Jews with Swords, a Review

Hi,

It's not actually called Jews with Swords but that was the working title of Gentlemen of the Rod: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon. It's a short little book that originally appeared as a serialized in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

It's a thrilling little read. You're instantly reminded of Howard or Lieber. It's definitely got that "pulpy action-adventure" taste to it. The chapters are short, punchy and end on cliffhangers. The writing is compact, but intricate like a pocket watch and revels in language (I had to hit the dictionary once or twice, I'm not ashamed to admit).

The story concerns the Mutt and Jeff pairing of Amram, a huge Abyssinian veteran and Zelikman, a scrawny, morose physician and scholar as they wander about the easternmost fringes of Byzantium and into the Caucasus. There's a prince and some elephants and some vikings and the kingdom of Khazars. Fights, chases, sneaking into forbidden temples, disguises, a fair amount of hashish smoking, and just about everything else you could possibly want in a neat little adventure story.

At the end, the author includes a shrot essay discussing the work (and why he called it Jews with Swords while writing it). On the one hand, I really hated it because it was basically Mr. Chabon giving a sheepish, schoolboy apology for writing the thing. "Hi, I'm Michael Chabon, serious literary writer and I have to write this deep little essay at the end so that I won't lose my serious literary writer credentials because I dared to write something that was, you know, fun to write and fun to read". Cripes. On the other hand, it is a nice little essay about why he wrote the book and he does talk about what it is to have an Adventure. On balance it was pretty good, but I wish he'd had some of the swagger of his characters.

In short, it was a wonderful little piece of adventure fiction and I certainly hope he dredges up a few more stores with Amram and Zelikman.

later
Tom

Jews with Swords, a Review

Hi,

It's not actually called Jews with Swords but that was the working title of Gentlemen of the Rod: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon. It's a short little book that originally appeared as a serialized in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

It's a thrilling little read. You're instantly reminded of Howard or Lieber. It's definitely got that "pulpy action-adventure" taste to it. The chapters are short, punchy and end on cliffhangers. The writing is compact, but intricate like a pocket watch and revels in language (I had to hit the dictionary once or twice, I'm not ashamed to admit).

The story concerns the Mutt and Jeff pairing of Amram, a huge Abyssinian veteran and Zelikman, a scrawny, morose physician and scholar as they wander about the easternmost fringes of Byzantium and into the Caucasus. There's a prince and some elephants and some vikings and the kingdom of Khazars. Fights, chases, sneaking into forbidden temples, disguises, a fair amount of hashish smoking, and just about everything else you could possibly want in a neat little adventure story.

At the end, the author includes a shrot essay discussing the work (and why he called it Jews with Swords while writing it). On the one hand, I really hated it because it was basically Mr. Chabon giving a sheepish, schoolboy apology for writing the thing. "Hi, I'm Michael Chabon, serious literary writer and I have to write this deep little essay at the end so that I won't lose my serious literary writer credentials because I dared to write something that was, you know, fun to write and fun to read". Cripes. On the other hand, it is a nice little essay about why he wrote the book and he does talk about what it is to have an Adventure. On balance it was pretty good, but I wish he'd had some of the swagger of his characters.

In short, it was a wonderful little piece of adventure fiction and I certainly hope he dredges up a few more stores with Amram and Zelikman.

later
Tom