Gentlemen of the Road

You know, a book this short, with a setting this fascinating, by an author I actually thought I liked... has no business, none whatsoever, being this boring.

Chabon sets out to write a classic swashbuckling adventure set in the only Jewish kingdom to exist between the fall of Jerusalem and the rise of modern Israel; this is a world of constant movement, trade routes, invasions and religious wars, scattering people of all creeds and nations (ridiculously so - there's hardly a single nationality here that seems to come in pairs; it's always one Bulgar, one Sorb, one Frank, etc.) And in the middle of this he sticks two Jewish adventurers, a Frank and an African, just looking to make a quick dinar and finding themselves caught up in big politics between Arabs, Vikings, Khazars and everyone else. (The original title was Jews With Swords.)

Sounds interesting? It should be. Making it boring is a hell of a feat, but Chabon pulls it off. I'm not sure exactly what happened; I mean, I loved Kavalier and Clay and I've heard very good things about Wonder Boys and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and then the next Chabon I pick up is this - which might pass for one of those "young adult" adventure books if it weren't for the fact that Chabon seems to want to deliberately complicate things by writing in the most annoying and roundabout manner he possibly can. I realise this is probably an attempt to make it sound like a classic boys' adventure novel (whether that is really a style worthy of imitating faithfully is another question), but seriously; why is a 21st century American, writing an adventure set in 10th century Azerbaijan, trying to write in 19th century English?

Then there's the plot, which could have been interesting if it had been developed into something more than just a series of fight scenes, but as it is doesn't even work properly as an adventure. You've got such an interesting idea here, man, use it! There are fascinating bits of history - both political and philosophical - woven into this, but it just makes it all the more frustrating when he skips past it to repeat yet again how his lead characters look, what weapons they carry, etc, without making us care what happens to them or the plot they're involved in; are we supposed to cheer for the insufferably brattish princess, or the tough ruler, or... what? Between that and the stilted language, Chabon too often comes across as a 15-year-old with a brand new thesaurus for big words and access to Wikipedia for the historical bits.

Still, I'll give it a weak two stars. Because truth is, Gentlemen of the Road makes me want to read more. It makes me want to read Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars. It makes me want to re-read Eco's Baudolino. It makes me want to read any number of central Asian authors I haven't yet heard of. It makes me want to read up on history. But it also makes me want to push the other Chabons I have to the back of the TBR pile. It's not that he's not talented, because he is, and there are brief moments when you can spot it here. No, the big problem is that he seems to be deliberately writing below his capacity, as if he's decided that the genre he's chosen cannot be more than shallow, formulaic adventurism (I happen to think he's wrong, and I'll smack anyone who disagrees with 512 pages of Baudolino) and then letting that dictate what he does with it. As if he knows it's a lesser work, ruined by its own lack of ambition, and is still happy with that. Well, I'm not.