Words of a Bibliophile

This lengthy book felt like it lasted forever. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but then I'd put down the book and not miss it until the next time I had a chance to read. Yet when I was in it I was quite engrossed in the novel, set in the Golden Age of American superhero comics in the late 1930s-1940s. I'm not much of an American comics reader as I'm more partial to the Japanese manga, so many of the references to real-life comic book characters and creators might have been lost on me except for the most famous ones (Stan Lee makes an brief appearance later in the book). I liked the friendship between cousins and work partners Joe and Sammy and their complicated relationship with Rosa, which to my relief is not the usual cliched love triangle, although the ending is a bit too neat. While I did wish it was shorter, it's a funny, sad, adventurous novel, devastating at parts but filled with hope and passion.