The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) is Michael Chabon’s debut novel, which was written at the age of 23 while he was attending Univeristy of California, Irvine. He submitted it as his Master’s thesis. The following is a list of Chabon books I have been reading during the past year or two. They are listed in reverse chronological order as I have been generally reading backwards through his catalog. Most of these books have been reviewed in this blog:
- Maps and Legends (2008) mini-review
- Gentlemen of the Road (2007): review
- The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007): review
- The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist Vol. 1-2 (2004-2005): not reviewed
- The Final Solution (2004): mini-review
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000): review
- Wonder Boys (1995): review
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a coming-of-age story set during a pivitol summer in the life of young narrator Art Blechstein, recent graduate from University of Pittsburgh (Chabon’s alma mater). Art’s current plans are to do nothing more ambitious than to enjoy his summer. He takes a new apartment (because he has just broken up with his girlfriend who keeps the old apartment), takes a job at a chain bookstore, and makes friends with Arthur Lecomte, who opens up a whole new world to him. Arthur is young like himself, beautiful and gay- a ne’er do well, a gilded bum. He has a fabulous wardrobe, lives in style (he housesits for vacationing residence owners), and has a fascinating and exotic circle of friends.
Although leery of unintentionally leading Arthur on, self-proclaimed heterosexual Art allows himself to enter this world and revels in it. Art is fascinated by Arthur, hangs around with Arthur’s oldest friends motorcycle madman Cleveland and his debutante girlfriend Jane, and begins sexual affairs with both Phlox, one of Arthur’s colleagues at The Library, and eventually Arthur himself, with whom he has fallen in love.
It is a hot summer brimming with possibilities. But unfortunately fantasies burst and realities make themselves felt-- voluntarily or not.
The title The Mysteries of Pittsburgh refers literally to the town itself where the story is set. The book is in many ways a love song to the city where Chabon spent his early years-- where he grew up and went to school until he moved to the west coast after graduating college in 1984. The reader is taken on many descriptive tours of Pittsburgh’s both famous and not-so famous sites. Especially revealing are some of Pittsburgh’s “lost” neighbourhoods, its backwaters: areas that are easily overlooked even by long-term residents. Figuratively speaking, Pittsburgh is symbolic of the narrator’s psyche: messy, brash, moody, exciting, changeable and full of deep hidden places where one doesn’t necessarily want to go.
Art find himself lost in the possibilities this life hands him. He is a golden boy during the height of that endless summer, but he faces harsh reality as the summer wears on, and has to adjust to the changed circumstances. Although he believes he loves them both, he simply cannot have both Phlox and Arthur. He discovers that Phlox is shallow and manipulative, and that Arthur is a self-invented fantasy. He discovers the advantages and disadvantages of love between men, and that with a woman. He has to make a choice and live with it. At the end he loses everyone he has come to love during this strange summer.
Art and Arthur are like two halves of the same person. Art is unfulfilled without Arthur’s frivolity and style, and without the circle of friends he brings to their relationship. He connects strongly with bad boy Cleveland, Arthur’s nemesis. Cleveland gives Art the courage to stand up and do what he has to do.
Other important recurring themes in this and other Chabon books include the role of family and friends, crime and criminality, and the depiction of Jews and what it means to be Jewish.
The families of several of the characters in the book are depicted, most notably Art and his family. Art’s crime-boss father is widowed and lives in Washington DC, but travels to Pittsburgh regularly where he often meets with Art over dinner. Unresolved towards the end of the novel, it is intimated that Art’s mother was killed in a crime-war shooting intended for his father. This gives an interesting spin to the father’s relationship with Art. Art’s extended family consists of criminals and their families.
Boyfriend Arthur’s family is virtually non-existent until a late scene when his mousy housemaid mother shows up unexpectedly, and provides the foil by which to contrast Arthur’s self-designed affectation of overclass hauteur. Cleveland’s family is also disfunctional- now largely absent it was once the seemingly perfect family which split apart at the seams: an out-of-town younger sister he used to torment, a gay father who is usually in the bedroom with his boyfriend, a mother gone. Perfect Jane comes from a perfectly hideous family. The best families in this novel are absent- empty houses and privilege, swimming pools, liquor cabinets, places where young people can party and do as they please. Even make mayhem.
The theme of crime and criminality is also central to this novel. Art’s father is a major player in regional organised crime, and Art’s friend, biker bad boy Cleveland, is an ambitious minnow in the same criminal waters. Art’s friendship with Cleveland and Cleveland’s reckless ambitions prove a fatal combination by the end of the novel. Art also has to take a position in regards criminality when he feels the need to take advantage of his privileged position in the crime family in order to help friend Cleveland at a crucial point. This backfires of Art and eventually leads to Cleveland’s demise. Art is ashamed of his father’s activities, and abhorred by the possibility that his mother was victim of that same criminality, but he also is excited by it. Crime and criminality kill the things Art loves most (Cleveland, his mother), and becomes the insurmountable obstacle between his father and he.
The theme of what it means to be Jewish is a minor theme by comparison to the others mentioned previously. It is primarily explored through the depiction of Art’s extended crime family, which is an alternative depiction of Jews, who are often depicted in the media as middle-class and professional, but are also often depicted in folklore and superstition as criminal, conspiratorial and shady. Jews have had a significant presence in crime families, it is true. It was fun to read a bit of their story in this novel.
As a gay reader I found Chabon’s depiction of youthful sexual experimentation refreshing. Art questions his orientation throughout the novel, until the end when he makes a decision. Much has been made in the media about Chabon’s own sexual preferences and experiences- he has admitted openly to having experimented sexually when young, and has since been married for many years. He has expressed the concern that he might be construed to be a “gay writer” when he does not consider himself one. Chabon speaks openly and easily on the subject, which is a central one, in this book, and in general he integrates gayness into the wider circle of human relations in his novels.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a pleasurable debut novel by the very talented wordsmith. It is the story of youth and growing up, moving beyond shame of family and situation, making choices, and getting on with life, whatever that might bring. Just as Art in the novel grows up and embarks on his life adventure, so does Michael Chabon embark on his literary career with this gem of a story.
The novel has been adapted to film, but I have not seen it yet. I am sure that I will comment it after I have done so. Currently I am reading Chabon’s young adult fiction Summerland (2002). I am less than 50 pages into the book, but am thoroughly enjoying this so-far breezy bit of light summertime reading.