Kavalier & Clay, Part II

I'm trying to knock this book out before Christmas, when I'll hopefully be able to accumulate a new pile of reading material. Which gives me one more day. No sweat, though, I'm on track to reach the big finish at some point tomorrow.

I suppose I can see now why Chabon needed all that Antarctica crap - it did make for some good character development. But I still wish it could have been a little shorter and a little less elaborate.

I'm also intrigued by the role of radios in the novel. And by the concept of radios. The wavelength, the measurable frequency on which your voice can physically connect with someone else's voice, the crossed lines, the hidden stations lurking somewhere beneath your fingertips. I know there must be a reason Joe is so obsessed with radios, and that's something I'd like to explore more. There's also the essential underground nature of radios. The ability to broadcast on a weak signal in a very limited area makes the radio a haven for those trying to fly under the radar - as is the case with nearly every single character in the book. Certainly Joe, and obviously Sammy. And Rosa, too, I believe - trying to live a surrealistic life of dreams to blot out the mundane routine that her once-bohemian life has collapsed into.

Actually, that's an interesting thing about Rosa that I just now thought of. When she was young, she cherished her dreams - she wrote down all those dreamwords in her sleep, and based entire works of art off of them. When she grows up and marries Sammy, she becomes an insomniac. Coincidence? It seems that all the characters are trying to deny the surrealism in their lives in some way - but by doing so, they only project themselves further into the kind of bizarre, biomorphic landscape that Dali would have praised.