Werewolves in Their Youth by Michael Chabon

I have to admit to being an unabashed fan of Michael Chabon.  Who else could write 'Jews with Swords' or 'The Yiddish Policeman's Union'?  Even with I read 'Summerland,' which was probably my least favorite of his novels that I've come across, there was still a strong feeling that no one else cold have written that particular story.  (And really, how else does one explain to a child the inherent evil of the American League's designated hitter?)  Above all else, Chabon has style all his own.

That sense of style is showcased rarely in Werewolves in their Youth, fleetingly displayed and left undeveloped in some places, and--to shocking affect--forsaken in at least one story.  There are very few stories here that seem obviously written by Chabon.  Apparently he had to develop into the writer he is and not everything comes out to be a stunning masterpiece.  And to be absolutely honest, I didn't know that.  

"I had known him as a bulldozer, as a samurai, as an android programmed to kill, as Plastic Man and Titanium Man and Matter-Eater Lad, as a Buick Electra, as a Peterbilt truck, and even, for a week, as the Mackinac Bridge, but it was as a werewolf that Timothy Stokes finally went too far."

That is the opening line to the title story: that, is Michael Chabon.  He is funny--no matter how inappropriate or dark--a hallmark that I've long felt marked quality contemporary, literary fiction as done by the likes of Chabon, Nicole Krauss, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and others.  At his best, as in the title story, he tends to tell two stories at once.  One in more detail than the other and yet each illuminate and complement the other.  In Werewolves in their Youth we see two school boys, one who wants to be accepted and normal, the other who embraces being different and eagerly anticipates the thought of a special school and riding a different bus than all the other children.  Their story is against parents in the beginning stages of divorce explaining and trying to understand their differences, flirting with reconciliation, and ultimately coming to terms with all that separates them.    

House Hunting is a story about a realtor showing a home to a couple that probably shouldn't be together in the first place.  As we see the couple growing together, all in the course of the day and being shown one house, we also see that the realtor has some very strong personal connections to this particular house and it's current owner.  Chabon's 'tell two stories at once' mechanic works brilliantly and sometimes is so subtle as to go undetected.  

Son of the Wolfman is perhaps the most powerful and unfulfilling.  A ten-year married couple have been actively trying to get pregnant for five years with the assistance of every fertility drug they can afford.  As the wife decides to keep a baby beget by a rapist, she does so at the expense of her husband.  How a story with that premise can fall flat is beyond me.  While there was drive and tension aplenty the ending left me feeling grossly underwhelmed, if not indifferent.    

The collection's final inclusion is also the most interesting.  It's a horror story and a damned fine one at that.  Chabon, forever in love with flirting across genre lines, can drop his love of ornate descriptions and humor to scare you more than a little bit.  In The Black Mill works on all levels but it's inclusion in this particular collection is startling for more reasons than just the scary factor.  It's the only story of it's kind in this collection and it feels a bit lost.  I read it and kept waiting to laugh at something, to smile, or to marvel at his use of language.  By the time I figured out what was happening in the story I was too caught up in the events to want for any of the above, but in no way did this story fit in with the rest of the collection.  

The others are all fine writing if not anything spectacular.  There is nothing here to rival S Angel, nor is the collection as strong as A Model World and Other Stories.  That is to say, even if Chabon should be slightly off his game he is still stylishly amazing and wholly worth reading.  

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon

Here's an oddity; seemingly a book that shouldn't exist, something the author nearly admits in the afterword.  The subtitle on the cover reads, 'A Tale of Adventure' it's a very apt title but one that flies in the face of what I had taken as modern publishing PR protocol.  Usually when one such as Chabon publishes anything that isn't explicitly the most high and mighty 'literary fiction' we always see 'A Novel' as a subtitle on the cover, as if to ensure the reading elite that 'even though this work may have shades of genre writing; it's still really good.'  Sadder than the implied understanding that many publishers have with who they identity with as their target readership is the fact that many readers need such reassurance as 'A Novel' for fear of reading something genre that may be excellent or worse still, something genre that they enjoy. 

So yeah, Michael Chabon writing 'A Tale of Adventure;' that is exactly what Gentlemen of the Road is and yet it is also the same authoritative writing grip and command over the English language that Chabon exudes would make you think this book--specifically this book--would say 'A Novel.'  He can still bend the language over backward and get from it whatever he wants, but ironically the combination of an adventure tale and Chabon combined to hold the two components back from what I felt either could have been without the other.

Amram and Zelikman are many things: wanderers, warriors, con artist and Jews among many others.  They are the titular gentlemen of the road.  Their travels lead them to cross paths with a boy who is the last descendant of the throne to the kingdom of Khazaria.  Throughout the novel they oscillate between the ideas of robbing and killing Filaq, the would be ruler of Khazaria, and wholly ignoring his existence.  While we're given all the elements for an amazing adventure tale things remain rather modest concerning plot.  While part of the book is adventure blended into the story of 'Jews with Swords' the other part are the colorful descriptions and vibrant prose that only Chabon is capable of; all-in-all his strongest asset kinda got in the way of the story.

Things aren't slow, nor or they what I would deem measured or well-paced but Chabon's usual flair and attention to detail on top of a host of tenth-century vocabulary does add up to needing a small dose of patience to feel your way through the story.  The prose never goes so far as to draw attention to itself but nor does it always enhance or endear itself to the story being told.  The novel's story--sorry I meant "Tale of Adventure"--didn't have strong enough elements for the language used to fully benefit as Chabon's prose usually does.  Or perhaps this is just the opinion of one who has read many such "Tales of Adventure."  If you're one of those readers who would ordinarily never read "a Tale of Adventure" then you may find Gentlemen of the Road to be the greatest thing committed to paper, and you might even go so far as to seek out other such 'Novels.' 

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

The story is a murder mystery that is, in truth rather light on both, but extraordinarily dense with bravado and craftsmanship.  There's a little boy with a few horrible communication deficiencies and parrot that speaks, among other things, a string of numbers erratically in German.  

No, seriously, that's the whole plot.

We, of course, meet other characters, an elderly police detective, a hot-headed younger son, a murderer with a motive, and a bee keeper, but the biggest star here is the author.  Chabon strings together the most meaningful and dense collection of words you will find in modern literature.  His descriptions are slightly obsessive, perhaps even manic, but primarily gorgeous and leave a firm imprint on the mind; his colorful use of language manages to be both whimsically and profound at the same time.  The narrative is simplistic and straightforward but you read Chabon's work to understand how something trite can be made beautiful in hands of one to today's chic literary behemoths.  

The murder is solved; the parrot is returned; a little boy is made happy; and the innocent are exonerated--if not exiled--all in wonderful groupings of words that no one else could have assembled.  Yet, I can't help but feeling like this book wasn't what it was supposed to be: chapter one, all nine pages of it, was so intent on a boy who is decidedly 'not right' and a parrot.  Given Chabon's attention to this duo and his powers as a writer, I really wanted to read a story about this boy and his parrot--by the end of chapter one, I was more than a little bit in love with this boy and his parrot.  That story is not included in The Final Solution: A Story of Detection and that's okay.  To the benifit of us all, Chabon's genius goes where it will and not where I would have it go: I'm more than content to follow a few steps behind in awe.