(no subject)
Apr. 16th, 2008 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
felis_ultharusYou know, most of the time, when critics say that an author is primarily interested in exploring "Jewish history, identity, and culture" in a book, it's generally safe to assume that it will either be a) a moving, tragic narrative of survival, generally around the holocaust, or b) a slow-paced story of a woman trying to reconcile who own largely secular beliefs with those of an orthodox parent or grandparent.
Not that either of those is a bad thing. Many authors have worked literary miracles with these materials.
However, when people say that Michael Chabon is interested in exploring "Jewish history, identity, and culture in his works," they mean that he's going to have an apprentice magician try to smuggle the remains of the Golem out of Nazi-occupied Prague.
Or that he's going to have two characters clearly based on Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster invent a rival for Superman in the golden age of comic books.
Or he's going to have a Jewish-American spy and a Nazi spy track each other across the icy wastes of Antarctica for a final death match.
On that note, I'm reading Gentlemen of the Road right now. I'm only about a third of the way in, but I'm loving it. It's the story of two mercenaries in the 10th century AD -- the middle of the Middle Ages -- who get wrapped up in a prince's revolution to retake his kingdom. The kingdom is Khazaria, a real-but-now-nearly-forgotten Jewish kingdom that occupied what's now Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and southwest Russia. The protagonists are a Frankish doctor fleeing anti-Semitic violence in what's now France, and an Abyssinian man from one of the lost tribes of Israel.
It's written like a fantasy novel, and is so skillfully crafted that you can forget that it doesn't rely on magic or dragons to keep you interested. It's also quite hilarious. Chabon is fond of little historical flourishes of all kinds, and Gentlemen of the Road has those marvellous sketches illustrating specific scenes with quotes that you find in 19th-century adventure novels.
I think I'm really going to like this book. I needed something fun after my last few readings.
Not that either of those is a bad thing. Many authors have worked literary miracles with these materials.
However, when people say that Michael Chabon is interested in exploring "Jewish history, identity, and culture in his works," they mean that he's going to have an apprentice magician try to smuggle the remains of the Golem out of Nazi-occupied Prague.
Or that he's going to have two characters clearly based on Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster invent a rival for Superman in the golden age of comic books.
Or he's going to have a Jewish-American spy and a Nazi spy track each other across the icy wastes of Antarctica for a final death match.
On that note, I'm reading Gentlemen of the Road right now. I'm only about a third of the way in, but I'm loving it. It's the story of two mercenaries in the 10th century AD -- the middle of the Middle Ages -- who get wrapped up in a prince's revolution to retake his kingdom. The kingdom is Khazaria, a real-but-now-nearly-forgotten Jewish kingdom that occupied what's now Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and southwest Russia. The protagonists are a Frankish doctor fleeing anti-Semitic violence in what's now France, and an Abyssinian man from one of the lost tribes of Israel.
It's written like a fantasy novel, and is so skillfully crafted that you can forget that it doesn't rely on magic or dragons to keep you interested. It's also quite hilarious. Chabon is fond of little historical flourishes of all kinds, and Gentlemen of the Road has those marvellous sketches illustrating specific scenes with quotes that you find in 19th-century adventure novels.
I think I'm really going to like this book. I needed something fun after my last few readings.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 03:01 pm (UTC)Actually, I think I need to eventually kidnap part of your personal library ;p
I'm also still curious about that one you talked about a while ago. The one that compared Canadians and Americans.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 03:55 pm (UTC)I was listening to Terry O'Reilly's Age of Persuasion last Saturday, and he referenced Michael Adams (author of Fire and Ice). Apparently, Adam's theories in a previous book -- Sex in the Snow -- are pretty much a must-read for marketing in this country.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 02:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 07:48 pm (UTC)Michel Chabon is amazing. I still haven't read The Yiddish Policeman's Union, though I own it and have had it next to my bed for the past two months. I really should stop buying, loaning, borrowing, and library-ing books until I've read the books in that pile...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 11:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 09:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 11:17 pm (UTC)