Michael Chabon's Jews with Swords
A Review of Gentlemen of the Road
Michael Chabon's serial novel, originally published in The New York Times Magazine, provides a swashbuckling adventure equally entertaining and interesting.
Michael Chabon sets his serialized novel, originally published in The New York Times Magazine but here collected in one thin (yet dense) volume, in the ancient Jewish kingdom of Khazar. Gentlemen of the Road features a mismatched pair of adventurers, Zelikman, the gentle, moody Frank; and Amram, a gray-haired and gigantic African warrior.
A Brilliant Prose Quest
Originally titled Jews with Swords, Chabon’s genre adventure features the author’s characteristically massive vocabulary and intense command of the English language’s most intricate details. The story, explored in consistently short segments, moves from viewpoint to viewpoint, sometimes entering unexpected eyes; villains and crowds and dead men all have their say. As such, the novel feels fresh every time you pick it up.
Loquacious dialogue and description are paramount here: violence, humorous mishaps and verbal jabs all unfold on the page with lingual complexity worthy of the Coen brothers’ most audacious efforts. Take, for instance, the name etched into the haft of Amram’s fabled axe: while never perfectly known, it roughly and variously translates as something close to “Defiler of all mothers.” Or, a sampling of an early paragraph might provide a better picture worth a thousand words:
- “I believe, sir,” the Frank informed the African, speaking again in good Byzantine Greek, “that you have mislaid the implement required for the cleaning of your hooves.” The Frank jabbed the point of the dagger into the table beside the shatranj board, jostling the pieces. “If I am mistaken as to the actual nature of your lower extremities, I beg you to join me in the courtyard of this house, at your leisure but preferably soon, so that, with the pedagogical instrument of your choice, you may educate me.”
Zelikman and Amram, in the mode of classic heroes, only stumble upon their adventure by chance. They have no care for the machinations and politics in which they find themselves caught, but roll with the flow of events as it suits them, according to their need and conscience. They survive by one part chance, one part creativity, and two parts pure character.
Adventurous Illustrations
Each chapter of Gentlemen of the Road features one illustration. In the mode of older illustrated adventure and fantasy books, each features a carefully amputated quotation from the text to explain its context.
The art itself is stunning work by Gary Gianni, whose best-known work is as illustrator for the syndicated comic strip Prince Valiant. Etched in fierce black pen strokes, the art is bold and detailed and with ease conveys peaceful pine trees, rampaging elephants and burning cities with equal care and substance.
The interior boards of the hardcover edition of Gentlemen of the Road features a map of Khazaria and its surrounding identifying bodies (the Byzantine Empire, Baghdad, the Caspian sea) and outlines in pink the principle nation with which the novel is concerned. The map is drawn by David Lindroth and features topography and some political distinctions but no dotted-line trail of adventure, providing you a quaint context with which to imagine the scene of the story’s lush descriptions and political intrigues.
Chabon’s work in Gentlemen of the Road is commendable, as are the works of his illustrator and cartographer. The thin volume collects in one book the serial adventures of two Jews with Swords and easily earns its place on the bookshelves of lovers of adventure and fine writing.
