Product Description

Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, sprang from an early passion for the derring-do and larger-than-life heroes of classic comic books. Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures–from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories–in a wonderful new novel brimming with breathless action, raucous humor, cliff-hanging suspense, and a cast of colorful characters worthy of Scheherazade’s most tantalizing tales.

They’re an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can–as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. No strangers to tight scrapes and close shaves, they’ve left many a fist shaking in their dust, tasted their share of enemy steel, and made good any number of hasty exits under hostile circumstances.

None of which has necessarily prepared them to be dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire. Usurped by his brutal uncle, the callow and decidedly ill-tempered young royal burns to reclaim his rightful throne. But doing so will demand wicked cunning, outrageous daring, and foolhardy bravado . . . not to mention an army. Zelikman and Amram can at least supply the former. But are these gentlemen of the road prepared to become generals in a full-scale revolution? The only certainty is that getting there–along a path paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of–will be much more than half the fun.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16422 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-30
• Released on: 2008-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345502070
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Pulitzer Prize winner–Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen's Union) recreates 10th-century Khazaria, the fabled kingdom of wild red-haired Jews on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, in this sprightly historical adventure. Zelikman and Amram, respectively a gawky Frank and a gigantic Abyssinian, make their living by means of confidence tricks, doctoring, bodyguarding and the occasional bit of skullduggery along the Silk Road. The unlikely duo find themselves caught up in larger events when they befriend Filaq, the headstrong and unlikable heir to the recently deposed war king of the Khazars. Their attempts to restore Filaq to the throne make for a terrifically entertaining modern pulp adventure replete with marauding armies, drunken Vikings, beautiful prostitutes, rampaging elephants and mildly telegraphed plot points that aren't as they seem. Chabon has a wonderful time writing intentionally purple prose and playing with conventions that were most popular in the days of Rudyard Kipling and Talbot Mundy. Gary Gianni's elegant illustrations, a cross between Vierge's art for Don Quixote and Brundage's Weird Tales covers, perfectly complement the historical adventure. A significant change from Chabon's weightier novels, this dazzling trifle is simply terrific fun. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Gentlemen of the Road, compared by the New York Times Book Review to "the stories found in 19th-century dime novels and the fantastic escapades invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard," was first published in serial form in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Critics quickly pointed out the telltale signs of the multiple-installment format: new characters, settings, and plot twists in every chapter, which result in a fast, sometimes confusing, pace. Chabon’s lush, memorable prose shines here despite the obscurity of some of his language. A few critics complained of uninteresting characters and outlandish scenarios, while most complimented the charming illustrations by Gary Gianni. This 21st-century spin on the old-fashioned adventure tale won’t be to everyone’s taste, but adventurous readers wishing to experience Chabon’s amazing literary range are in for a thrilling, outrageous joyride.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Review
Praise for Michael Chabon

“Michael Chabon can write like a magical spider, effortlessly spinning out elaborate webs of words that ensnare the reader with their beauty and their style.”
–The New York Times

“[Michael Chabon] is, simply, the coolest writer in America.”
–The Christian Science Monitor

“[Chabon is a] stupendously gifted and accomplished writer . . . a writer not merely of rare skill and wit but of self-evident and immensely appealing generosity.”
–The Washington Post Book World

“Whether making us laugh or making us feel the breathtaking impermanence of things, Michael Chabon keeps us wide awake and reading.”
–Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered

“Chabon’s writing is elegant and limber.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“From his editorship of an issue of McSweeny’s to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Chabon has mined genre fiction and pop culture in pursuit of literary gold.”
–Bookmarks


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

From Here to Khazaria (3.5 stars)
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

Pleasant Read but Nothing Special
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.

Wonderful Homage to Classic Adventure
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.