find approval and answers after finishing his first as-yet-unpublished novel. Throw in prescription pills, transvestites, theft, dog murder, Marilyn Monroe, and a ton of weed, and you have a fun, heartfelt novel about dealing with life, defining yourself, and learning your lessons.

Written from the perspective of Grady (first person), the story almost forces you to sympathize with him. He goes through so much in a short time, but most of it is his fault. It’s not easy to write a character that doesn’t learn from most of his mistakes, and still earns the encouragement and fondness of the reader. But Chabon does this very well. The characters are all very different on the surface, but very similar when their layers are pealed away. They are all looking for an escape. Crabtree’s drugs and questionable sexual practices, Grady’s weed and affairs, even James Leer’s compulsive lying, suicidal tendencies, and sexual ambiguousness are all ways to get out of a rut that we all find ourselves in without knowing how we got there.

Chabon’s prose is consistent with most of his other works: Sometimes dry, sometimes engaging, but generally even-flowing and readable. I usually have few complaints, but there were parts of this one that didn’t feel right to me. There were many places in the novel where the dialogue and prose didn’t match up quite right. It’s like Chabon was trying really hard to maintain an intellectual, vocabulary-laden narrative, but every now and then he’d lapse into a simpler form of writing that didn’t have any relevance to the story or character. His dialogue is generally good, but not his strong point. A lot of it comes across as too breezy, too casual, to the point of contrived and awkward.

There are also several places in the story where the author spends ten pages rambling about something that isn’t necessarily related to the narrative or the plotline. For example, when Grady, recovering from a dog bite, a joint, and a filing Seder, sneaks a peek at James Leer’s novel, it seems like a random bird walk that – for me personally – detracted from and bogged down that part of the story.

Wonder Boys is not Michael Chabon’s best work, but I like him overall. I think his style is well-developed and intelligent, with more direction than Dave Eggers, and bigger words than Chuck Klosterman. If you’re a fan, I’d definitely recommend it. If you haven’t read any Chabon yet, I’d start with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Final Grade: B-

Film Adaptation:

Directed by Curtis Hanson

Starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Frances McDormand

Also by Michael Chabon:

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

A Model World and Other Stories

Werewolves in Their Youth

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Summerland

The Final Solution: A Story of Detection

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure

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