Campus Read
As part of the St. Louis Literary Award series of programs honoring the 2020 award recipient Michael Chabon, the 2020 Saint Louis University Campus Read celebrates the twenty-year anniversary of Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The Campus Read will be in the virtual world this year and is open to anyone in the community who would like to participate. Left Bank Books will also be a sponsor of the Campus Read discussions and is offering a 20% discount for both online and in-store purchases. Stay tuned for additional information about upcoming speakers and programming dates!
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep
of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America
is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of
Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner
in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that
takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American
ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin
comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious
Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn
to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers,
as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Chabon and his wife, writer Ayelet Waldman, are
also adapting the novel for a limited series that will be shown on Showtime.
2021 Campus Read
The March 4 and March 25 Campus Read celebrate the twenty-year anniversary of St. Louis Literary Award winner Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. The Campus Read will be held virtually this year and is open to all.
"O Superman: the Many Faces of the Man of Steel"
This discussion will be led by SLU Art History Associate Professor and Program Director Bradley Bailey.
"The Best Captain in Starfleet: Michael Chabon, Easter Eggs, and the Evolution of Jean-Luc Picard"
This discussion will be led by SLU School of Medicine Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Ken Haller.
In 1987, Jean-Luc Picard became the captain of the USS Enterprise-D on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Through 178 television episodes and four feature films, Picard became, arguably, the most popular character in the Star Trek Universe. Eighteen years after Picard’s last on-screen appearance, Michael Chabon has brought him back in the CBS All Access series “Star Trek Picard.”
In this one-hour discussion, Dr. Haller will discuss how Chabon has taken this already rich, complex character and added further shading, employing the entire history of one of the most storied franchises in filmed fiction.
Please send comments and suggestions to Saint Louis University Library Associates.