Quasi-metafictional memoir, based upon the deathbed confessions of Chabon's grandfather in the late 1980s. Engaging story about the grandfather's exploits in Germany as part of the T-force during WW2, Operation Paperclip, and Operation Hydra; his obsession with rocketry and Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun; his model building, prison escape, amateur rocket construction, and about a cat "who may have eaten, or been eaten by a python or an alligator." Mentions of the Moonglow song, and the stories Metzengerstein by Edgar Allan Poe, and Mission Of Gravity by Hal Clement, and informs the reader of St Dominic de Guzmán as being the patron saint of astronomers, and how Hermann Oberth's book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (1923) started the rocket mania in Germany. ( )

Michael Chabon often admits to using his life and family in his novels, and this is definitely no exception. The narrator, 'Mike', is a writer who is listening to his dying grandfather relate his life, something he never would do before. The stories, of his childhood, experience in World War II, his wife, his work, and all the dramatic incidents therein are told in what seems like no particular order, but ultimately the reader can see how one story relates to another. Chabon is a wonderful storyteller, and his characters are people I wish I could know. The narration is terrific. ( )

I liked 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay', but this was not my cup of tea. In general, the writing was good and the premise was interesting, but the characters were more sad than interesting. I did find the continual use of footnotes to be quite distracting. Not sure why some of the text was included as footnotes, it is not like it was not part of the main narrative.

The fact that this was a work of fiction somewhat raised the bar on what I expected from a story. This felt artificially disjointed and I had a hard time caring about any of the characters except the narrator. I reached a point where I felt like this was not what I wanted to be thinking about so I put it aside. ( )

Stop me, oh oh oh, stop me, stop me if you think that you've heard this one before - an old man on his deathbed tells the story of his life in time hopping fragments. His mad wife tormented by the Skinless Horse was more interesting to me, with the huge deception buried in her past - Oh, who said she lied, because she never, she never, who said she'd lied because she never? ( )

3.5, some parts beautiful, some contrived. There was a lot that reminded me of my own family story, and perhaps that is also why I feel reserved in my praise for the book. ( )