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Jews With Swords
Mar. 4th, 2008 09:46 pmi have just finished reading michael chabon's latest book, gentlemen of the road. i felt like sharing a few thoughts on it with the world. (all spoilers will be below the cut).
the book is beautifully illustrated, looks good, and starts out in the manner in which it means to continue - as a rip-roaring yarn. i was enjoying it, i really was. it was a fun adventure story. this from the blurb:
according to chabon in the afterword of the book, "...[t]he original, working - and in my heart the true - title of the short novel... was Jews with Swords." which made me laugh. but he then goes on to try to justify why someone of his "literary training, generation, and pretentions" should then go and write a good olde fashioned adventure yarn. i don't understand the point of this. he's a writer, it's his job to write stories. it is considered (by me, at least) to be a GOOD thing that all one's stories are NOT the same. this is the third chabon book i have read (the others being wonder boys and the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay - my favourite so far), and they have all, commendably, been very different, and all enjoyable in their own ways. anyway, i just wanted to say that the afterword confused me. now, back to the story proper.
spoilers to follow...
( Spoilers! Be Alert, Not Alarmed! )
sorry, this has been rather rambley and incoherent. i just wanted to get some frustration off my chest. i still enjoyed it overall. it was easy to read, fun and fast-paced. next book: pirates! and adventure with communists!
the book is beautifully illustrated, looks good, and starts out in the manner in which it means to continue - as a rip-roaring yarn. i was enjoying it, i really was. it was a fun adventure story. this from the blurb:
In the Caucasus Mountins around AD 950, two wandering adventurers and unlikely sole mates live as they please and survive as they can - as blades and thieves for hire and practised bamboozlers. Until, following a bloody coup in the Jewish empire of the Khazars, they get dragooned into the service of a fugitive prince, who burns to reclaim his throne...
according to chabon in the afterword of the book, "...[t]he original, working - and in my heart the true - title of the short novel... was Jews with Swords." which made me laugh. but he then goes on to try to justify why someone of his "literary training, generation, and pretentions" should then go and write a good olde fashioned adventure yarn. i don't understand the point of this. he's a writer, it's his job to write stories. it is considered (by me, at least) to be a GOOD thing that all one's stories are NOT the same. this is the third chabon book i have read (the others being wonder boys and the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay - my favourite so far), and they have all, commendably, been very different, and all enjoyable in their own ways. anyway, i just wanted to say that the afterword confused me. now, back to the story proper.
spoilers to follow...
( Spoilers! Be Alert, Not Alarmed! )
sorry, this has been rather rambley and incoherent. i just wanted to get some frustration off my chest. i still enjoyed it overall. it was easy to read, fun and fast-paced. next book: pirates! and adventure with communists!
