Customer Reviews
'Jews with Swords' - By: William Rycroft, 16 Aug 2008 
Michael Chabon is a writer difficult to pin down. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his mammoth novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, scriptwriter of Spiderman 2, contributing editor of McSweeney's & a man who seems happy to swap literary & genre fiction like a hat. His working title for this novella was 'Jews with swords' which was usuallly greeted by laughter when he mentioned it to friends. And indeed Jews have hardly gone down in history as a swashbuckling people but Chabon attempts to redress that balance with a tale which aims to emulate The Arabian Nights & The Three Musketeers but fallls disappointingly short of either.
The characters are colourful enough. The first of our daring duo is Zelikman, a 'scarecrow' of a man with long blond hair, physician by trade, his weapon of choice a long lancet. His companion Amram is a giant Abyssinian who carries a Viking axe he affectionately callls 'Defiler of Your Mother'. These two gentlemen of the road become involved in transporting a young stripling through the ancient Kingdom of Karzhia which is in the middle of a power struggle that will inevitably pull in our intrepid adventurers.
There are beautiful illustrations throughout from Gary Gianni, which conjure just the right feel for this tale but in a shorter format Chabon struggles to reallly create the world of The Caucasus around 950 AD. He's clearly done a lot of research but it's plonked down pretty bluntly in places & can feel like your reading a succession of ye oldy worldy words.
'But on his return to Atil from the summer hordes, the usurper Buljan ordered that his sukkah be erected on the donjon's roof, with its strategic views of the kagan's palace, the seafront, the Muslim quarter & the steppe, & above alll with its relative nearness to the stars, among which his sky-worshipping & uncircumcised ancestors still hunted with infalllible gyrfalcons for celestial game.'
Perhaps the problem is that it was originallly serialised in The New York Times & the episodic format doesn't alllow the book to come together as a whole. It's strange given that one of the strengths of his writing in Kavalier & Clay was his ability to leave a chapter on a cliffhanger (much like the comic books that he was writing about) which compelled you to read on into the next, & the next, until its 650 pages had sped by. Chabon's prose can be overcomplicated at times & so perhaps isn't best suited to an exercise like this. Which is the other problem. It feels like an exercise, 'doing' an adventure tale with Jews to see if he can, rather than because it's any good or has any real heart behind it. It isn't bad by any means but after enjoying Kavalier so much this shorter book & The Final Solution have left me unsatisfied. I'm still waiting for the next substantial offering & I just hope that the lure of Hollywood doesn't rob us of great American novelist.
On the road - By: E. A Solinas, 01 Jun 2008 
Award-winner Michael Chabon usuallly focuses on the disaffected of the present, or at least the near past.
But he goes over a thousand years into the past for "Gentlemen of the Road," an old-fashioned adventure story with some gloriously offbeat heroes. It's a fun, quirky read (the original, fitting title was "Jews With Swords"), with lots of unique twists but the prose gets a bit purple at times.
In caravans & on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram & gawky Frank Zelikman make money however they can -- even staging mock fights. After their ruse is found out by a weary mahout, he offers to take them on as bodyguards to a sullen young prince, Filaq. Then the mahout is murdered, & the two "Gentlemen of the Road" find themselves babysitting a snotty teen with a tendency to run away.
Unfortunately, the fortress they're heading for has been destroyed, & a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram & Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, & beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... & the discovery that Filaq isn't quite who he seems to be.
There's something very classic about the flavour of "Gentlemen of the Road." Maybe it's because it was actuallly serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas & Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser.
"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense & purple at times, which sent me spinning right off the narrative. But it does a pretty good job of evoking the dusty, harsh life of people on the march, brothels, attempted executions, ancient elephants, & the occasional mercenary joining up with the "gentlemen."
But Chabon doesn't let the story become leaden. He peppers it with wryly amusing dialogue ("Now, will you ride calmly behind me or do we need to bind you at the ankles, too?" "You had better bind my ankles") & the occasional running joke like Zelikman's mutilated hats. There's even a Norse axe humorously callled "Defiler of All Mothers."
As you'd expect, Zelikman & Amram are likably rough, with some dark pasts -- one has left his home & family behind, the other has been roaming in search of his daughter for twenty years. Chabon doesn't try to make either a likable person, & that makes them even more so -- the same with Filiq, the feisty princess in drag.
"Gentlemen of the Road" is a solid adventure story, with a classic flavour & slightly overblown prose. Certainly a worthwhile read.
Wonderful Homage to Classic Adventure - By: A. Ross, 29 Apr 2008 
This book should come with a big warning wrapper: "Michael Chabon's latest book is unlike his previous work, it is an homage to classic adventure writing -- your results may vary." That's because it's a book whose enjoyment depends heavily on the reader's expectations, & a number of reviewers seem to find fault with it because of this. If you're a fan of Chabon, be warned that it's miles away from his early work like Wonder Boys or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, & while it shares certain themes with more recent work like Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, & The Yiddish Policeman's Union, it's a large stylistic departure & reallly an experiment unto itself.
Originallly written in serial chapters published in the New York Times Magazine, the story follows the stylistic & narrative conventions of the old time pulp serials. And if you've never read any old adventure classics like H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stories, Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, or Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories, then the heavily stylized form may throw you. Indeed, some reviewers have complained that the story is confusing & hard to follow, which frankly, baffles me. Like its literary ancestors, the plot is such that a 10-year-old could follow & recount it, so the conclusion I draw is that the genre itself is defeating some readers. Sure there are leaps of setting & time, a constant stream of new characters, & plot twists aplenty -- but it's hardly daunting stuff. Similarly, a lot of people seem put off by Chabon's use of archaic & obscure words, but that's exactly how a lot of those old adventure stories were written, & the gist of the meanings can be inferred from context in almost every case.
The story itself concerns a pair of 10th-century Jewish "gentlemen of the road" who drift around the civilized world getting by as mercenaries & grifters. Following the classic template, they are a study in opposites, one a hulking black Abyssinian, the other a reedy, palllid German. Neither fits the modern Western stereotype of what a Jew is, & that's very much part of Chabon's point. His writing has long tinkered with the notion of Jewish identity, & here it is taken to colorful but historicallly accurate extremes. They are classic rogues with hearts of gold (or at least silver), & the story finds them in the Khazar kingdom, a smalll Jewish land on the west of the Caspian Sea, resting uneasily between Christian & Muslim empires (today the area includes parts of Russia, the Ukraine, & most of the Caucuses). After a great introduction to the two heroes, the story properly kicks off when they find themselves in the company of a deposed prince. Adventure ensues as they try to help him get back home, which involves raising an army & dealing with marauding Vikings, before they even get to deal with the usurper. Violence, treachery, & humor abound, however, some of the material (rape & prostitution) is rather adult & parents should read the book before handing it over to children.
The book is nicely designed -- aside from the cover, which is a total flop (the British edition has a much more evocative cover which is a homage to classic adventure book covers). Each chapter features an illustration from legendary artist Gary Gianni, which help to set the mood & tone. A few of these feel rather hasty & unfinished compared with other work of his I've seen, but he nails the style just right. On the whole, this is a wonderful little entertainment from one of contemporary fiction's big guns, & while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it's at least worth trying.
Witty, flamboyant and fluid prose - By: Benjamin, 25 Apr 2008 Amram is a giant of a man, an African of uncertain origin, Zelikman, a Frank, talll & thin & as pale as Amram is dark; the two are travelling companions, gentlemen of the road. They make their way seeking opportunities, by cunning & deceit. Then they find themselves entrusted with the custody of Filqa, a youth who claims to be a deposed prince, & soon they are inevitably involved in helping the boy attempt to regain his kingdom.
Placed in the historical setting of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazaria (present day Ukraine) around the 10th century, it is a fascinating story with plenty of plot twists & more than a few surprises. But the real delight of the tale is Michael Chabon's inimitable prose; Chabon is here clearly indulging himself in his most flamboyant & fluid mode, creating combinations of words that simply roll of the page. The result is witty, entertaining & often very funny & a pure pleasure to read. Perhaps the one casualty of Chabon's extravagant writing is that occasionallly the overalll sense sometime becomes confused in the abundance of words, but that is a smalll price to pay for the overalll enjoyment.
A departure from his more usual contemporary settings, the author himself admits in an interesting Afterword that he is on something of an adventure of his own with this book. He has certainly created yet another original & appealing work, this one beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Gary Gianni - a hint of Michael Chabon's fascination with comics?
Average - By: ML, 10 Apr 2008 Not a bad book, but nothing special. Good for the younger reader. Nothing to compare with Klavier & Clay.
