Bookends

"Insightful...intelligent and entertaining."--Publisher's Weekly "Eclectic, exuberant."--Kirkus Reviews "Chabon, the incandescently imaginative and artful author of a dozen works of fiction...offers fresh and illuminating analysis of the various styles and intentions of forewords, an often-dismissed literary form that he turns into scintillating hybrids of literary appreciation and memoir. Chabon devotees will relish his ensnaring essays for the insights they provide into his inspirations."--Booklist "A wander along the lost avenues and borderlands of the 20th century popular imagination ... Bookends celebrates the skill of artists and writers to conjure imaginary worlds.... Ultimately, the success of "Bookends" lies in the way it demonstrates a lifelong emotional engagement with the possibilities of art, and the texts that speak to us at important moments in our lives. It traces the strange spark that arises at 'the intersection of a wish and the tip of a pencil.' ... Entertaining, funny and eminently readable, Bookends restores the intrinsic and illuminating role that art can play in our lives."--San Francisco Chronicle "A collection of wide-ranging, envy-making, page-turning criticism: what it is, how it is and why it matters. Above all else, it's an introduction to what criticism is for."--Paste "An intellectually waggish labor of literary love.... The erudite author celebrates science fiction, fantasy, myths, comics, ghost stories, and more, distilling his wonder of the craft of storytellers that has captivated his heart since boyhood.... A wholehearted fandom of the written word."--Christian Science Monitor "The gleanings of an idiosyncratic, omnivorous human mind: a destination unto itself but also a gateway to the work of others."--Los Angeles Times

Michael Chabon is the author of two collections of short stories, 'A Model World' and 'Werewolves in their Youth', the novels 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh', 'Wonder Boys', 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union' and 'Telegraph Avenue', and the non-fiction books 'Maps and Legends and Manhood for Amateurs'. 'Wonder Boys' has been made into a film starring Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. and 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His short stories have appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and their four children.