way to America when his ship was sunk by a German U-boat on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thomas Edison Clay – Joe Kavalier and Rosa Saks Clay's biological son, Tommy, and Sam Clay's stepson and first cousin once removed. Tommy is told he is Sam Clay's son until the reappearance of "Cousin Joe." Longman Harkoo – Father of Rosa Saks and father-in-law to Sam Clay. John Wesley Shannenhouse – Eccentric Navy pilot stationed with Joe in Antarctica. Al Smith – Former governor of New York and 1928 Democratic nominee for president. Estes Kefauver – Chairman of Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Harry Houdini – Born Erik Weisz, escape artist, illusionist, stunt performer. Eleanor Roosevelt – First Lady of the United States. Salvador Dalí – Acclaimed Spanish surrealist painter and sculptor, known for his flamboyant personality. Orson Welles – Co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in title role of "Citizen Kane." Reception In a contemporary review for The Guardian, Stephanie Merritt praised the book, saying, "Kavalier and Clay deserves a place alongside the best of recent American fiction." Entertainment Weekly put the novel on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "This 2000 novel blended comic books, Jewish mysticism, and American history into something truly amazing." In 2019, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was ranked 57th on The Guardians list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Editions U.S.: 2000, Random House, hardcover, U.S.: 2001, Picador, paperback, U.S.: 2012, Random House, paperback and e-book, . This edition includes a reader's guide and an "Odds & Ends" section containing additional pieces by the author: "Breakfast in the Wreck", "The Return of the Amazing Cavalieri", "The Crossover", and "Fifty Dollars Takes it Home". Adaptations Film As of 2022, the novel remains unfilmed. Producer Scott Rudin, who had worked with Chabon in the early nineties on The Gentlemen Host, bought the screen rights to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for Paramount Pictures based on a one-and-a-half page pitch before the novel had been published. (Rudin was involved with the novel so early on that his name appears in the acknowledgements to its first edition.) After the book was published, Rudin hired Chabon to write the screen adaptation. In July 2002, it was reported that the process had taken 16 months and six drafts, none of which pleased the demanding Rudin. "It's like those arcade games where a