Gentlemen of the road

I hadn't read any Michael Chabon novels before and chose this one purely for its historical setting as I hoped it would fit nicely alongside a couple of other recent reads: Ibn Fadlan's travel memoirs of Western Asia in the Viking era and Edouardo Albert's humorous Conrad Monk And The Great Heathen Army adventure tale. Gentlemen Of The Road is closer to Conrad Monk in style, although not as funny, however it does feel based in a solid historical reality and I could appreciate that Chabon had certainly done his research.

The story is a classic adventure tale which gallops across medieval Khazaria at such a pace that I did sometimes find myself left behind. At its heart is a wonderful friendship between two men, apparently as different in physical appearance and temperament as it is possible to be, yet perfectly suited to each other and utterly loyal. They get themselves into ever more dire predicaments, yet somehow always manage to scramble clear of total disaster. Gentlemen Of The Road is a fairly short novel, but a very entertaining one. Perhaps its overall arc is a little too predictable, however the twists and turns are great fun to follow and I enjoyed the inventiveness of the plots. The humour is tempered with a spot of philosophy here and there and it was interesting to learn more about the unique kingdom of Khazaria.

Impishly nicknamed "Jews with Swords" by its author, "Gentlemen of the Road" is a historical adventure tale about a pair of rogues--a giant African soldier named Amram and a German physician/fencer named Zelikman--and their journey through the (largely unfamiliar to me and apparently scantly chronicled) city-states of Khazaria.

Pleasingly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Amram and Zelikman are introduced in a very amusing fashion that immediately familiarizes the reader with the most salient aspects of their personalities. They overcome their baser instincts to grudgingly become involved in what looks like a simple escort mission, only to find their task rapidly balloon in importance, until they end up having an inadvertent and significant political impact on the region.

While this book is dedicated to Michael Moorcock, to me it felt more like a swashbuckling yarn in the tradition of Robert E. Howard or Harold Lamb. The narrative travels along at a brisk pace with no wasted verbiage, and characters are mostly rendered in broad, archetypal strokes. The episodic format (the novel was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine) and monochrome illustrations by the excellent Gary Gianni (who also handled the Del Rey Conan and Solomon Kane books, etc.) also contributed greatly to the pulp adventure appeal.

My only complaint with the book is that there isn't more of it. I would love to read more of the "Gentlemen's" adventures, but with his "literary" pedigree Chabon is probably loath to be perceived as repeating himself. Indeed, parts of the included Afterword seem a bit like a defense of him writing the story in the first place, saying effectively "Yeah, I mostly write New Yorker-style slice-of-life stories, but adventure tales are also really great!" Personally, I'd rather see him continue to experiment with genre rather than write any more "Jewish writer has marital struggles" stories, but it remains to be seen when he'll release his next "fun" novel.

This is the first book by Chabon that I have read. It wasn’t the name that attracted me ( it was familiar) but the production of the hardbound edition by Sceptre. The cover as you might be able to tell harks back to an era of adventure novels with gold embossed decoration and the inside covers feature a full colour map.

Ah maps, the value of a wonderfully rendered map. Gentlemen of the Road also features some lovely black and white illustrations by Gary Gianni.

So the presentation caught my eye. I can’t say that I would be stirred to pick it up if I had seen the paperback cover.

Originally published as a serial in the New York Times magazine it does tend to move forward in small jumps. Some reviewers found that this undercut the momentum of the story in novel form. I just found it very easy to pick up, put down and pick up again. I think the serialised approach to story construction may help some readers deal with the stylised language (beautiful paragraph long sentences in some cases) though after a few chapters I found myself delighting in the work of a skilled craftsman.

"The African reined in the tottering horse with its flecked lips and wild eye, and the travellers dismounted, the African with a weary grace and no expression, the scarecrow with grimaces and a show of soreness in the underparts."

Much of my entertainment stemmed from Chabon’s prose. The plot is nothing extraordinary, the action, for an adventure story isn’t really seat of your parts, but I don’t think this is what Chabon was really trying to achieve.

We have two Jewish rogues, on adventures getting caught up in situations they know they should avoid. It’s light hearted adventure with smooth writing. If I can make one observation (bearing in mind that I don’t generally read that type of adventure novel that Chabon is riffing off) is that the treatment of Filaq and certain things that happen to him seem to be glossed over and resulted in a crack in my suspension of disbelief (I am aware I am being a bit cryptic here but I don’t want to spoil things).

Its all very well to have a cracking good adventure and everything is squared away nicely at the end… but there were elements of a sexual and violent nature that I thought may well have sat fine in an adventure novel written in the 19th century but I’m not convinced they do so well here.

That being said, it was an enjoyable read.

This is a short adventure novel set at the time of the Khazar Empire, and the two main characters are Zelikman, a Jew who is described as skinny, pale, blonde, and dressed all in black, and Amram, an African of opposite stature. The two men have a strong bond and make their living by their wits. They are intriguing characters, but they are never fully developed. I would have enjoyed knowing more about the history of this friendship. Anyway, the two of them wind up getting involved in an adventure in which the stakes are much higher than usual, a very serious affair in which they guard and protect an endangered prince.

This novel may be short, but it's not a quick read; I found it to be slow-moving and bogged down with historical references that made the plot seem unnecessarily complicated. There is some fun humor, though I'm not sure I got all of it, and Chabon always works his magic with great phrases, but I think his longer novels may be more to my liking. Chabon has invented some wonderful personalities in his books, but Zelikman and Amram are pretty much stock characters, and this adventure lacks intensity.

Oh, well. Can't love them all, I guess, but I do give this one an A for being unique.