The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

I really, really enjoy Michael Chabon's writing. After The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I knew I had found something special. (Searching back, I realize that I never did write a review of that book - something that will be remedied once I have a chance to re-read it.)

I finished The Final Solution years ago and I have Gentlemen of the Road waiting patiently on my bookshelf. His writing is intoxicating yet very real, and his ability to capture the feeling of a time period or a crucial time in one's life is spot-on.

I picked up The Mysteries of Pittsburgh with a gift card (in an attempt to follow my new guidelines to saving money), but I probably would have gravitated toward the cover anyway as it is freaking adorable:


Art Bechstein has just finished college, and is spending his summer working in the fluorescent nightmare that is a bookstore chain. He would have much preferred a used bookstore, but his ambition? It's lacking.

A chance encounter with Arthur, preppy and gay, leads Art into a summer like he had never imagined - or even known to imagine. It's an interesting coming-of-age tale written as a love letter to a summer of freedom, to a lack of responsibility, and to the city of Pittsburgh. I'm sure that had I spent any time there in my early twenties, I would understand some of the inside jokes and hidden meanings.

It's a quick read with some unexpected moments of happiness and of sadness, but thoroughly enjoyable story.

(It's going to be a movie. Of course, Hollywood or some random production company has completely ruined it by cutting the entire role of Arthur, changing the main plot, and miscasting Sienna Miller in what should have been a minor role, but whatever. I won't be seeing it.)