The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Sam is small in stature and has bad legs because he had polio when he was younger. Sam is intelligent and creative and the brains of the entire Empire Comics business. Neither Sam nor Joe could have created the book alone, making them a “dynamic duo,” but Sam is in charge of writing the stories while Joe does the art. Sam struggles to understand and accept his orientation. He is torn between an inherent attraction to men and a non-sexual admiration for women, neither of which he fully comprehends. Tracy Bacon is the first man Sam has sex with, but even then Sam struggles to accept the fact that he is gay. In fact, it isn’t until the end of the novel that he finally accepts it, and this acceptance inevitably sets him free.

Sam is also a very loyal friend. He is always there when Joe needs him, even when Joe abandons him and Rosa to go fight in the war. Furthermore, even though Sam’s actions are not entirely altruistic, Sam saves Rosa from the fate of having to face 1940s American society as an unwed, pregnant woman by marrying her. Sam is a dreamer and, like Joe, is looking for something more than just a “normal” life. Sam wants to get out of Brooklyn and works hard to do so. Eventually, Sam is able to purchase a house in the suburbs, but he quickly realizes that this will not make him happy. While Joe’s sufferings are far more apparent, Sam also suffers throughout the novel. In fact, Sam’s freedom and redemption are far less assured and secure than that of Joe or Rosa. Sam is the tragic character of the novel.

Rosa is the daughter of a well-known eccentric in New York. She is dreamy, at times slothful, artistic, talented, and intelligent. She falls in love with Joe Kavalier and becomes his muse. Rosa is loving and supportive of Joe. Because of her, Joe is able to get his brother Thomas out of Czechoslovakia and onto a ship bound for America. She is Joe’s rock and his happiness. After Joe leaves to fight, Rosa’s character, previously confined to the background of the story, takes on more individuality. She and Sam team up, providing one another with what they need most.

For Rosa, Sam provides a husband, as being married allows her to avoid the condemnation typically directed at unwed pregnant women in 1940s America. From this point on, Rosa, still the procrastinating artist, becomes a character separate from the men in her life. Her relationship with Sam is sisterly. Her love for Tommy is motherly, and she does her best to be a good mother. She also becomes an artist in her own right. Like Sam, Rosa must also combat their unhappy situation in the suburbs. With Joe absent and Sam uninterested, Rosa longs for male love and intimacy. Later, Joe returns, and after some difficulty, they get back together. Rosa’s love, the hope she offers, and her strength of character ultimately save Joe.

Tommy is the son of Joe and Rosa, and the quasi-adopted son of Sam. He is precocious but also a loner. He is a little on the chubby side. He is interested in comics, like his father(s), and magic, like Joe. Tommy, though biologically related to Joe, displays characteristics from both Sam and Joe—the creativity, the nerdiness, the secrecy. Tommy is the catalyst for Joe’s return. He is the bridge between the past and the present that allows Joe to transition from his pain and guilt and accept the present situation, ultimately getting back together with Rosa and taking on a fatherly role. In fact, with Joe’s departure, Tommy is the glue that keeps them all together. Without Rosa’s pregnancy, Sam wouldn’t have had the need or opportunity to remain in contact with her. They could easily have parted ways and the story would have been much different.

Thomas is Joe’s younger brother. He is musically talented, though he loses some of his hearing during a stunt with Joe that causes him to give up on music. He remains behind when Joe leaves. He and Joe are close. Thomas looks up to his older brother and admires his talents. Thomas is the family member Joe most desires to rescue from Prague. Eventually, Joe is able to get a spot on a ship for Thomas. Thomas has to travel from Prague to Lisbon and then remain there, quarantined in a convent for eight months. When the ship is finally cleared to sail, Thomas’s ship is torpedoed by a Nazi submarine and Thomas, along with everyone on board, dies.

Anapol is a heavy-set businessman. His first business is in novelties, and he’s Sammy’s boss. He is a worrier but tends to trust the opinions of his colleagues, or at least uses them to confirm his desires and quiet his fears. He goes into the comic book business with Jack Ashkenazy, who is his brother-in-law, and George Deasey after Sam and Joe present their ideas to him. He becomes wealthy from comic book sales. He is stingy and holds fast to the contract he made with Sam and Joe, but he cuts them in on new opportunities. Even in the face of financial success, Anapol is constantly waiting for something bad to happen. With depleting sales and the forthcoming Senate hearings, Anapol wants to sell Empire Comics. Also, it is Anapol who makes the decision to kill off Sam and Joe’s most influential, successful, and beloved character, the Escapist.

Jack is Anapol’s brother-in-law and a fellow businessman. He owns and runs Racy Publications. He goes into the comics publishing business with Anapol. He seems to be the more ruthless of the two but is also more hands-off. He leaves Empire Comics to try and make money in real estate, a venture that fails miserably as Jack’s plans were apparently based on the belief that the US and Canada would combine into one country after the war’s end. Eventually, Jack gets back into the comic business with Pharaoh Comics. Like Anapol, Jack’s success comes from those around him, namely Joe, Sam, and George Deasey.

George is the editor for Racy Publications and a failed novelist. He is a member of the managerial team, with Jack and Anapol, that puts together Empire Comics. He is a mentor of sorts to Joe and serves loosely as a father figure to Sam, providing the two of them with useful and helpful advice, though he always seems reluctant to do so. During the war, George leaves the comic book business and enters work in government intelligence. Towards the end of the novel, he comes into the bar where Sam is drinking after the Senate hearing and defends Sam against the bartender’s derogatory remarks, acting once again as a father figure for Sam. George’s advice helps Sam decide to go off to Los Angeles and find himself.

These are Joe and Thomas Kavalier’s parents. Both are well-regarded in their professions. They are educated and cultured and provide a good life for their two sons before the Nazis arrive. Emil is an endocrinologist and Anna is a psychiatrist. When Joe is in America, Emil dies, purportedly from an outbreak of tuberculosis. Anna writes one last letter to Joe that he never reads. She dies in one of the concentration camps.

Ethel is Sam’s mother. She is a proud, strong Jewish woman and mother. She is independent and raises her son as a single parent; her husband ran off and worked in the circus. She also cares for her mother. Ethel’s original name is Yecheved (Jochebed), the name of the Moses’ mother.

Alter is Sam’s father. He is a circus performer and is almost never present in Sam’s life. He dies young in a car accident. Sam’s father’s absence is possibly the reason why Sam craves a fatherly figure throughout his life and why he is so attached to the idea of a sidekick. One of Sam’s’ best memories of Alter is when Alter took Sam on a walk in the city after fighting with Ethel. “Alter” is German for old or old man and is a slang term used nowadays with the same meaning as dude or man in American English. Alter’s stage name is very much like a name for a comic-book hero, and to the young Sam Klayman, he is a superhero figure.

Kornblum is an old magician and escape artist who takes Joe under his wing and becomes Joe’s greatest mentor. Though Joe and Bernard are only together for a short time, the lessons Bernard imparts remain with Joe for the rest of his life. Kornblum is the first real-life superhero to emerge in the book, with Joe taking the role of his sidekick. Bernard is entrusted with finding the mythical Golem of Prague and securely extricating it from the country and from the Nazis. He is also able to safely get Joe out of the country and to the United States. Bernard continues to reappear in the novel as a ghost or figment of Joe’s imagination when Joe needs him most, offering Joe insightful advice that puts Joe on the correct path.

Carl Ebling is a German immigrant or son of German immigrants who becomes interested in the Nazi movement in Germany and involves himself in Nazi-supporting groups in the US. Carl becomes a big fan of comic books and is Joe’s arch-nemesis. Carl also struggles with his mental health. The Escapist and Joe are metaphorically one and the same, but there is never any confusion between the two in the novel; Joe never believes he is the Escapist. That is not the case for Carl. He believes he is the Saboteur and that Joe is his enemy. After Joe, looking to pick a fight with a German, breaks into Carl’s office and decks him, Carl plans to exact revenge. Carl’s psychosis leads him to detonate a pipe bomb at a bar mitzvah where Joe is performing. He is sentenced to prison for that and other bombings around the city.

Tracy is a handsome, debonair actor. He is hired to be the voice of the Escapist on the radio program, and his involvement brings him into contact with Joe and Sam. Tracy is gay and Sam’s first, and only, love. Tracy goes to Hollywood while Sam stays behind. Eventually, Tracy is pulled into the war and dies in combat.

Harkoo is an eccentric art connoisseur and a huge fan of Surrealism. He is also Rosa’s father. It is through him that Rosa and Joe meet. He is a caring father to Rosa and father-in-law to Sam, and he isn’t angry with Joe for having left. He is well-liked and well-connected and likes to help people out.