The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

The chapter opens with the narrator discussing Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier and how their greatest creation, the Escapist, was derived from Harry Houdini and Superman. Sam was known to say: “To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing” (3).

Harry Houdini is a great hero for many young boys, especially for Samuel Louis Klayman, who is 5’5” tall, a city boy, and a Jew. Sam is 17 years old. He lives in New York City and is physically unimposing, with the legs of a little boy because of having contracted polio when he was younger. He is well-versed in electronics and mechanics and is a voracious reader.

One night in late October 1939, his mother barges into his room. With her is a young man about Sam’s age whom she introduces as Josef Kavalier, the son of her brother, Emil, from Prague. Josef came all the way from San Francisco that day. Sam’s mother gives Josef a washcloth and leaves the room. Sam engages Josef in conversation. Josef speaks English much better than Sam expected, and Sam asks him why his English is so good. Josef doesn’t want to provide an explanation.