Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Chabon) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Here is a first novel by a talented young writer that is full of all the delights, and not a few of the disappointments, inherent in any early work of serious fiction. There is the pleasure of a fresh voice and a keen eye, of watching a writer clearly in love with language and literature, youth and wit, expound and embellish upon the world as he sees it, balanced by a scarcity of well-developed characters and a voice so willing to please that it seldom goes beyond the story's surface. As is the case in so many first novels, 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is a coming-of-age story, the chronicle of a single summer in which a young man confronts both his family and his sexuality and thus finds them forever changed.
Alice McDermott - New York Times


First-novelist Chabon, with...distinctive vision...an elegiac, graceful style, spins a story about alienated youth that, while serving up some familiar details of sex, alcohol and drugs,... fully engages the reader in the lives of an appealing cast of characters.
Publishers Weekly


Heavy pre-pub hype...ill serves the modest achievement of this competent first novel about the difficulties of being a mobster's son.... While the gangster's giddy child dithers through his soap-operatic dilemma...his father reveals his true mobster ways, with tragic results. Broadly-drawn characters, patches of careless writing, and improbable plot twists should make for a fine film.
Kirkus Reviews