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Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure (Paperback)

by Michael Chabon (Author)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor Canada (Sep 30 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 038566544X
ISBN-13: 978-0385665445
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14 x 1.4 cm
Shipping Weight: 205 g

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #92,308 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#13 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Chabon, Michael

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

The odd bond between the young Frank Zelikman and the older, dark-skinned giant, Amram, serves as the basis for Chabon's short novel about life, war and religion in the 10th century. Wandering along the Silk Road, using both knowledge and trickery to earn their way, they stumble upon Filaq, the displaced heir to the Khazar throne. The two employ their many skills to return Filaq to the throne. Braugher delivers a strong and commanding performance with a lilting rhythm to his voice that is almost hypnotic. His resonating baritone voice proves appealing for the narration. His vocalization of the strong and solemn Amram is perfect, while his lightened tone for Zelikman is also a good match. His female vocalizations aren't nearly as powerful. Chabon reads the afterword, enlightening listeners to the reasons for writing a novel he originally intended to call Jews with Swords.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From AudioFile

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon delves into a mysterious world of barbarians, city-states, and crafty travelers in the oddly named GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD. The book owes much to Robert E. Howards CONAN. Andre Braugher, star of the tele?vision show Homicide, reads the exposition-heavy book set a thousand years ago in the Khazar kingdom near the Black Sea. His delivery is straightforward but does not exploit the actors range of talent. His performance might have been more engaging if the book had more dialogue. As it stands, the work drags in places. A rapier-wielding Jewish doctor and horse thief and his companion, a surly African ax-wielder, become involved in restoring an heir to a kingdom. Chabon is featured in a bonus afterword in the set. M.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

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3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Literary Polish Heavily Overlaid on 15 Connected Short Stories, Nov 3 2007

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure (Hardcover)

Language should enhance a story, not distract from it. Michael Chabon has such a fine command of English that he could write a love story that only five people in the world could understand was a love story. But what purpose would that serve? It would merely indicate pride at work.

To me, an adventure story needs to focus on the action and move rapidly. I want to find myself hanging over a cliff without first realizing that I'm barreling towards it. Otherwise, I don't feel like I'm in the adventure . . . but merely reading words about someone's idea of an adventure.

As a result, I wasn't pleased with the results of Michael Chabon's imaginative series of 15 short stories. I was spending more time studying the language than I was thinking about the story. It's like having a cake that's almost all icing. Why? For some reason, he chooses to use extremely long sentences ("With his skin that was lustrous as the tarnish on a copper kettle, and his eyes womanly as a camel's, and his shining pate with its ruff of wool whose silver hue implied a seniority attained only by the most hardened men, and above all with the air of stillness that trumpeted his murderous nature to all but the greenest travelers on this minor spur of the Silk Road, the African appeared neither to invite nor to promise to tolerate questions.") and many infrequently used words (the first chapter includes "shatranj," "bambakion," "buskins," "ostler," "bodkin," "runes," "Mehr," "Varangian," "caravansary," "japery," "Parthian," and "mendacious." Now I knew all but one of those words and could figure the other one out from context, but I doubt if most people would agree that those words added to the meaning of the story.

Building a tale from 15 short stories also makes the book choppy. I would have preferred a novella or a novel. Few have written this way since the time of Dickens when books were sold by installment. There's a reason for that: It doesn't work as well.

But the historical references were interesting, ones that I'm glad I learned from reading the book.

It's a short book and well illustrated. Without the illustrations, I would have liked the book a lot less well. The illustrations, however, pointed out some of the weaknesses of the writing: You need the illustrations to complete the story telling for the words are inadequate by themselves.

Beyond that, was I glad I read the book? Not very much. The overall story is one that didn't capture my interest very much. After Chapter One, the book was all downhill for me.

This work feels like a writing exercise rather than a serious literary work designed to please a large audience.

If you like fine writing and don't care much about how well the story works, by all means read this book.

But if you are looking for the best and most accessible of what Michael Chabon can deliver, skip Gentlemen of the Road.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short, but very sweet..., Oct 30 2008

By	Schmadrian - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure (Hardcover)

...just like this review.

If you love language...if you love adventure-writ-economical...if you believe that 'less is more'...then this novel is for you.

It's not for everyone. It is a sortakinda set-piece of muscular language; imagine if you will, Shakespeare writing a novella, and doing it with brevity in mind. It presumes that you're either familiar with many/most/the majority of arcane references...or you have the mental chops to connect the dots, to keep up with alacrity...while having a ball.

Having said that, as a screenwriter/novelist, part of my reaction to any book is, at the risk of infuriating literary purists, to ask the question 'Would it make a good movie?'

'Gentlemen of the Road' would make (in the right hands, with the right touch) a fantabulous film.

My fingers are now crossed.

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4.0 out of 5 stars On the road to adventure, Jun 1 2008

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Gentlemen Of The Road (Hardcover)

Award-winner Michael Chabon usually 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 and on the road, the giant Abyssian Amram and 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, and 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, and a gang of hired thugs kidnap Filaq. For no reason they can explain, Amram and Zelikman find themselves racing to rescue the kid, and beginning a quest full of checkered pasts, civil wars, ancient elephants... and 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 actually serialized in the New York Times Magazine, or maybe because Chabon apparently soaked up the works of Moorcock, Alexandre Dumas and Fritz Lieber. Think a Jewish version of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

"Gentlemen of the Road" does have one flaw -- Chabon's prose gets dense and 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, and 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") and the occasional running joke like Zelikman's mutilated hats. There's even a Norse axe humorously called "Defiler of All Mothers."

As you'd expect, Zelikman and Amram are likably rough, with some dark pasts -- one has left his home and 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, and 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 and slightly overblown prose. Certainly a worthwhile read.

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