Short Book Review: Gentlemen of the Road
It may seem like I’m on a Michael Chabon kick, reading this so soon after The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, but I knew nothing of this book until I saw it mentioned in Chabon’s Wikipedia entry. Gentlemen of the Road (which, according to Chabon’s afterword, he had originally intended to title Jews with Swords) is an adventure tale set in the Caucasus mountain region around 950 AD. It follows the unlikely pair of titular characters, who make their living as swindlers, bandits, and mercenaries: the pale, scarecrow-like Zelikman, a Frankish physician, and the giant African Jew and soldier, Amram, as they get wrapped up in the area’s political intrigue. Gentlemen of the Road was originally published in the New York Times as a serial, but it’s been collected in book form along with Chabon’s afterword, which deals with why he wrote the story and is potentially more fascinating than the story itself. Gentlemen is at the same time very unlike and yet highly reminiscent of Chabon’s other writings—despite its disparities of setting and tone, its similarities lie in the heavy influence of Jewish culture and the author’s more recent propensity for delving into genre fiction. But if I were forced to rank Chabon’s work—say, at gunpoint—I’d put this below Kavalier & Clay and Policemen’s Union, but above The Final Solution and Summerland.
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