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A review by isauldur
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
2.0
I only got about halfway through this book. As I said in my review of Chabon's The Final Solution, his prose just doesn't lend itself to more dynamic styles like the detective story or, in the case of Gentlemen of the Road, to the swashbuckler. This novel is very grim and oddly dry for a story that has so much action and sword-fighting adventure. The syntax is very complex and dense, with very long sentences that left me wondering where the sentence even started. The paragraphs were massive, solid blocks of text for a whole page. There was little dialogue to break them up, and even when there was dialogue, it wasn't very engaging.
As I said, this novel is very grim, and even the humorous and ironic chapter titles kind of lose their comic impact when all the characters do is brood and lament the past. This story is not nearly as refined as Kavalier & Clay, or as engaging as The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Even The Final Solution is better in my opinion, because at least it captured in brief passages the spirit of the classic detective story.
This book needed to be quicker, because even at only 200 pages, it really drags. I was roughly one quarter of the novel in and I still had no clue what the plot was or what direction it may take. The characters weren't all that interesting because we don't really get to know them pretty well outside of the occasional sad introspection that sucks the fun out of any adventurous spirit the novel may have had.
I have no doubts that Michael Chabon is a great writer, but the problem is that his typical style just doesn't lend itself to these styles of novels. And for that, sadly, I couldn't finish this book.
As I said, this novel is very grim, and even the humorous and ironic chapter titles kind of lose their comic impact when all the characters do is brood and lament the past. This story is not nearly as refined as Kavalier & Clay, or as engaging as The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Even The Final Solution is better in my opinion, because at least it captured in brief passages the spirit of the classic detective story.
This book needed to be quicker, because even at only 200 pages, it really drags. I was roughly one quarter of the novel in and I still had no clue what the plot was or what direction it may take. The characters weren't all that interesting because we don't really get to know them pretty well outside of the occasional sad introspection that sucks the fun out of any adventurous spirit the novel may have had.
I have no doubts that Michael Chabon is a great writer, but the problem is that his typical style just doesn't lend itself to these styles of novels. And for that, sadly, I couldn't finish this book.