Michael Chabon: Gentlemen Of The Road

[Mirabell]

I am considering writing a brief essayish thing about some complexities in that novel but not just now.

I loved it. It's a fun, quick, enjoyable read, amazingly controlled. May not be a 'great' novel, but then it never aims to be. I consider it a full success and will certainly reread it. Much, much better than his failed genre experiments in The Final Solution or Summerland.

[Stewart]

Strange, I thought I'd posted my thoughts on this but obviously haven't. I'll spare you paragraph after paragraph, especially since it's almost out of mind now, but I hated this book. It was my first Chabon and from what I understand in reading around about him, he seems to have got a bee in his bonnet about distinctions between literary fiction and genre fiction and is now on a mission to show that genre fiction can be literary too. Yes, well, we know that - it's how novels like Brave New World straddle the divide.

It felt that, because of his little crusuade, he was restricting his own book from being anything other than a genre novel that demanded to be recognised as literary. Sure, there was all the Jewish interest stuff underlying it, which was good, but I just didn't think the story Chabon had constrained himself to helped it much.

It hasn't put me off reading something else by him, in fact I've got his Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay on the shelf. But it's always interesting to see what doesn't work for some works for others. I'll look forward to your essay. Perhaps you can convince me to give it a second shot.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Stewart

Perhaps you can convince me to give it a second shot.

Probably not, I have some ideas about the jewish stuff, not about its merit as a novel.

I didn't feel that anything was forced here. I found it a wonderful read, lots of fun, and, honestly, I completely phased out that genre/literary angle, because I consider it a wrong division. It promised to be like the books I read as a boy and boy did it fulfil that promise. There was, of course, all that metafictional reflection stuff going on, but that didn't interfere with the other layer. And there are many layers to this book and they all, for me, worked.

My favorite Chabon is Wonder Boys and ever since I felt a bit let down, even by K&C. Not so this time. Lowered expectations due to The Final Solution and Summerland? Probably. Still.

[Jayaprakash]

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay is certainly a better book than this. I'm not sure Chabon really found a voice he was completely comfortable with to tell this story, but it was more enjoyable and substantial than The Final Solution. Certainly more satisfying than his McSweeney's anthologies, which I thought only sporadically fulfilled their promise.

I suppose the point Chabon seems to have failed to grasp is that plot-based, thrilling stories have never really vanished from the literary landscape and neither are they always devoid of literary merit.

[elcalifornio]

I read this in the NY Times when it was in serial form. At the time, I was immediately hooked, but also asking for more. It did seem like Chabon had restricted himself with his narrative form. However, I don't really see this as a genre-novel like other work by him and other crime and mystery fence-straddlers. It was actually an older form, to me, something akin to folktales. As I read, I saw it as a tale, not asking to be fleshed out by the author, but by the reader. So, I ended up reconciling my concerns in the end; but I can see how it might be frustrating.

[Mirabell]

but it was more enjoyable and substantial than The Final Solution.

indeed it was. I really liked it. Such a nicely rounded-out effort.

[Jayaprakash]

Originally Posted by elcalifornio

It was actually an older form, to me, something akin to folktales. As I read, I saw it as a tale, not asking to be fleshed out by the author, but by the reader. So, I ended up reconciling my concerns in the end; but I can see how it might be frustrating.

It's interesting you should say that. When I first finished reading this novel, I see that one of the comparisons I made was to the works of Tim Powers, who uses folkloric elements in his fantasy/adventure novels. It felt as if this was an attempt to do the same, only making up both the folklore and the adventure plot.

One more stray thought: I wonder if Chabon ever read much of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories?

[Funhouse]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

One more stray thought: I wonder if Chabon ever read much of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories?

Doesn't he mention Leiber in some prefatory material or an afterword or something? My understanding is that he was explicitly modeling the novel on the Lankhmar stories...

[Jayaprakash]

My copy (Sceptre UK hardback) has an afterword which doesn't mention Lankhmar. But the similarity clearly isn't just in my head.

[elcalifornio]

"Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures–from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories–in a wonderful new novel"

This is marketing copy from the Random House (US) website. Not sure if Chabon actually thinks this, but Random House certainly have the idea in their heads.

[Funhouse]

From a radio interview here in Australia, Chabon says:

...the desire to write a book of swashbuckling adventure definitely comes out of my youthful reading, stuff that I loved to read when I was a kid; Alexandre Dumas and Robert E Howard and Michael Moorcock and Fritz Leiber and a lot of those classic works of adventure fiction involving horsemen and swordsmen and so on, that stuff I liked to read when I was younger.

[saliotthomas]

I listen to it in Audio and there was an interview of Chabon at the end(maybe the same Funhouse?)He says(?) that the original title was "Jewish with swords" ,finding the idea of a menacing jew funny.
Mostly it found it too foreseeable(an ugly English word here) and short,it lack panache which is escential in the genre.It was as if he liked the idea but was bored by execution.
The abyssinian by Jean christophe Ruffin is much better in similar settings and period.
Amazon.com: The Abyssinian: A Novel: Jean-Christophe Rufin: Books

[Max Cairnduff]

Hope it's not rude to resurrect this, but to me the work was very clearly an homage to Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser, the two central characters are closely based on them.

He also dedicates the book to Moorcock, and of course one of the characters also has Elrician elements.

What I found odd was how few reviewers seemed to pick up it was quite intentionally a work of sword and sorcery, a descendant of other writers in that genre (which is not quite the same as fantasy, indeed it's quite possible to like S&S but not general fantasy at all). I suspect it's because most reviewers came from literary rather than genre backgrounds. Edit: The use of medicine and herbs in the novel fills the place sorcery does in other works in this genre.

I enjoyed it, but then I love Lieber's Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser stories, and Chabon's love of the same shone through this book. Saliotthomas' criticism is however much the same as that of a friend of mine who is an sf critic, that the ideas were there but the execution lacking the panache of the originals. I thought there was some truth in that, but liked it anyway, but I can see why for some it was too literary almost to be good pulp.

I own The Abyssinian, but have never read it. Clearly I shall have to.

[Jayaprakash]

>> for some it was too literary almost to be good pulp.

Heh, exactly. I still liked it, and to work the genre/lit crossover turnstiles the other way, I'd suggest that people who liked this book try some Tim Powers. His early novel The Drawing Of The Dark is probably the closest in spirit to this one, but his later mash-ups of noir, thrillers and weird magic are also highly recommended, as is his time travel romp, The Anubis Gates.

[Max Cairnduff]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

>> for some it was too literary almost to be good pulp.

Heh, exactly. I still liked it, and to work the genre/lit crossover turnstiles the other way, I'd suggest that people who liked this book try some Tim Powers. His early novel The Drawing Of The Dark is probably the closest in spirit to this one, but his later mash-ups of noir, thrillers and weird magic are also highly recommended, as is his time travel romp, The Anubis Gates.

Excellent suggestion there, I rate Tim Powers fairly highly and I think he's certainly a writer whose sheer inventiveness could easily appeal to those who don't normally read - well, I was going to say his kind of fiction, but actually he's pretty sui generis so I guess I'd be reduced to saying that he might well appeal to those who normally prefer strictly naturalistic novels.