Customer Reviews

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure

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The story of the Jewish kingdom of the Khazars is a fascinating piece of history. The Khazars were a collection of semi-nomadic tribes that wandered through the Caucasus region of what is now Russia. Khazaria, loosely thought of as the isthmus-like land mass located between the Black and Caspian Seas, was an ideal site for merchants and wandering traders. Khazaria was buffeted on three sides by the Caliphate's Islamic forces to the south, Byzantium's Greek Christian forces to the southwest, and the barbarian Kievan Rus forces to the north. In an act of geopolitical realpolitik the Khagan, leader of the Khazars, converted to Judaism at some point in the seventh century in order to maintain a neutral balance of power in the region. The Jewish Khazars maintained dominance in the region from around the latter part of the 8th century until the early part of the 11thcentury at which point the Kievan Russians, who had converted to Christianity and aligned themselves with the Byzantines, overturned the Khazar's rule. The story of the ancient Khazars is an intriguing one that makes for a fascinating historical study. They were the sole independent Jewish state ever to exist outside of contemporary Israel. There have been some good books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the Khazars including: The Jews of Khazaria, Dictionary of the Khazars (M), and The Wind of the Khazarsthat provide a wealth of information on this little known piece of history.

Michael Chabon's "Gentlemen of the Road" is set in and around Khazaria during this time period. It is a good adventure; well-told and fast paced. The two gentlemen of the road are Zelikman and Amram. Zelikman, is young, thin, and pale. Originally from Regensburg in what is now Bavaria, Germany, Zelikman has broken with his family and wanders the trade routes of the Middle Ages looking for adventure. Amram is older and bigger. Originally from Africa, Amram wanders the trade routes looking for his daughter who was stolen from his village. They are traveling companions and occasional con-artists living off their wits and their fighting skills. Soon after the story opens, Zelikman and Amram unwittingly find themselves in the midst of a struggle for control of the Khazar Empire. They take custody of a young prince, Filaq, skinny and too young (apparently) to shave, but strong-headed and feisty. Filaq wants nothing more than to avenge the death of his father, the deposed ruler and restore his family to the throne. Amram and Zelikman, bickering all the way face one crisis after another as they travel closer to the capital of the Khazars where they and Filaq will meet their fate.

"Gentlemen of the Road" is a good adventure story. Originally serialized in the Sunday New York Times Magazine (in fifteen installments) each chapter ends with something of a cliff-hanger. Chabon does a nice job keeping the pot boiling and he also does a nice job of developing the back-story of Zelikman, Amram, and the other major characters. The story's biggest flaw, in my opinion, is the absence of any background information about the Kingdom of the Khazars. Any reader unfamiliar with the history of the Khazars is likely to be either surprised or puzzled at the various references to Jewish rulers (Khagans and Beks), expressions and practices that appear throughout the story. In an afterword to the book Chabon mentions that the original working title for "Gentlemen of the Road" was "Jews with Swords" but noted that it only seemed to make people laugh at the seeming incongruity of the title. While I understand Chabon's point in this regard I think the reaction he received to his working title underscores that importance of putting his adventure in some context, even if in an introduction or preface.

That said, "Gentlemen and the Road" is still a good story, written with style by someone in command of his craft. It is well worth reading at a solid 3.5 stars. L. Fleisig

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, and 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, and while it shares certain themes with more recent work like Kavalier & Clay, The Final Solution, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union, it's a large stylistic departure and really an experiment unto itself.

Originally written in serial chapters published in the New York Times Magazine, the story follows the stylistic and 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 and hard to follow, which frankly, baffles me. Like its literary ancestors, the plot is such that a 10-year-old could follow and recount it, so the conclusion I draw is that the genre itself is defeating some readers. Sure there are leaps of setting and time, a constant stream of new characters, and plot twists aplenty -- but it's hardly daunting stuff. Similarly, a lot of people seem put off by Chabon's use of archaic and obscure words, but that's exactly how a lot of those old adventure stories were written, and 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 and grifters. Following the classic template, they are a study in opposites, one a hulking black Abyssinian, the other a reedy, pallid German. Neither fits the modern Western stereotype of what a Jew is, and that's very much part of Chabon's point. His writing has long tinkered with the notion of Jewish identity, and here it is taken to colorful but historically accurate extremes. They are classic rogues with hearts of gold (or at least silver), and the story finds them in the Khazar kingdom, a small Jewish land on the west of the Caspian Sea, resting uneasily between Christian and Muslim empires (today the area includes parts of Russia, the Ukraine, and 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 and dealing with marauding Vikings, before they even get to deal with the usurper. Violence, treachery, and humor abound, however, some of the material (rape and prostitution) is rather adult and 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 and tone. A few of these feel rather hasty and 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, and while it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, it's at least worth trying.

By reputation, Michael Chabon is one of America's finest young writers. When I read that he had an adventure tale set in Tenth Century Khazaria, I thought this book is going to be great. Having finished the book, what a great dissapointment! First and foremost, he lifted his two main characters from Fritz Lieber's "Fafhrd and Grey Mouser" series. Chabon changes the color and profession of the characters but they are the same characters with the same dynamic. The whole book reminded me of those terrible Dungeons and Dragons' adventure novels that I read as a teenager. While those books may have been terrible, they had the virtue of being simple and honestly written. It is hard to write a good adventure story with something new to say. If you want to read a good historical adventure story written by a serious novelist, check out the works of Arturo Perez Reverte. One day, when academics study the works of Michael Chabon, "Gentlemen of the Road" is going to be the embarassing novel that will amuse them.

Michael Chabon is an excellent writer and storyteller. His The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay justly deserved the Pulitzer Prize. In this short, fast paced adventure novel Chabon takes us back in time to a little known era where we meet two wanderers and adventurers, Zelikman and Amram. Indeed, they are unlikely companions with the melancholy, eccentric, thin German Zelikman, and the huge African Amran wandering the roads and living by their wits. Very quickly in the book they run across another unlikely character, Filaq, progeny of a deposed ruler who seeks to avenge a father's death and restore the throne to its rightful owner. The two friends, not always enthusiastically, attach their fate to Filaq's, and thus the adventure unfolds.

Chabon, as noted, is an excellent writer and the characters in this novel are extremely well drawn and enjoyable to follow. The action, pace, and writing of the novel is quick, witty, and engaging. Frankly, in this case, Chabon takes a flawed novel and makes it enjoyable anyway with his characterization and pleasing prose style.

There are two flaws with this novel, however, that make it less than what it could have been. First, the story is set in an era that this reader knows little about so it was sometimes difficult to grasp the big picture of what was going on politically or geographically without some background information. The second, more serious flaw, is that the linkage between chapters or scenes were either missing or obscure, giving the flow of the book, especially in the later chapters, a disjointed feel. It almost read like a comic strip with stand alone chapters that didn't always make clear linkages to what went on before. Of course it all comes together eventually, but made the novel less enjoyable.

Overall, this was a pleasant novel to read, but somewhat disappointing at the same time.

I generally love books by Michael Chabon (and I've read a lot of them), so I was very disappointed when I didn't like this one. It's an old-fashioned adventure story about two traveling Jews (one thin and fair, the other thick and dark) who are quick to join any fight they encounter on the road. The story is intricate, and the prose is even more intricate. Chabon's linguistic gymnastics didn't make up for the lack of character development and the formulaic plot. I get the sense this was a quickly-written experiment published between major works. Had Chabon not been the author, I don't think this would've been publised at all.

The blurbs on the back cover compare "Gentlemen of the Road" to Alexandre Dumas and Edgar Rice Burroughs -- an old fashioned adventure story, short, fast paced, and easy to read. In its specifics it more closely resembles the Fafrhd and Grey Mouser series of stories by Fritz Leiber: a similar luxury of language and verbal wit, and a pair of juxtaposed wandering heroes, one giant and one small and quick. Our heroes here are Zelikman, a gaunt Frankish healer often described as a scarecrow, and Amram, a towering Abyssinian with a massive Viking axe.

There are two basic things that make this book a little better than your average adventure novel. The first is the historical setting, the steppes of Central Asia in the tenth century A.D. There are Khazars and Rabanites, elephants and marauding Rus, Jews and Muslims and a smattering of languages. As far as I'm aware no one has ever attempted to set a story in such a place, outside of Borodin's opera "Prince Igor". It's exotic enough to elicit a certain otherworldly excitement, but grounded in reality and history that keeps the romance from taking over entirely. Mr Chabon has done his research and rendered a complete world, believably populated by a variety of characters and cultures.

The second thing that makes this little book so worthwhile is the skill that Mr Chabon brings to its creation. He is known as a big-ticket bestselling literary author, and some people would say this sort of genre exercise is below him; however, it's precisely because he's got serious literary chops that he can pull off the plotting and style of "Gentlemen of the Road". He slips into the obscure words and old fashioned style with ease, and it's a pleasure to read every word of the book. Mr Chabon has not tried to turn a genre adventure into a literary tome; instead he's tried his damnedest to write the best adventure he can. And he succeeds: "Gentlemen of the Road" is a fun book, and it's easy to imagine seeing a sequel or three on the shelves at some point.

Mr Chabon has already come up with a Sherlock Holmes pastiche and a science fiction detective story. I for one am hoping that he keeps this up and even starts a trend among other "literary" writers.

Chabon knocked around the title 'Jews With Swords' for this novel, and the title would have been as accurate for this nice little novel. Two gentlemen of the road embark on an erstwhle adventure that winds up being more than they bargained for. Along the lines of nineteenth century Fantasy Lit by writers such as H. Rider Haggard, the book is graced with wonderful illustrations that portray the adventure as one reads it. Along the way, money is made, lost and made again, a supposed deposed Prince is protected, and much merriment is had. Wonderful.

Ask yourself whether you like this sort of writing:
"The Wend, sightless and mute, knew the proper smells and bodily utterances of this man and the circular echoes of the apartment so well that on reaching it he could hear the books that had been moved from their right places, and his sapient nostrils at once discerned the intrusive brackish smell of river water and a faint ribbon of some rank attar in the air."
If you like this sort of thing, you'll find yourself right at home with "Gentlemen of the Road."

Michael Chabon's new novel, from which the above excerpt is taken, comes hard on the heels of his stunning literary bestseller, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union." In fact, in an interview given in May of 2007, before "Gentlemen of the Road" came out in hardback, Chabon characterizes his newer novel as a sort of therapy from the self-imposed stylistic discipline which informed the earlier Chandleresque stylings of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union." "I really kept my language tight in 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union'.... but when I turned to 'Gentlemen of the Road'... I just found these paragraph long sentences pouring out of me. The language that 'Gentlemen of the Road' is written in is really dense, lush, purple somewhat overwritten but fun I hope." Well, maybe, if you like that sort of thing.

It's fair to say that Chabon has earned the right to attempt any style of writing he wants to. But it's also fair to say that "Gentlemen of the Road" would probably not have seen the light of day had it been written by an unknown author. It's also fair to say that I would not have finished the book had I not already read "The Yiddish Policemen's Union." The first book makes the second book possible in so many ways, but it doesn't make it good.


"Gentlemen of the Road" is a swashbuckling episodic adventure story, crafted in a style which pays homage to, but does not surpass the many such stories on which is is based. It's not that the genre is, ipso facto, limited, but the style of writing is. There's nothing inherently pretty or clever in sentences like the one quoted above, or this one, again, typical of the whole book:
" For half a day the captain of the archers - a javshigar in the Army of the Khazar with fifteen years of service to the candelabrum flag - had suffered, shifting from foot to foot, pulling now at his mustache, now at the fingers of his glove, as the warrior king to whom he had sworn loyalty by oaths so ancient and binding they resisted even the power of the autumnal Disavowal haggled and pleaded for the safety of the house of Buljan with a barbarous swaggering Rus butcher whom the vicissitudes of the plunderous life had left only half a face."

In its attempt to contain all exposition within a narrative and stylistic straitjacket, "Gentlemen of the Road" violates the basic "show, don't tell" dictum of storytelling. The narration is intrusive, ham fisted, over long, and downright silly. The limitations of this style of writing - not the genre itself - make it bad.

So, did Chabon think this would be as fun to read as it apparently was for him to write? Apparently so. And yet, the writing fails miserably, because it is neither fish nor fowl, neither one thing nor the other, neither serious nor camp. The style does not transcend its limited model. If there is an in-joke that I'm missing here, it's buried pretty deeply. Sure, there are little subtleties and modern references, but I think Chabon is writing mostly out of genuine love for the Boys' Own Adventure stories of his youth, and insofar as he imitates the writing style of that genre without attempting to rise above it he seriously hamstrings his efforts - in a way that never happened with "The Yiddish Policemen's Union." In "Gentlemen of the Road" I am reading an author who seems to be having great fun, and, who knows, may think he is expanding the possibilities of literature, as he has done in the past. But this just doesn't work.... for me.

This book reminded me of Voltaire's Candide because the writing style never let me forget that this is a story not to be taken seriously, but unlike Candide, either it is not a satire, or the satirical references passed over my head. Some reviewers regarded it as a straight-out adventure story, set in a real, but largely forgotten, time and place in history. A map of that place and time, such as the maps in Eric Flint's 1632 and its sequels, would have helped the reader to follow the story.

I did rather enjoy the droll chapter titles, but by and large the story just didn't resonate with me; I did manage to read the entire book, and it probably deserves more stars than 3, but I can't honestly say I found it so.

watziznaym@gmail.com

Michael Chabon has always had a populist streak. Despite the fact that he has won significant literary honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, Chabon still includes elements of popular genre fiction in almost all his work --- from THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY (about a pair of cartoonists and the superhero they create) to his most recent novel, THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION, a send-up of classic noir thrillers. Now, in GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD, Chabon indulges his taste for old-fashioned, swashbuckling adventure stories in a novel that combines old-fashioned storytelling with big ideas.

As befits a story that feels, at times, as if it were written a hundred years ago, GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD was originally released in serial installments in The New York Times. Just like the best serialized fiction of the past (Dickens's novels come to mind), Chabon's book is filled with cliffhangers, plot twists and unanswered questions, all designed to keep readers on the edge of their seats until the next installment. Gary Gianni's detailed, expressive line drawings, reminiscent of the work of classic illustrators such as N. C. Wyeth, also enhance this vintage feel.

The story begins with a bang, as a massive Abyssinian named Amram (who carries a massive axe dubbed "Defiler of All Mothers") and a lanky Frank named Zelikman wind up in an apparently deadly duel outside a caravanserai. The year is 950, and Viking marauders, violent political struggles and warring tribes have made for a very unstable situation in the eastern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, where the story is set.

But all is not as it seems in this high-stakes duel, and before long, Amram and Zelikman, both alive and well, are eager to collect their pay and be on their way to their next money-making scheme. This time, though, the Jewish confidence men's fates become inextricably tied up with that of a foul-mouthed, red-haired young Khazar (from the warlike Jewish kingdom near the Caspian Sea).

It turns out that the Khazarian adolescent is none other than Filaq, the youngest son of the deposed and murdered Khazar warlord. Despite their aversion to the prickly, fiercely private Filaq, Amram and Zelikman get caught up in the young prince's quest to dethrone the fierce Buljan and restore Filaq's family to power. Surprises --- and dangers --- abound at every turn, however, and, just like Amram and Zelikman's fight that opens the novel, little is as it first seems.

GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD is chock-full of pithy one-liners, clever turns of phrase and creative curses that showcase Chabon's wit and wordplay to its fullest. With a cast of thousands, including prostitutes with names like "Flower of Life," bloodthirsty villains and some truly personable elephants, Chabon's novel bursts with life and, yes, with adventure. Although the author's afterword attempts to posit the book in a broader Jewish historical and literary tradition, ultimately this "Tale of Adventure" is just that --- a ripping good yarn, complete with swordfights, treachery and hidden identities. It's clear that Chabon had almost as fun writing GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD as his fans will have reading it.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl