Amazing what 20 years can do to the memory of a “favorite book.”

For almost that many years, since reading “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” I’ve recommended the book to dozens of people.

The recommendation is accompanied by a scant description of the novel: A young man escapes pre-Holocaust Europe to stay with family living in America. The young man and his cousin create the Escapist, a superhero in the golden age of comic books leading up to World War II.

My memory recalled bits about Josef Kavalier and a golem before escaping Europe; Kavalier and cousin Sammy Clay meeting actual comic book creators from the era; brief histories of actual comics interwoven with the novelized fiction of the Escapist; World War II spent in the frozen north …

But as much as I have recommended this Pulitzer Prize winner from 2001, as much as it has inspired me to read Chabon’s previous and subsequent works, as much as I have claimed it as one of my favorite novels, that basic plot summary and the other snippets mentioned are about all I recalled from reading the novel in the early 2000s.

So, reading it again recently was like stumbling across something both familiar and new. So many wonderful details forgotten, so many vague memories reignited. What I remembered was correct but what I didn’t recall was immense.

That said, the re-read confirmed it can still be listed as one of my favorite novels and there are no regrets for recommending the book to so many people through the years.

“Kavalier & Clay” is epic in scope and intimate in its characterizations. It incorporates the early years and worlds of superheroes and comic books into an intensely human story. The Escapist character is the perfect superhero for a boy who wanted to be Houdini, who escapes the Holocaust but must leave his parents, grandfather and little brother behind, who co-creates a character with a mission of liberating the oppressed from Nazis and fascism, who runs away from love and the responsibilities of his later life.

“Kavalier & Clay” is funny and heart-breaking, tragic and triumphant. It is truly a book filled with amazing adventures.

A book worth reading and re-reading and one I will hopefully rediscover again at some point a decade or two down the road.