Greatpilgrim's Full Review: Michael Chabon - Gentlemen of the Road
Michael Chabon’s suspense novels combine a highly unlikely equation of mass-market appeal and literary aspirations, enough to win him the Pulitzer prize in 2001 for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. His most recent book, Gentlemen of the Road (2007), kicks the action back 1000 years to an Arabian-Nights-style Asia in which kingdoms are made and broken by the movements of mercenaries and nomads.
Zelikman and Amram are of the former persuasion – one a skinny Frank of Jewish heritage and a devil of a fencer, the other a powerful African whose ax doesn’t take no for an answer – and they have a pretty sweet gig as traveling professional stuntsmen/con artists who duel each other for wagers, then cut and run. Occasionally, however, they are called upon for larger endeavors…as with Faliq, a young prince in disguise whose kingdom has been usurped by a cruel uncle. The two mercenaries’ reluctance to take on this adventure is understandable – the dangers are numerous, the odds are decidedly not in their favor, and the rewards are uncertain – but who else but sword-wielding charlatans can persuade the ragged tribes of Khazar to tackle an imperial army?
This story no doubt sounds quite straight-forward; Chabon however manages to turn it into a convoluted, shadowy roundabout of a plot by keeping readers at arm’s length and only letting them see bits at a time of the precise action and motives of the characters. Take the opening scene, in which our rakish duo is introduced mid-brawl: the storytelling was so omniscient and vague that I was hard pressed to follow the sequence of events in what should have been a very exciting scene. This trend continues throughout the book, during which characters with murky ties to the plot take precedence and armies move with the premeditation of a flock of grasshoppers. What you end up with is a story which on paper seems pretty dare-devilish and mysterious but feels too jumpy and inductive for an old-fashioned swords-and-thievery adventure.
Perhaps this is the effect Chabon was going for, though. The mood and tone of Gentlemen of the Road seems to be striving for a classically-informed reconstruction of the 1001 Knights and other similarly formal tales influenced by the reserved storytelling of the Middle Eastern tradition. Overall it is successful in creating an authentic world of pseudo-historical Byzantium and nomadic Turkish empires. Yet I felt curiously unconnected to the characters and dispassionate toward their revolution in the making, thanks to the stand-offish method of narration and peep-hole view of the proceedings. I finished this short (less than 200 page) chronicle through a series of determined exertions, which may or may not have been fueled by the incentive of chocolate at the end; in any case, I have doubts about the ability of this novel to sustain interest, at least in the way Chabon writes it.
Though characterization is approached in the tropish method of heroes from Arabian Nights – epic and austere with few personalized details, its black-and-white woodcut being the most illustrative thing about it – Chabon does make some interesting statements with his choice of writing about Jews from various nations and the accompanying social commentary they make on the development of the war. For instance, Zelikman’s usage of his fellow Jews – at least, I think that’s who the “Radanites” in the tale were supposed to represent – and his backstory of expatriotism from Gaul invites questions on the Diaspora and what loyalty was expected across lines of national affiliations. With more emotional connection to the characters, this kind of reflection on ancient racial prejudices (and modern repercussions, especially considering the wars in the Middle East today) might have been even more effective.
Chabon’s style throughout the novel is technically admirable. He has a robust vocabulary and erudite facility with language to enhance his inventive perspective of history. I just wish I could have appreciated it less and enjoyed it more! I’ve mentioned in my reviews how an author’s style should simply slip into the background and plunge you effortlessly into the story. Chabon does the opposite – he makes you ever conscious that you are reading good literature while forgetting that a good story is what makes the journey worthwhile!
Gentlemen of the Road aspires to cross the sophisticated swashbuckling of Dumas with the Palestine crusades of Walter Scott, as interpreted by, say, Scheherazade. And the result? Considerably less successful than any of its influences. Barring the occasional moment of insight, more touches of humor and personality and less impersonation of outdated methods of storytelling might have rendered this a more approachable tale.
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