Michael Chabon (born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation," according to the The Virginia Quarterly Review. Henderson, Eleanor. blank">"From Pittsburgh to Sitka: On Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union" (book review), _The Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-28. His first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when Chabon was 25 and catapulted him to literary celebrity. He followed it with a second novel, Wonder Boys (1995), and two short-story collections. In 2000, Chabon published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a critically acclaimed novel that The New York Review of Books called his magnum opus; it received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. His most recent novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, was published in 2007 to enthusiastic reviews; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of that same year.
His work is characterized by complex language, frequent use of metaphor, and an extensive vocabulary, blank">"Chabon, Michael: INTRODUCTION". Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 149. Thomson Gale, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-27. along with numerous recurring themes, including nostalgia, divorce, abandonment, fatherhood, and issues of _Jewish identity. Leonard, John. blank">“Meshuga Alaska”, _The New York Review of Books, 2007-06-14. Retrieved on 2007-07-27. He often includes gay, bisexual, and Jewish characters in his work. Since the late 1990s, Chabon has written in an increasingly diverse series of styles for varied outlets; he is a notable defender of the merits of genre fiction and plot-driven fiction, and, along with novels, he has published screenplays, children's books, comics, and newspaper serials.
