The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Detective Lieber, Sam, Harkoo, and Tommy are in Joe’s office/apartment. Sam is amazed to discover how much work Joe has done since being back in New York. There are 10 piles of Bristol board on the floor, each sheet covered in the penciled drawings of Joe Kavalier. However, the content is much different than the superheroes Joe used to draw. There is now an obvious Jewish element—rabbis, for example, and scenes from Prague. Then Sam notices the most interesting of the characters, the Golem. Lieber comments that it appears that Joe was working on a novel. Joe’s work makes Sam think about his own attempt to write a novel, American Disillusionment: “It was the autobiography of a man who could not face himself, an elaborate system of evasion and lies unredeemed by the artistic virtue of self-betrayal” (543). Lieber invites Sam to ride with him to the hospital. Sam wants to know why the detective is going to the hospital. Lieber answers that he is pretty sure he has to arrest Joe. Harkoo doesn’t like this and tells Lieber he has friends in high places and that “we’ll see about that” (544). Just then a young, good-looking, well-dressed man enters and delivers an envelope to Sam.