The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
First edition cover
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| Author | Michael Chabon |
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| Cover artist | Paul Bacon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | William Morrow and Company |
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Publication date
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April 1988 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) and audio cassette |
| Pages | 297 (hardcover edition) |
| ISBN | (hardcover edition) |
| OCLC | 17108799 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.H15 M97 1988 |
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) is a novel by American author Michael Chabon. The story is a coming-of-age tale set during the early 1980s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was Chabon's first novel, which he began writing as a 21-year-old undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. He continued to work on it during his studies (1985–87) in the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English at the University of California, Irvine, where he submitted it as his thesis for the Master of Fine Arts degree. One of his advisors, the novelist MacDonald Harris, sent it to his literary agent. It was published in 1988 and became a bestseller.
A film adaptation—starring Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, and Nick Nolte—was released in 2009.
Art Bechstein is the son of a mob money launderer, who wants him to succeed in a legitimate career (He has even set up a job for him at the end of the summer in Baltimore at a financial firm managed by one of his old friends.). When Art graduates from the University of Pittsburgh, he has only a vague hope for a summer of adventure before he commits to the rest of his life. Bechstein almost immediately meets a charming young gay gentleman, Arthur Lecomte, and his friend, a highly literate biker, Cleveland Arning, who become his partners in many summer adventures. Art begins a relationship with an insecure young woman named Phlox Lombardi. As Art's attraction to Arthur grows, it destabilizes both relationships and reveals he may be bisexual. Art is also troubled when Cleveland begins moving deeper into the city's organized crime families, drawing him closer to his father's dangerous mob connections. Art's relationships with his family, friends, and lovers become more and more entangled, causing a series of fallings out and unforeseen consequences.
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