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Jul 07, 2011

A.J. rated it:

I don't like the idea that literature is written "for" or "not for" any people. Sure, you might be able to appreciate War and Peace better if you are a member of the 19th century Russian intelligentsia. But you're a fool if you let a smaller share of comparative appreciation get in your way. I mean, I can't let the fact that I'm middle class and white distract me from the fact that I enjoy listening to Public Enemy. I'm not comfortable with the idea that anything is beyond my More...

3 comments like (22 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

planetkimi rated it:

According to the reviews on the back cover, The Finkler Question is hilarious. The front cover proclaims that it won the 2010 Man Booker Prize. A reviewer from the London Times asks "How is it possible to read Howard Jacobson and not lose oneself in admiration for the music of his language, the power of his characterization and the penetration of this insight?"

I dunno how exactly, but I did not lose myself in admiration of Jacobson while reading The Finkler Question.
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6 comments like (22 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2010

Marialyce rated it:

What is it like to be a Jew in modern day England in the question that this book covers. Told through the eyes, behavior, and words of three men it explores the concept of what makes a Jewish person a Jew. It was oftentimes quite funny although the topic one of seriousness. Julian, the Jewish wannabee, wanders around the story looking for his Jewishness. He is pretty much of a loser so one thinks that through his fervor for his Jewishness he will become a better person. He is convinced that he h More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2010

Liz rated it:

I found this book laborious and slow moving. The parameters were too constrained to comfortably contain Julian, the main character's obsession with Jews and his wishful wondering if, by any quirk of fate, he could have something in his ancestry that would allow him to lay claim to being partly Jewish.

This tiresome obsession was sparked by an incident in which he was mugged by someone who, he believed, mistook him for a Jew. From then on Julian's thoughts are dominated by ways of More...

6 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2011

Drew rated it:

I've always been suspicious of the Booker Prize: a solid, stick-in-the-mud reward to literary doggedness and middlebrow worthiness that guarantees reading matter for the leafy home counties if nothing else. As a Nobel Prize lite it tends to award writers for what they mean rather than what they write.

Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question has a central question that falls perfectly in the Booker court: what is Jewishness? And what does it mean to be Jewish in England today? It's a que More...

4 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Dan rated it:

Yes, witty, sometimes funny, but not really very comic. For me, at the level of humor, it was like reading Lucky Jim: that book wasn't funny either. I'm missing the funny bone, or British put-down humor about human failures is off the mark. And I suspect that many American readers may tire of the intense interiority of the characters, who spend a great deal of time having opinions and then doubting them, so much so that you might feel nothing really happens except in the memory and irritations o More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2010

Ainsley rated it:

Really really really great. hard to put down. touching and funny. unexpectedly challenging. presents a difficult topic in a hitting and fearless fashion. empowered me with a nuanced perspective and vocabulary with which to challenge prevailing or simplistic notions of the Jewish identity. every time I put it down I had a strange yearning to call my grandmother, to remember and to be close.

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Charlotte added it

“The Finkler Question” won the Booker Prize, and so many people have raved about it—most importantly, my sister, whose wonderful taste influences me—but I resisted this book and I’m not sure why. Is it because the book has a very British point of view and I have an American bias? Is it because I tend to be—dare I say it—pro-Palestinian and this book feels, at the very least, ambivalent?

Stepping aside from the central Jewish question for a moment, I think what bugs me is the feeling that this i More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Iris added it

I wish I could find a review that contained some insight into this book that I apparently missed, and that could justify it getting the Booker prize. The best description I can come up with on my own is "preposterous", as in asinine, ludicrous, and all the way to plain stupid. And that's just for the story, which seems to have started as an essay on "the Jewish question" and modern anti-semitism and apparently morphed into an absurd story (The Washington Post qualified it a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2012

Adrian rated it:

Should a comic novel make me laugh? Is it funny to spend the first thirty-odd pages riffing on the word Jew? Can Jews write about anything other than being a Jew? If you’re going to write a novel about being a Jew, should it have at least some universal relevance ie. about being a human being? Should it be wrapped up in an interesting story? Should it have characters I give a toss about? Why does The Finkler Question remind me of Skippy Dies? Is it because they both take an inordinate length of More...

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2012

Mae rated it:

Julian Treslove is a middle aged troubled man. A handsome, educated englishman whose best friend Samuel Finkler is an english Jew. Samuel, is a hugely successful philosopher, a published author and married to the perfect woman. Julian's life is a series of one night stands, failed careers, failed relationships, whereas his friend Sam continues to succeed in life. These two are united by an elderly Jewish journalist who is 40 years their senior. As we explore Julians complex relationship to More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Richard rated it:

It's been said that Neil Simon's plays explain the Jews to non-Jews and that A.R. Gurney's plays do the opposite -- or at least explain WASPs to everyone who isn't one. So where does that place Howard Jacobson? I've read that he describes himself as "the Jewish Jane Austen", which is an intriguing self-conception. But having willed myself through The Finkler Question -- a novel that tackles head-on the issue of Jewish identity in general and Jewish identity in the UK in particular - More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 30, 2011

Graeme rated it:

I had a massive great long exposition planned about this book, but I can't actually be arsed to write it down. So, what do I reckon?

It's a good book -- an interrogation of 'Jewishness', I guess you could say, and it worked best for me when it was rolling up its sleeves and grappling with questions like identity, antisemitism, Israel, secularism, Islam and so on, and less well when it was trying to be a comic novel.

As a work of philosophy or perhaps an essay dressed up as a More...

0 comments like

Dec 29, 2011

Rob rated it:

I hesitate to start to write this review, as I feel a bit like Treslove, the main character of this book. Julian Treslove is a disappointed unmarried middle-aged man working as a celebrity look-alike whose two best friends are both Jewish, and both have recently lost their wives. Samuel Finkler, a friend of Treslove since school, is a successful philosopher, academic and TV pundit, writer of "The Existentialist in the Kitchen". The elderly Libor Sevcik was their teacher. Both may be Je More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Tara rated it:

I loved the concept of the gentile protagonist, Treslove, believing intuitively that he is Jewish. He can't quite compute that he is not and tries to appropriate a Jewish lifestyle even choosing a Jewish girlfriend and sleeping with his friend's Jewish wife. He becomes the victim of what he perceives to be an anti-semetic mugging, and derides Finkler, his self-hating Jewish friend's assertion, that it couldn't be an act of anti-semitism as Treslove isn't Jewish. The novel embraces the wider p More...

0 comments like

Oct 02, 2011

ellen rated it:

i grabbed this book off the shelf in the library sort of randomly, because i like to give new (to me) authors a chance. when i read the back cover praise from other writers and that it had won the man booker award for 2010, my expectations were elevated. halfway through reading, i wondered what i was doing in the middle of this book. it seems clear that it was intended for a very particular audience - and there's nothing wrong with that, but i am not part of that demographic. the writing was ok, More...

0 comments like

Oct 02, 2011

Eva rated it:

Howard Jacobson is a funny guy. He’s a smart guy, too. Such a pity his book The Finkler Question can’t decide whether he wants to entertain readers or educate them. By “literary” standards I suppose Jacobson has done everything right. He’s got a self-involved male protagonist, a variety of sexual escapades, a group of dysfunctional friends, and no real plot. The question of the title is theoretical—Julian Treslove, our hero, wonders what it would be like to be Jewish. Jacobson sets up Treslove’s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Susan KG rated it:

This is definitely a book that I had to urge myself to finish. I do have some mixed feelings about, but I am glad that I read it and I am glad that I stuck with it. In many ways it is a brilliant book, as it does an expert and satirical job of exploring the spectrum of Jewish attitudes both towards being Jewish and Zionism. Jacobson's humor is razor sharp, and there were many instances where he had me laughing out loud, like the seder.

Another problem I had was connecting to th More...

0 comments like

Aug 21, 2011

Gwen rated it:

This book rewards a close read. The writing is superb and there are some very subtle themes and analyses in it - more than normal in a popular novel. For me, the issue with the book is a familiar one - can I care about the characters? In this case, I could care about the oldest character, Libor, and what he was going through after losing his beloved wife of many years. But I cared little about the Jewish philosopher, Finkler, and his English friend, Treslove. These men are preoccupied with More...

1 comment like

Aug 08, 2011

Agnes rated it:

The story is about three friends, two Jewish men and a third, Treslove, who decides he wants to be Jewish. The first part of the book deals with how Treslove, i.e. non Jews, perceive Jews and how Jews perceive themselves, i.e. Finkler and Libor. Finkler and Libor are widowers and Finkler and Treslove were college friends.

The themes of the book are friendship, loss and Jewish identity. What old friends put up with simply because they have a long history, how loss is dealt with and More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Ian rated it:

Man Booker Prize Winner for 2010.

Look at the back of the book. Everyone (other writers, newspapers etc) say how wonderful this book is. How he is the funniest writer alive. Blah Blah Blah.

Maybe I am not the demographic for a Jewish crisis of existence book but it did not make me laugh once, nothing really happended and it was as dull as dish water.

Repition of themes, events, sayings, jokes, characteristics cannot be expected to carry a novel over 370 pages. More...

0 comments like

Jul 23, 2011

Carolina rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2011

rmn rated it:

This is an engaging book filled with many clever puns that takes both a dark and comical look at the current state of Judaism in the UK by using a number of different characters including an anti-zionist Jew, a Christian who fancies himself Jewish, and their old professor who was around for the holocaust. The author, Howard Jacobson, has a knack for language and he crafts it in to a rhythm that pervades the entire book.

That said, the whole time I was reading this I kept thinking: “T More...

0 comments like

Jun 24, 2011

Milky rated it:

This is a great book. Don't let the philistines of this pitiful site ruin it for you. I picked it up because I hold Wodehouse in such esteem for his comedic novels (not that I was expecting Wodehouse here, he just introduced me to this category of writing). I had to read something more contemporary and since this won the booker prize I just bought it.

The first thing I must elucidate is that Finkler and the others seem to be more concerned with melancholic satire and the humour may no More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Kay rated it:

Some people really like this book, including the judges who awarded it the Man Booker Prize in 2010. Others, including me, don’t like it much at all.

The book’s main character, Julian Treslove, is a former employee of the BBC who now works as a celebrity double. He has always been a bit jealous of his old school friend Sam Finkler, a successful writer of popular philosophy books with titles like The Existentialist in the Kitchen. Finkler was the first Jew Treslove ever met, and he now More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2011

Glenys rated it:

My sister Gwyneth lent me this Booker prizewinner, and I was enticed by all the reviews saying what a funny writer, comic genious, witty author etc. he was. However I didn't find it very hilarious. Acutally, I found it full of sadness, darkness and pain. I suppose this was leavened by the author's sense of the absurdity of life. Perhaps there is something funny about humans struggling for love, meaning and personal identity whilst held in the vice of history; personal, family and cultural de More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 16, 2011

Laura rated it:

I feel a rant coming on and it's been coming for a while. So it isn't pertinent only to this novel.

Must every literary writer use the "f" word as not only their verb of choice but also their modifier of every verb, adjective and other adverb? I've seen this more and more often in the last few years. A handful of times, I understand; sometimes an obscenity works in a story better than a non-offensive term. I'm not normally squeamish about language, honestly. But there comes a More...

1 comment like

May 08, 2011

Jillwilson rated it:

The Finkler Question. Good in bits.
“You could divide the world into those who wanted to kill Jews and those who wanted to be Jews.” versus “We’re all anti-Semites. We have no choice. You. Me. Everyone.”
When I was young I read Exodus and all of the writing of Leon Uris. I read Anne Frank and Phillip Roth. Chaim Potok. Went to see Woody Allan movies. Read Elie Wiesel. Tried to get up to speed on things like the Holocaust. On gefilte fish, Shabbat and other things Jewish. A bit of a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 06, 2011

Christian rated it:

I read two novels during my recent Sicilian sojourn, Amis’s The Pregnant Widow (diverting enough as a Sharpe-ish comic novel, woefully facile as ‘literature’) and Jacobson’s The Finkler Question (the work of a master craftsman, though perhaps the craft overwhelmed the feeling).

Read back to back, I was struck by the similarities. Not just in the tone of voice - though it does seem that these middle-aged male prose stylists tend towards the same accent, all of them still in debt to the G More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

I recently set myself the goal of reading through all the Man Booker prize winners. I decided to start on the most recent winners and work backwards as some of the earlier winners are hard to find. The Finkler Question is the 2010 winner and it left me wishing I had tried to look a little harder for the earlier winners because I grew to dislike this book so heartily I couldn’t even finish it. I gave it to page 145 or so and finally gave up. Not a very auspicious beginning to my quest.

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1 comment like (1 person liked it)