Just finished reading Mysteries of Pittsburgh

I really enjoyed this book. It's about a young man who has just finished college, and who isn't sure who he is. He goes through some sexual confusion, and he manages to be confused and excited in interesting, fun-to-read ways. The reviews were strongly positive - managing to make an old story sound interesting and new.

I suppose what makes this book interesting for me is that Chabon makes his characters - and his plots - worth reading about. I want to get to know and understand Phlox, the female love interest. I'm curious about this Arthur character, and I want to know what this guy is going to say. Cleveland is also a very interesting character, and he is worth finding out more about. The ending was also a bit unexpected, though not annoyingly so. It followed from the material provided without being either predictable or completely crazy.

I also really think that Chabon is capable of turning rather apt phrases. He can capture an image with astonishing care. An example would be the way that he describes an Italian restaurant as "darkness and garlic." I'm not reproducing the whole effect, but he manages to evoke - the word that I attach so often to Hemingway, one of my favorites - emotion and image, not merely describe it. He's a crafty writer, and his characters are full and interesting. His dialogue is sharp and interesting. For this kind of book, it was unusually captivating.

I've talked to myself about writing a book on a similar theme. I'm glad that I read this book first. I'm not so sure that I want to write that book anymore. No, I don't suppose I would be writing about a sexual awakening. But the confusion after college was definitely a tempting subject.