Telegraph Avenue

A Novel

By: Michael Chabon

Narrated by: Clarke Peters

As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there - longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, a pair of semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed, between them, more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart - half tavern, half temple - stands Brokeland Records.

When ex-NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in the United States, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of 15-year-old Julius Jaffe's life.

©2012 Michael Chabon (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

An incredibly written and read story!

I love Michael Chabon's writing, and Telegraph Avenue merely fueled my opinion. Clarke Peters's top-notch delivery probably helped, but I frequently wished I had a paper copy of the text handy so I could share a particularly gorgeous excerpt with a friend, a student, or simply save it to reread and marvel over. The story is a daring and original amalgam of coming of age/revery/adventure/American classic/marriage hand book. . . Wow. The chapters told from the point of view of the 14 year old boys in which the moms are the enemies in their role-playing-samurai games are hysterical; even many of Chabon's throw away lines are remarkable for their original but effective writing. My one quibble, as with Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is that Chabon's detailed descriptive eye falls on everything--and I don't really want/need to know the ins and outs (unfortunately, that is often literally true) of the characters' sexual activities. Personally, I am a believer in keeping certain parts of life private; practically, this kind of painstaking description makes it that much harder to use his novels in a high school classroom, which I'd love to do.

So: highly, highly recommended. Terrific reading and a terrific novel, but the subject matter can definitely veer into the R rated at times.

Funny, charming story with memorable characters

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book to all current and future fans of Michael Chabon.

With pitch-perfect narration by the talented Clarke Peters of The Wire and Treme, this book was so entertaining I listened to it twice, immediately. I became attached to the characters and their humorous and relatable foibles and didn't want the book to end. Michael Chabon's books are reliably great, and this one benefits from being told close-to-home by a Berkeley writer.

After a chapter or two, you feel like you feel at home in "Brokeland"--the border between bourgeoise Berkeley and poorer Oakland--with the gentrifiers and the old timers, 70s film stars, vinyl loving nostalgics, lawsuit-happy yuppies, and people trying to walk between these worlds.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Telegraph Avenue?

The uproariously drunken and messy funeral for the old-timer musician / commie / vinyl collector Mr. Jones was probably the zenith of this wild ride.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed each time I listened.

Any additional comments?

I hope Clarke Peters records more books :)

Loved it

I loved this book. Chabon is brilliant, and to have Clarke Peters (aka Lester from The Wire) read it to me was almost too good to be true. I live in the East Bay, so I loved the references to places big and small. I was also fascinated by Chabon's ability to write about things he hasn't completely experienced (i.e. childbirth) in ways that based on my own experience, rang true. This is a wonderful fictional piece of local history and a story woven around very colorful characters. I miss all of the folks already.

An engrossing story by a highly literate author

Telegraph Hill captures a time and place and the characters who live and exist there so completely that you forget you are listening to a piece of fiction. These people are so real, so varied in their life styles, manners and situations that Chabon has really created a world that those of us who live in a diverse world-demographically and philosophically-feel right at home. And if you are less fortunate and live in a highly homogeneous world of work and home, then you need to read this book to experience the richness that exists on Telegraph Avenue.

Chabon is clearly one of best modern day writers

I have great respect for Michael Chabon's intellect, I have to stretch my mental muscles to keep up and that can take away from enjoying his storytelling. I was here in Berkeley, frequenting the renown Telegraph Ave before, during and after the time frame of this story and I was a bit surprised by how fictional he made the setting. It is a street with much personal history for many of us, and he could have drawn on more of the culture even though that seemed to be part of his agenda. Probably a desire for more local nostalgia I was hoping to find.
The reader's performance was smooth and although I couldn't always keep the characters separated, it was done very well.

Mind = boggled.

Chabon is a master. It's clear that he is in full command of his craft and he has produced another work of incredible originality with a near perfect mixture of humor, anger, uncertainty, conflict, joy and loss. His deep understanding of the characters and the lives they live is truly astonishing. I find it hard to believe that one author could convey so much truth about music, infidelity, homosexuality, community politics, male friendships, kung-fu and 70's blacksploittion films; my mind is officially boggled. I truly enjoyed this book. From beginning to end. Why four stars instead of five? I'm not really certain, except to say that, when taken in context of his other works, Telegraph Avenue was not my favorite. Although it was up there. If I could give it four and three quarters stars I would.

I could listen to this narrator all day, everyday

What made the experience of listening to Telegraph Avenue the most enjoyable?

The narrator, definitely. Especially his swearing. Telegraph Avenue is one "motherf*cker"-enhanced audiobook, and this narrator really brings life & warmth to the humor & bravado & absurdity of Chabon's dialogues. Please, Audible: do whatever you can to make sure Clarke Peters reads us more books! He's 10,000 times more enjoyable to listen to than some of the uptight culture-heads who also do this work, and his acting is impeccable. Seriously: more Clarke Peters, please, and not just for books that feature Black characters. I'd listen to him do Dickens, Eugenides, whoever. He's great. And, oh yeah, Chabon's book is pretty good, too.

A Wonderful, Powerful East Bay Epic

An absolutely fabulous novel! Charon sensitively, skillfully evokes a vivid cast of East Bay characters --dexterously entering into the point of view of each – evoking the rich humanity of all! The fresh language, sense of history and place, feel for the history of jazz, and grippiing storyline are a delight!

Music Lover's Delight

Michael Chabon is an author whose reputation certainly precedes him, and I don't know how I've managed to go this long without digging in to his work. Certainly, there is a nagging concern that what you've heard or read is hype, and that the actual experience is going to be a letdown.

This is not the case here. Telegraph Avenue is everything I want in a novel and more. It's a deep and thoughful reflection on the relationships between blacks and whites, the intermeshing of cultures, of gentrification and urban renewal. It's a detailed and insightful memoir of a time and a place, populated with a rich tapestry of characters who are fully drawn and completely believable. There's a compelling story that spins an intricate web around you and makes you care about what happens; that involves you in a complex set of relationships between people and their community and the conflicts between their personal histories, their aspirations, their families, and their limitations. Local politics, social responsibility, Black Panthers, kung fu, environmentalism, aging blaxploitation stars, midwifery, the impossibility of being 14 years old -- it's all there.

And music. Telegraph Avenue pulses with music, both in the many references that become a soundtrack running in your head and in the detailed, lively descriptions of the incredible conflagration of funk, soul, R&B, rock and roll and jazz that bubbled up out of the American cultural melting pot beginning in the Sixties and continuing to this day. If you don't know what a CTI release was, go do some listening. It will add a layer of depth to the experience of this book that is priceless.

Chabon delivers extremely realistic dialog that includes plenty of street slang and Clarke Peters handles the narration of the audiobook with superb attention to the personalities and characterizations. He gives a believable and authentic voice to a wide cast of characters that includes everything from a 14 year old gay white kid to a nonagenarian Chinese woman, and delivers the narrative in a style that is deeply sensitive to cultural and political connotations. His wonderful voice becomes the music of this experience.

Dig it.

Not up to Chabon standards

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Story was not strong and at times confusing

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Nostalgia and battle between modern and traditional, between old and young

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Didn't breathe properly

Was Telegraph Avenue worth the listening time?

Not really