In a stark departure from his previous work, Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road follows an unlikely pair of 10th century adventurers through a "swords and horses tale" along the silk road.
Amram is a giant shirtless Abbysinian, old as dirt and black as night, who when not wielding his weapon of choice, a giant viking battle axe dubbed "mother-defiler," can be found lost in contemplation over the ivory squares of a shantraj board.
Zelikman is a pale skeleton of a man, "a healer by nature and heritage," who eccentricities include a particular fondness for his hat, his horse, and his afternoon pipe full of honeyed hemp seed.
Amram is a giant shirtless Abbysinian, old as dirt and black as night, who when not wielding his weapon of choice, a giant viking battle axe dubbed "mother-defiler," can be found lost in contemplation over the ivory squares of a shantraj board.
Zelikman is a pale skeleton of a man, "a healer by nature and heritage," who eccentricities include a particular fondness for his hat, his horse, and his afternoon pipe full of honeyed hemp seed.
Both Jewish by birth, this mismatched and inseparable pair who make their way by sword and skullduggery, find themselves charged with transporting Filaq, an insolent whelp of a Khazarian prince back to "the fabled kingdom of wild red-haired jews." Along the way, they meet with mercenaries and Vikings, travel to Azerbaijan and Atil, at the mouth of the Volga River, where they must help Filaq avenge his father's murder and depose a tyrant king.
Originally titled Jews with Swords, Gentlemen of the Road is a slender and artful rendition of a time and culture long past. It is also full of wonderful illustrations by Gary Gianni, creator of the syndicated newspaper comic strip, Prince Valiant. Unfortunately, perhaps because Chabon’s colorful protagonists were never developed to their full potential or perhaps because the author failed to make their quest immediate or crucial enough, the narrative itself fails to compel. Applaud Michael Chabon for his bold passage through the adventure genre, but reach for one of his other novels instead.
