Most of his books are, in part, about Judaism or Jewish people. He has written Fantasy, Mystery, and Alternate History — and even when he isn't writing genre fiction, he often writes about it.
He also worked on films such as Spider-Man 2 and John Carter, as well as having co-written the Star Trek: Discovery Short Treks episode "Calypso". He was the showrunner during Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard.
Works by Michael Chabon include:
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - A Coming of Age novel that explored a Bisexual Love Triangle.
- Wonder Boys - Made into a movie starring Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award.
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This was not, technically, a genre novel, but it was about The Golden Age of Comic Books, about as geeky a subject as one could want.
- Summerland - Best-selling YA fantasy novel about kids saving the world by playing baseball.
- The Final Solution - A mystery novella starring an unnamed elderly detective who might be (read: obviously is) Sherlock Holmes.
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union - An Alternate History noir novel set in Alaska. Winner of the Hugo Award.
- Gentlemen of the Road - A more traditional adventure novel. Chabon himself dubbed it "Jews with swords."
- Manhood for Amateurs - A collection of autobiographical essays.
- The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man - A children's book about the titular superhero (yes, really).
- Telegraph Avenue - A novel about record-store owners in north Oakland, threatened by a megastore.
- Moonglow - A semi-fictionalized memoir of Chabon's dying grandfather, a World War II veteran, engineer and rocket enthusiast.
- Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces - Chabon's third book of essays.
Works by Michael Chabon with pages on this Wiki:
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
- The Final Solution
- Gentlemen of the Road
- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
- Summerland
- Wonder Boys
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Other works by Michael Chabon contain examples of:
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Ashkenazi Jews appear in most of his works, although they are not the only ones. In fact, there is a running theme that the non-Ashkenazim characters are usually more faithfully observant:
- He set out to turn this trope on its head with Gentlemen of the Road, which prominently features an Abyssinian Jew and the Khazars, a kingdom of Turkic Jews. It does, however, feature an Ashkenazi Jew who is very far from home.
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a notable straight example, envisioning an alternate universe in which Israel was a non-starter and instead a Jewish free state was formed by Ashkenazi Jews in Alaska. Even they are balanced by Berko Shemets, who is a half-Tligit (Alaskan native) convert and one of the most religious characters in the novel.
- In Wonder Boys, the Warshaw family has three children adopted from Korea, all of whom are relatively observant Jews.
- Author Appeal:
- This is likely the reason he writes so much "low brow" genre fiction; he likes to write in genres that he genuinely enjoys reading.
- Aside from that, Chabon (who is Jewish) loves Jewish history and culture. It figures prominently in most of his books. Kavalier and Clay focuses on superheroes as figures of Jewish vengeance, while The Yiddish Polcemen's Union is an Alternate History story steeped in Jewish history and culture.
- Disappeared Dad / Missing Mom: Frequently. Art Bechstein's mom in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Sammy Clay's dad in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Ethan Feld's mom in Summerland, Meyer Landsman's dad in The Yiddish Policemen's Union, etc.
- Genre Throwback: Frequently does this in literary form (see Reconstruction).
- Purple Prose: Is known for this, with Gentlemen of the Road being a particularly thick example.
- Reconstruction: He's one of the most respected writers in the modern American literary world, yet many of his books take on subjects usually seen as meaningless pop culture, as if to prove that they can have literary merit if done right.
- Gentlemen of the Road - Reconstructs Two-Fisted Tales and pulp adventure stories.
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Reconstructs Golden Age superhero stories by telling a story from the POV of the men who wrote them, showing how important they are to American culture, especially American Jewish culture.
- Summerland - Reconstructs adolescent High Fantasy like The Chronicles of Narnia by giving it a fresh setting — in this case, a fantasy-world based on American culture and folklore.
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Reconstructs traditional Film Noir and Hardboiled Detective stories, again, by giving it a fresh setting — an Alternate History version of America where a thriving Yiddish culture exists on the Alaskan frontier.
- Shown Their Work: He does lots of research for every novel he writes, whether it be '30s New York or Pittsburgh of the '80s. And it shows.
- So My Kids Can Watch: Probably the main reason he wrote Awesome Man.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Yiddish creeps into many of his stories featuring Ashkenazi Jews. The Yiddish Policeman's Union was actually inspired by an essay lamenting that Yiddish has become a dead language, leading Chabon to wonder about a world where Yiddish was more common. "Yids" is even a Fantastic Slur for Jewish residents of Alaska in the novel.
