I don’t remember where I first came across Michael Chabon‘s debut novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. The book came out in 1988 when I was finishing my sophomore year of college just about 90 miles north of Pittsburgh. The superficial connection drew me into the novel, which described a world I did not inhabit. I only visited Pittsburgh occasionally with friends from school, and I did not have any bisexual inclinations like main character Art Bechstein.

But the promise of a lost summer after graduating college like the book describes as well as my own interest in having literary success at a young age like Chabon made me fall in love with the book. For some reason, that’s as far as I went with the author. I did re-read his debut a few years ago, enjoying it as much as I did back in the late 1980s, but I never explored any of his other work.

That is, until I found myself looking for something to read a few weeks ago. I ended up with Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I regret waiting so long to read this fantastic book.

I don’t read comic books and hate long books so I had plenty of reasons to expect little even with the book’s pedigree. The story of the comic-book creating cousins blew me away. Chabon has such a gift with creating new worlds within even the simplest settings.

The long passage of time could have bored readers weaving their way through some complicated parts of the story. In the hands of a less skilled writer, you could say that all the detail of Josef Kavalier’s life in Prague prevented the real story from beginning. A more clumsy presentation could have made lives of the comic-book characters a distraction from the main narrative.

Yet Chabon crosses all these hurdles with ease. I feel kind of silly giving this kind of blessing to such a well-acclaimed novel, but it’s true. I should have known better based on my experience with his debut.