Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure
by Michael Chabon
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1130)
Read in December, 2007
Reading this directly after Lawrence Block's "Tanner's Twelve Swingers" was quite eye-opening. Unlike Block, who relied on flimsy flash and sex to barrel through his story, Chabon created a complex world for his two Jews with swords - a French Jew (before there was a France) who looks like a scarecrow and a giant Abyssinian black Jew who wields a battle ax called Motherfucker. Sure, it sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but with this little novel, Chabon achieves what only the best fa...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Khazaria, it seems, is quite en vogue all of a sudden. You may recall that I last wandered through this ancient kingdom in "The Khazar Dictionary." Surely, I thought, Khazaria is a made-up land, somewhere to the left of Neverland, or a long plane ride from Faulkner's Yokanampausdfpoijawerp County (or what have you). But no, it really did exist, its borders stretching from Kiev to the Aral Sea. If you're like me, though, you never figured out the difference between the Aral, Caspian and...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
I've been having a great streak of luck with good books lately.
I've never read anything quite like this before. It's a very short book, but it took me a (comparatively) long time to read it, because if I didn't I wound up missing little hints here and there. All of a sudden, buried in the middle of a four-clause sentence, there would be something very important. So I slowed down, and it was worth it.
I used to read more fantasy years ago, and part of the reason I stopped was that it see...more
I've never read anything quite like this before. It's a very short book, but it took me a (comparatively) long time to read it, because if I didn't I wound up missing little hints here and there. All of a sudden, buried in the middle of a four-clause sentence, there would be something very important. So I slowed down, and it was worth it.
I used to read more fantasy years ago, and part of the reason I stopped was that it see...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
I love Chabon's writing; his characters are so real they breathe, his prose is beautiful, and he wraps you in the blanket of the magnificent tale he weaves. Unfortunately, that blanket is often so tangled even he has a hard time getting out of it. In other words, his endings drive me nuts.
At first I thought this one would be a change, since it's shorter and the story is smaller in scope. The plot and style is well-suited to him too, as it concerns the travels of two ninth century knights err...more
At first I thought this one would be a change, since it's shorter and the story is smaller in scope. The plot and style is well-suited to him too, as it concerns the travels of two ninth century knights err...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Instead of writing a book about a writer of adventure stories, Michael Chabon has eliminated one lens and written the adventure story himself. One might not expect the author who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to offer adventure apologetics, but an afterword included in Gentlemen of the Road (Random House, $21.95) does just that. As a fellow author who has described his own book as “just a little adventure story,” I must acknowledge my sympathies as a ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
Michael Chabon fans are in for a treat this year with a second novel from the bestselling author of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and now The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Originally serialized in The New York Times over 2006 and 2007, each issue is now collected in a small and wonderfully designed edition, with illustrations by Gary Gianni, artist of the syndicated newspaper strip Prince Valiant.
This is the unlikely tale of Zelikman, a Jewish, tall, thin physician from the distant Fra...more
This is the unlikely tale of Zelikman, a Jewish, tall, thin physician from the distant Fra...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book, although I have to say it is not the best Michael Chabon book I've ever read.
It does a great job of putting the reader in a place and time and mindset that she has probably never experienced.
The vocabulary, though, is a bit of a stumbling block. A lot of the words, because they are so culturally bound, were almost impossible to understand even given the context. After looking things up here and there, though, it began to make a lot more sense.
And a lot of the t...more
It does a great job of putting the reader in a place and time and mindset that she has probably never experienced.
The vocabulary, though, is a bit of a stumbling block. A lot of the words, because they are so culturally bound, were almost impossible to understand even given the context. After looking things up here and there, though, it began to make a lot more sense.
And a lot of the t...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Well, at first your struck by the impressively long, cleverly constructed sentences. After several chapters they begin to wear on you. Really, OK, Mike, you've proven you're capable of stringing together 50 word sentences, but how about a short punchy word just to mix things up?
The fact is that you only want to notice the prose so much. Eventually you want the prose to become transparent and enter the story. This book never lets up. Having read much of the 19th Century adventure fiction to w...more
The fact is that you only want to notice the prose so much. Eventually you want the prose to become transparent and enter the story. This book never lets up. Having read much of the 19th Century adventure fiction to w...more
Like this review?
yes
(3 people liked it)
1 comments
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in March, 2008
Apparently having enjoyed the working title "Jews with Swords", Gentlemen of the Road has been likened to Fritz Leiber's excellent Fafrd and Grey Mouser "sword and sorcery" buddy series.
Gentlemen of the Road features a "Frankish" Jew with the build of a scarecrow and a needle-like sword than doubles as a medical implement and a hulking Ethiopian Jew armed with a threatening battle axe. The two are making their way across what could be 13th century Kazakstan in se...more
Gentlemen of the Road features a "Frankish" Jew with the build of a scarecrow and a needle-like sword than doubles as a medical implement and a hulking Ethiopian Jew armed with a threatening battle axe. The two are making their way across what could be 13th century Kazakstan in se...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Michael Moorcock gets the dedication and this, I would like to point out, is my first Chabon. Well, I tried The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but kind of drowsed out during the father-son nude spa scene.
I was unimpressed with the bookstore Chabon used to work at in Pittsburgh. It was small and indie, yes, but cramped. Can't take the cramped.
A highlight, though, were all of the photographs the owner had of himself with this author, that author.
*
Th...more
I was unimpressed with the bookstore Chabon used to work at in Pittsburgh. It was small and indie, yes, but cramped. Can't take the cramped.
A highlight, though, were all of the photographs the owner had of himself with this author, that author.
*
Th...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Two disclaimers: First, I love Michael Chabon's fiction. Love it. When he is at his best, his sentences unravel with the frantic grace of Coltrane jazz riffs.
Second, I gave Gentlemen of the Road four stars in part because of Michael Chabon's former work (just as, say, Scorcese receiving an Oscar for The Departed which is perhaps his sixth best film)(and, yes, I consider my reviews to have a congruous cultural weight as the Oscars) and in part, in spite of his former work. GotR is by no me...more
Second, I gave Gentlemen of the Road four stars in part because of Michael Chabon's former work (just as, say, Scorcese receiving an Oscar for The Departed which is perhaps his sixth best film)(and, yes, I consider my reviews to have a congruous cultural weight as the Oscars) and in part, in spite of his former work. GotR is by no me...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Quite a fun adventure story about, as Chabon describes in the afterword, Jews with swords. I very much enjoyed the swashbucklingness into which Chabon has so wholeheartedly thrown himself and his work.
His last few books have been a fascinating mishmash of genre fiction, from The Final Solution's detective story to The Yiddish Policemen's Union's crime noir to this, perhaps the most unexpected, a high adventure story starring, as stated above, Jews with swords; all the aforement...more
His last few books have been a fascinating mishmash of genre fiction, from The Final Solution's detective story to The Yiddish Policemen's Union's crime noir to this, perhaps the most unexpected, a high adventure story starring, as stated above, Jews with swords; all the aforement...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Chabon's latest book is set in the Khazar country in the 10th century. The book focuses on two Jewish travelers and their exploits. Mixed into this are the political turmoil in the Khazar county. The book is a short one and nothing as monumental as Chabon's two more well-known works, the Adventures of Kaviler and Clay and the Yiddish Policeman's Union.
Overall the book is enjoyable to read. It is worth commenting on Chabon's afterword. Chabon explains that he had considered titling this ...more
Overall the book is enjoyable to read. It is worth commenting on Chabon's afterword. Chabon explains that he had considered titling this ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
For anyone who enjoys adventure stories, this will be a lovely light read. It reminded me strongly of the Lankhmar books by Fritz Leiber, and those great YA fantasy books by Robin McKinley: The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. This book started out as a serial in the New York Times Magazine, called "Jews with Swords". Focusing on two roving adventurers in 950 A.D., who happen to be Jewish, the story careens from one perilous situation to the next, full of fighting ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
This was just a plain old fun book to read. The writing was excellent - very clear and evocative without being overly pretentious or here-let-me-get-my-dictionary-y. There were several times when I laughed out loud or reread a passage aloud to myself or my wife just to hear the words. In fact, I think this would be a perfect book to read aloud to or with your honey. The story itself, like the title suggests, was a standard 'two dudes go wandering and adventure/hilarity ensues.' This is an ex...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
3 comments
Read in March, 2008
I was planning on writing about how Chabon's project of interweaving 'high' and 'low' art, paying homage to contemporary cultural touchstones, and more consistently seeking to reinvigorate genre/pulp/pop conventions within his current work is somehow different than the ever-so-similar projects of some of his culturally like-minded contemporaries (who will remain nameless for purposes of fairness) whose work I generally have a bit more of a difficult time getting behind. And I was getting all rev...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
Sword and sorcery fans; fans pulp adventure novels; swashbuckling in all its forms..
I'm rewriting my review now that the book has finally come out (read it in August as an advance); I knew it would divide fans and perplex even more.
"Gentlemen of the Road" draws from what some might call 'pulp' fiction styles, or in other cases 'adventure fiction'. The language is very much a product of these styles of writing; frankly, prose was more complex back then (not that I'm saying it was better, but it was definitely different)-- longer sentences, oddly constructed, and fl...more
"Gentlemen of the Road" draws from what some might call 'pulp' fiction styles, or in other cases 'adventure fiction'. The language is very much a product of these styles of writing; frankly, prose was more complex back then (not that I'm saying it was better, but it was definitely different)-- longer sentences, oddly constructed, and fl...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
This is a simple, elegantly written story of two adventurers set in a historical backdrop. I am not a Chabon fan. I tried "The Final Solution" thrice and became so disenchanted I wrote the author off entirely. But, after months (if not years) of prodding I gave him another chance in this novella length piece, and was pleasantly surprised. The story follows two friends (generally opposites) as they wonder the ancient world, happen upon the deposed heir of a wealthy kingdom and becom...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
It certainly can't be said that Michael Chabon keeps writing the same book. I fear, however, that someone reading Chabon for the first time won't bother reading any of his other, vastly superior, novels if they start with this one.
This is a "tale of adventure" set in the Caucasus, and it had its witty moments, to be sure, but my main reaction was a stifled yawn. I just didn't care about Chabon's self-described "Jews with swords." The characters were surprisingly undeve...more
This is a "tale of adventure" set in the Caucasus, and it had its witty moments, to be sure, but my main reaction was a stifled yawn. I just didn't care about Chabon's self-described "Jews with swords." The characters were surprisingly undeve...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
I'm not sure why I even use the "currently reading" list, since I jump around so much. Anyway, this jumped the queue when I came to understand that it is an adventure tale set in medieval Khazaria - see my reviews of _The Dictionary Of the Khazars_ and _The Thirteenth Tribe_ for more on my mini-obsession with the Khazars - and I read it all in one go, without reading any of anything else in between.
It is also my first Chabon (though I already had a couple of his in the "read e...more
It is also my first Chabon (though I already had a couple of his in the "read e...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
