By Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon is the undisputed master of rasing genre novels into (or nearly into) the realm of literature. "Gentlemen of the Road" was originally produced as a serialized adventure, published incrementally by the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
It shows.
But as always, Chabon makes a convincing argument that we should overlook what would normally be thought of as a failing. The adventures of a pair of Jewish con-men/mercenaries in 10th-century Khazaria feels like a very good mini-series on a channel like A&E (the way it used to be) or The BBC. Rousing action, battles and barfights, love and deceptions, politics and revolution packaged intelligently with quality actors and wrapped in Chabon's wonderful prose. While the chapters are at times disjointed, "Gentlemen of the Road" makes for an entertaining whole.
The depth and seriousness of "Kavalier & Clay" and "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is replaced with swashbuckling action and the dust and mist of history, allowing the reader to relax and enjoy following Zelikman and Amram, a classic pair of bickering opposites, in their trip across an ancient and little known landscape.
Oct 3, 2009
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