Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure | Michael Chabon

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure | Michael Chabon | An adventure indeed

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Gentlemen of the R...

	Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure Michael Chabon Del Rey, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 100 reviews view larger image
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Pure Pleasure

This is the fourth Chabon novel I've read in the past few months and it is surely my favorite. Though K & C and Yiddish policeman were both fun and had more weight to them (not just in pages, but in pathos, too), this one is instantly a timeless classic, meant to sit on the shelf next to "the three musketeers" and "treasure island." Chabon is having so much fun writing this book, in the language and frantic plot twists, it feels like he has been freed from the bonds of "literature," and is now flying on the wings of "pulp." But of course many of today's classics are yesterdays pulp. And honestly the language is so complex and stacked, you could hardly say it doesn't have literary value. The funniest thing (or do I mean pathetic) is the reviews here that complain there isn't enough explanation of the ancient world that is the setting of the book. Gosh, sorry if it made you think or go to wikipedia, next time read some Michael Crichton.

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An adventure indeed

GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD took my be surprise, both in its time period (950 or thereabouts) and its setting (the Khazar empire). Chabon's language also held my attention with its long sentences and winding descriptions. This isn't a book I would have normally picked up, but I have to say that I enjoyed it. Doctor Zelikman and the African Amram seem a curious couple, but they use that in their favor as they trick people out of their money in town after town. Only when they end up with the Khazar heir along with them are their wits not enough as they find themselves flung into a much bigger story.

Not being familiar with this period, I don't have much to compare this with, but the reading, while slow at times, was quite enjoyable. I'd recommend this to anyone I know who likes a good adventure and has the patience to watch it play out.

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Witty, flamboyant and fluid prose

Amram is a giant of a man, an African of uncertain origin, Zelikman, a Frank, tall and thin and as pale as Amram is dark; the two are travelling companions, gentlemen of the road. They make their way seeking opportunities, by cunning and deceit. Then they find themselves entrusted with the custody of Filqa, a youth who claims to be a deposed prince, and 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 and 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 and fluid mode, creating combinations of words that simply roll of the page. The result is witty, entertaining and often very funny and a pure pleasure to read. Perhaps the one casualty of Chabon's extravagant writing is that occasionally the overall sense sometime becomes confused in the abundance of words, but that is a small price to pay for the overall 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 and appealing work, this one beautifully illustrated with line drawings by Gary Gianni - a hint of Michael Chabon's fascination with comics?

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The Three Musketeers with purple prose

Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road reads like a classic novel, as if part of a required reading list for an English literature course. The vocabulary alone sent this reader to a dictionary more than once.

The novel opens with a thrown insult followed by a thrown axe, immediately setting the stage for a fight as well as setting the tone of the story and drawing the rough characters we will learn about and follow.

Amram, a huge African whose weapon of choice is the above-mentioned axe, and Zelikman, a Frank physician, make strange bedfellows in this wild adventure story. The unlikely pair find themselves traveling through tenth-century Asia together on a mission to reluctantly save Filaq, a prince of the Khazar empire, and help him reclaim his throne usurped by his uncle.

The characters and their relationships to each other are portrayed in subtle tone but visceral description. Grey-haired Amram has skin that is as "lustrous as the tarnish on a copper kettle and his eyes womanly as a camel's." Zelikman, on the other hand, is a "fair-haired scarecrow," a "thin-shanked fellow" whose hair falls in "two golden curtains on either side of his long face" and has an unhealthy relationship with hats. This Mutt and Jeff work their way through the Caucasus Mountains, pissing off the locals as they go, hurling insults, blades and witticisms along the way.

Whether purposeful or not, this book's prose is purple. One particularly colorful scene describes a man who is dragged from his hiding place and "slashed open like a gushing sack of wine." That painted the picture for this reader.

The atmosphere of this story compares to that of The Three Musketeers, Lethal Weapon, and several Hollywood Bible films all at once. And this story is all about guys. It is a long time before any female characters appear on the scene, though when one does, she makes up for the lack of women we don't see beforehand in a way that surprises and satisfies.

Illustrations by Prince Valiant artist Gary Gianni accompany the story, lending concrete pictures to the characters, if Chabon didn't paint them strongly enough already. Some people may argue that pictures can take away from the imagination of the reader, but if you can let that go, it doesn't take away from this well-told story. In fact, it gives it a closer resemblance to the classic novel. One doesn't see much artwork in novels these days, so it's a little refreshing.

Chabon's lengthy sentences and highbrow words do not make for a light read. In addition, the unfamiliar names and places may prevent its accessibility to the average reader, even at just under 200 pages.

Gentlemen of the Road is a literary, albeit action-packed, buddy road trip. While the map on the inside cover provides a little understanding of the geography of the story, perhaps a glossary - of the real and the fictitious - would have been more helpful.

Reviewed by Margaret Andrews for Curled Up With A Good Book

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Well written, but a little thin

I hesitate to only give this book three stars, because I did enjoy it, but I found that it didn't really stay with me aftwards. The writing, as one would expect from an author of Chabon's caliber, is exceptionally strong, but the story itself doesn't flow terribly well and was lacking in depth. To be fair, Chabon was deliberately trying to imitate serialized stories of the 19th century, so that contributes to the pulpish feel of the book. Moreover, if hadn't received the book from the Amazon Vine program, I doubt I would have paid for it, so in that regard my review is, admittedly, skewed.

Nonetheless, well "Gentlemen of the Road" is an engaging diversion, it lacked depth in the storytelling which ultimately, at least for me, derailed the reading experience.

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