Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon

3 reviews

shieldbearer's review against another edition

adventurous reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I really wanted to love this book, and I spent the first two thirds doing just that. The characters are wonderfully written, the setting (both immediate ad wider) is so well written out, the writing is beautiful, the pace and tone is wonderfully crafted.

But then we get to the

Filaq is a girl

plot twist in front of everyone, and that's when things started to go downhill. I don't think this plot element inherently couldn't work.

I think the groundwork laid by having Amram compare Filaq to his daughter does a lot of work there, and her preparation to pose as a boy the rest of her life is an interesting element.

But ultimately, there's not enough. We don't get enough about Filaq's thoughts and perspective on matters. We don't really know Filaq outside motivation. And the part where

Filaq is raped by the baddie was bad enough, but having Zelikman and Filaq have sex for basically no reason after that just felt awful and put such a bad taste in my mouth, especially with Amram having called Filaq a child through so much of it. And the specific note about Filaq "carrying the seed of a king" just felt even more unnecessary and gross.

I can't bring myself to give this book only one star, but those elements really ruined what is otherwise a wonderful story for me.

Content Warnings

erica_palmisano's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The audiobook is narrated by Andre Braugher, so already that's amazing. The story is interesting and novel – I haven't explore Eastern Europe in the 10th century much before. The author's note at the end provides interesting context. The story isn't my favorite in parts, but it's got sections I really enjoy. It's just tough with the amount of misogyny portrayed to enjoy certain aspects of the tale.

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This is a very short book. I don't know how many pages it has (The StoryGraph says 204, but they're not always accurate with page counts), but the unabridged audiobook was just over four hours long. (For context, most audiobooks are in the 10-14 hour range.) I listened to it in one go between starting work and my lunch break.

Audio may not have been the best format to read, since I couldn't keep most of the names straight. I was about halfway through the book before I realized that one of the names being thrown around was not a third adventurer who never said anything, but in fact the name of Zelikman's horse.

It was an interesting story. Zelikman and Amram are "gentlemen of the road" - thieves, con men, and mercenaries for hire as the opportunity presents, traveling across the Khazar Empire and accidentally getting wrapped up in trying to help the rightful heir to the empire get back on the throne. From what I can tell from a brief look through Wikipedia, it was pretty historically accurate, and having the backdrop of a great Jewish empire while the two main characters fought, survived, and maintained a strong friendship was really cool. The best way I can describe the mood of this book is to compare it to The Walking Drum - except, you know, actually good.

I did enjoy the story, and despite having a hard time keeping track of the names I followed the plot pretty well. However, I think I missed a lot of details reading it as an audiobook, so I might come back to it later as a physical book and try to catch what I missed. It would be worth it.

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