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The Act of Love
All husbands, Felix maintains, secretly want their wives to be unfaithful to them. Felix hasn't always thought this way. From the moment of his first boyhood rejection, surviving the shattering effects of love and jealousy had been the study of his life. But while he is honeymooning with Marisa in Florida, an event occurs that changes everything. In a moment, he goes from dreading the thought of someone else's hands on the woman he loves to thinking about nothing else. Enter Marius into Marisa's affections. Now Felix must wonder if he really is a happy man.
353 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
16 people are currently reading
412 people want to read
About the author
Howard Jacobson
79 books388 followersHoward Jacobson was born in Manchester, England, and educated at Cambridge. His many novels include The Mighty Walzer (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), Who’s Sorry Now? and Kalooki Nights (both longlisted for the Man Booker Prize), and, most recently, The Act of Love. Jacobson is also a respected critic and broadcaster, and writes a weekly column for the Independent. He lives in London.
Profile of Howard Jacobson in The New York Times.
“The book's appeal to Jewish readers is obvious, but like all great Jewish art — the paintings of Marc Chagall, the books of Saul Bellow, the films of Woody Allen — it is Jacobson's use of the Jewish experience to explain the greater human one that sets it apart. Who among us is so certain of our identity? Who hasn't been asked, "What's your background" and hesitated, even for a split second, to answer their inquisitor? Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question forces us to ask that of ourselves, and that's why it's a must read, no matter what your background.”—-David Sax, NPR.
Profile of Howard Jacobson in The New York Times.
“The book's appeal to Jewish readers is obvious, but like all great Jewish art — the paintings of Marc Chagall, the books of Saul Bellow, the films of Woody Allen — it is Jacobson's use of the Jewish experience to explain the greater human one that sets it apart. Who among us is so certain of our identity? Who hasn't been asked, "What's your background" and hesitated, even for a split second, to answer their inquisitor? Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question forces us to ask that of ourselves, and that's why it's a must read, no matter what your background.”—-David Sax, NPR.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
September 3, 2024
Una novela psicológica sobre una obsesión, inteligente, culta - curioso su enorme catálogo de citas literarias relacionadas con el masoquismo de Felix, el personaje central- y muy, muy perturbadora.
La novela, su estructura y la construcción de los personajes, me ha parecido muy clásica. Tanto es así y tanta era mi concentración en la historia que, situando mi mente a los personajes a finales del XIX o principios del XX, me sobresaltaba al encontrar palabras como internet o powerpoint. De hecho, y espero no caer así en una herejía, el autor me recordaba en buena medida a Zweig.
¿Cómo explicarlo? Sería un libro de Zweig que, como el retrato de Dorian Gray, hubiera ido transformándose, retorciéndose en una mueca provocadora, repelente y, no obstante, tremendamente atractiva, que me devolvía una imagen que no puedo decir que fuera la mía pero que tampoco me era del todo ajena. No podía empatizar con esos sentimientos de Felix, su perversión me era totalmente extraña, pero, como el mismo personaje dice en un momento dado, toda perversión lleva en sí misma la semilla de todas las perversiones... y quién no tiene alguna.
¿Y el final?... Ay, el final. Según iba transcurriendo la trama empecé a sospechar que terminaría como el rosario de la aurora, algo así como en Las amistades peligrosas, novela con la que comparte perversiones (las sigo llamando así, aunque una tesis del libro es que no existen tales cosas) y la figura del inocente manipulado en beneficio del propio goce, aunque, al contrario que en la novela de Choderlos, aquí es el hombre el que maneja los hilos o... en fin, mejor me callo. Por otra parte, el personaje femenino es todo lo contrario a una marquesa de Merteuil, el inocente no es tal, aunque, por otro lado... (y hasta aquí puedo leer).
October 17, 2011
Felix Quinn is not your ordinary cuckold, not some unknowing husband safe in his ignorance or one tormented by suspicion or doubt. No, Felix is the DSM-IV-TR variety. Cuckoldry is his fetish, and to massage it he connives to mate his wife Marisa with the handsome stranger Marius.
A creepy topic, sure, but no more so than, say, pedophilia. And Jacobson channels Nabokov, even if he does not quite match him. This is a fascinating, if uncomfortable, examination of a true pervert. But an intelligent, reflective one. The first-person protagonist is an antiquarian bookseller by trade, so the literary and artistic allusions sparkle. Google the art references herein for an enhanced appreciation.
Because Quinn is no accidental cuckold, his flaw is not passivity but, rather, a devouring egoism which proves to be his ultimate undoing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read even though I disagreed with the stated premise: No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else. Sorry, no. But then there was : I miss very little that has the promise of impropriety. Check. And: Love, that is all I've ever cared to read about. Love and love's agonies. Check again.
So, if the theme was creepy and the plot often tending to improbable, nevertheless I could enjoy Felix Quinn, a character who could muse: We die of loneliness at the margins, not perversions. . . The pervert might have second thoughts about himself but he knows he's alive.
Lastly, the title - The Act of Love - seems rather banal for such a quirky book. Better in Italian though: Un Amore Perfetto.
A creepy topic, sure, but no more so than, say, pedophilia. And Jacobson channels Nabokov, even if he does not quite match him. This is a fascinating, if uncomfortable, examination of a true pervert. But an intelligent, reflective one. The first-person protagonist is an antiquarian bookseller by trade, so the literary and artistic allusions sparkle. Google the art references herein for an enhanced appreciation.
Because Quinn is no accidental cuckold, his flaw is not passivity but, rather, a devouring egoism which proves to be his ultimate undoing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read even though I disagreed with the stated premise: No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else. Sorry, no. But then there was : I miss very little that has the promise of impropriety. Check. And: Love, that is all I've ever cared to read about. Love and love's agonies. Check again.
So, if the theme was creepy and the plot often tending to improbable, nevertheless I could enjoy Felix Quinn, a character who could muse: We die of loneliness at the margins, not perversions. . . The pervert might have second thoughts about himself but he knows he's alive.
Lastly, the title - The Act of Love - seems rather banal for such a quirky book. Better in Italian though: Un Amore Perfetto.
March 7, 2014
The Act of Love is a very interesting book, beautifully written, but highly desexualized and starved of real feeling considering the nature of the subject it details, in favour of a more rational, academic analysis and explanation of the kind of man who would give up his wife for another.
There’s plenty of conflicts in this book, I suppose as there would be for the cuckold depicted. The narrator wanted to justify himself by saying that to some extent all men have thoughts of letting their wives stray, though most would never admit to such a thing. But then he’s describing himself as a "deviant", and glorying in that label.
The book shied away from the sexual aspects of what really should be a very sexual subject — a husband letting his wife have regular sex with another man under his own roof. He justified it strangely by stating that he didn’t want to invade his wife’s privacy, and yet he’d already explained that part of this cuckold fetish was the need to show off the wife to other men. It was, really, a very mainstream view of wife-sharing. The writer appeared to be trying to be different and rebellious in tackling such a subject, but he appeared more than slightly distasteful of it. Ultimately the story was as most mainstream fiction is when it attempts to delve into scandalous territory: upholding the mainstream values, by ultimately showing how dreadful all this is, how a man choosing this non-mainstream lifestyle can only ever expect to end up mired in tragedy.
I’d recommend the book to those who go for the more literary type of book and want good interesting writing, but for me the whole thing stopped short of being a powerful tragedy with its messy ending, and along with the fairly bleak view of the protagonist running throughout, none of the characters were particularly likable and it all left a somewhat empty feeling behind.
There’s plenty of conflicts in this book, I suppose as there would be for the cuckold depicted. The narrator wanted to justify himself by saying that to some extent all men have thoughts of letting their wives stray, though most would never admit to such a thing. But then he’s describing himself as a "deviant", and glorying in that label.
The book shied away from the sexual aspects of what really should be a very sexual subject — a husband letting his wife have regular sex with another man under his own roof. He justified it strangely by stating that he didn’t want to invade his wife’s privacy, and yet he’d already explained that part of this cuckold fetish was the need to show off the wife to other men. It was, really, a very mainstream view of wife-sharing. The writer appeared to be trying to be different and rebellious in tackling such a subject, but he appeared more than slightly distasteful of it. Ultimately the story was as most mainstream fiction is when it attempts to delve into scandalous territory: upholding the mainstream values, by ultimately showing how dreadful all this is, how a man choosing this non-mainstream lifestyle can only ever expect to end up mired in tragedy.
I’d recommend the book to those who go for the more literary type of book and want good interesting writing, but for me the whole thing stopped short of being a powerful tragedy with its messy ending, and along with the fairly bleak view of the protagonist running throughout, none of the characters were particularly likable and it all left a somewhat empty feeling behind.
July 13, 2009
A banal, implausible little book that caused me to invent the new genre: "Books I finished reading only because I was stuck on a plane."
Take this principle - "I enjoyed the idea of my wife with another man, though I simultaneously felt conflicted and repelled by my own excitement" - and hyperextend it far beyond its natural lifespan into boring, mantra-like repetition and you have arrived at The Act of Love.
Take this principle - "I enjoyed the idea of my wife with another man, though I simultaneously felt conflicted and repelled by my own excitement" - and hyperextend it far beyond its natural lifespan into boring, mantra-like repetition and you have arrived at The Act of Love.
September 18, 2018
This book was weird and fucked-up and ultimately quite tragic, and i cannot imagine a single person i would recommend it to (okay maybe just one, maybe) but i absolutely loved it. To say more would spoiler it bigtime so i'll leave it at that.
February 20, 2012
One of the best written books I've ever had the displeasure of slogging through. I started this book at the end of OCT, and after many re-shelvings of the book, I decided to take it down and finish it today. The writing is extremely good; very literate. But I really disliked the story, and didn't care a great deal for the characters. The main character played a very weak person IMO. I didn't like his motives or actions, but he was well written. I also didn't care for the "plot" of the book, but again, the writing made up for a story line that I didn't care for. I've read "The Finkler Question" by Jacobson, and found it to be an extremely good book. This one has the same style and excellent writing, just without the good story. I'd give the story a 2 star rating, and the writing 4 stars... I'll compromise with a 3 star rating (more like a 2.5)...
February 21, 2012
Curioso el cambio del título, del original "El acto de amor" (The Act of Love) al español "Un acto de amor". Como si la novela tratara de un caso concreto, de la forma peculiar en la que Felix Quinn experimenta el amor hacia su esposa, y no del acto de amor en general. Felix intenta convencer al lector durante toda la novela de que el suyo no es un caso aislado, y que la mayor diferencia entre él y la mayoría de los otros hombres es que él tiene el valor de enfrentarse cara a cara con sus fantasmas y actuar de manera proactiva para satisfacer sus ansias masoquistas morales. Los celos van a ser el combustible del amor masculino, afirma, sin ellos la chispa acabará apagándose.
No me ha gustado nada este personaje de Felix, es un snob manierista y decadente que vive su vida como un actor de método que lo sacrifica todo para poder meterse en la piel del personaje que representa, va a ser él mismo a costa de todos los que le rodean. Pero esta antipatía hacia el protagonista de la novela no es más que un juicio de valor personal y subjetivo, el libro es la obra de un autor con una técnica narrativa absolutamente impecable, que cediendo la palabra a su personaje va a invitar al lector a tomar residencia en la mente de un ser egoísta hasta la perturbación, pero tan culto y tan articulado que será capaz de mantener la atención de este lector página tras página de reflexión inactiva.
A diferencia de Philip Roth, que es un exhibicionista sexual cargado de un tremendo sentimiento de culpa, Howard Jacobson es fundamentalmente amoral en cuestiones de sexo. Esto va a hacer que las reflexiones sobre el tema superen en cantidad y calidad a las descripciones plásticas del acto, escasas y no demasiado explícitas. El libro no se centra en el cómo sino en el porqué del doloroso atractivo de los celos maritales y lleva a sus últimas consecuencias una situación insostenible sin que haya moraleja final. Se le puede achacar al libro lo inverosímil de la manera tan cilivizada como llevan los personajes una situación de sentimientos extremos: pero no olvidemos que estamos hablando de las clases altas de la sociedad británica, donde las buenas maneras hacen al hombre. Y a la mujer.
No me ha gustado nada este personaje de Felix, es un snob manierista y decadente que vive su vida como un actor de método que lo sacrifica todo para poder meterse en la piel del personaje que representa, va a ser él mismo a costa de todos los que le rodean. Pero esta antipatía hacia el protagonista de la novela no es más que un juicio de valor personal y subjetivo, el libro es la obra de un autor con una técnica narrativa absolutamente impecable, que cediendo la palabra a su personaje va a invitar al lector a tomar residencia en la mente de un ser egoísta hasta la perturbación, pero tan culto y tan articulado que será capaz de mantener la atención de este lector página tras página de reflexión inactiva.
A diferencia de Philip Roth, que es un exhibicionista sexual cargado de un tremendo sentimiento de culpa, Howard Jacobson es fundamentalmente amoral en cuestiones de sexo. Esto va a hacer que las reflexiones sobre el tema superen en cantidad y calidad a las descripciones plásticas del acto, escasas y no demasiado explícitas. El libro no se centra en el cómo sino en el porqué del doloroso atractivo de los celos maritales y lleva a sus últimas consecuencias una situación insostenible sin que haya moraleja final. Se le puede achacar al libro lo inverosímil de la manera tan cilivizada como llevan los personajes una situación de sentimientos extremos: pero no olvidemos que estamos hablando de las clases altas de la sociedad británica, donde las buenas maneras hacen al hombre. Y a la mujer.
May 31, 2010
Some beautiful language and characterisation.
"Art is good for softening a hard herat, but when you are already pulp, art is not what you need. silence is what you need. A wordless dark....."
"Art is good for softening a hard herat, but when you are already pulp, art is not what you need. silence is what you need. A wordless dark....."
December 10, 2010
I gave up the ghost - reads way too much like an un-enjoyable classic .
January 1, 2011
Once again - boring characters - so didn't finish the book
February 24, 2016
Hated it. Pompous. Stupid. Could not finish it.
November 9, 2015
This should have won the Man Booker. This was amazing.
July 12, 2018
The prose throughout this book was elegant and beautiful, graphic at times and yet the middle section of the book dragged. There are only so many ways in wish a cuckhold fantasy can be described and I wished Jackobson had developed the story more rapidly and given further insight into Marisa's character.
For the above reasons I was going to give this book 1 star but the ending saved it, it was captivating and tragic. Felix may not be likeable but nor was Humbert Humbert and that didn't ruin Lolitia and neither did Felix ruin this. It was an insight into an aspect of life never usually considered and the ending captured the tragedy this can cause in relationships.
For the above reasons I was going to give this book 1 star but the ending saved it, it was captivating and tragic. Felix may not be likeable but nor was Humbert Humbert and that didn't ruin Lolitia and neither did Felix ruin this. It was an insight into an aspect of life never usually considered and the ending captured the tragedy this can cause in relationships.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2021
My second Jacobson - I read "Who's Sorry Now", about which all I can remember is that I found that irritating and disappointing too. His narrator, and frankly HJ himself, seems to be constantly trying to impress - with his culture, his sophistication, in this case his freakish approach to love and desire; but it's just long-winded, unconvincing and tiresome.
There is a twist (accounting for 1.5 of the 2 stars), but it still isn't remotely worth the work it takes to get there.
(The spoiler under the spoiler alert is extremely abstract, in case you're hesitating.)
There is a twist (accounting for 1.5 of the 2 stars), but it still isn't remotely worth the work it takes to get there.
(The spoiler under the spoiler alert is extremely abstract, in case you're hesitating.)
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June 10, 2019if cuckolding can be an obsessive art ,then howard jacobson made it so in this hilariously serious novel . A bookseller's theory that a wife's love increases if she sleeps with other man makes him search for a professor and tries of spark a love between them ,and he goes on a roller coaster of imagination,leading him to realise his wife already loves him.jacobson's wit and invention and lurid style creates a humour which makes us feel almost the reality of it.
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November 6, 2023This guy can write. A bit repetitive, but I get it was supposed to be obsessive, so that makes sense. I did wonder how a person has this much time on their hands to obsess over their love life. Also, the banter made my eyes roll a bit sometimes.
P.S. This author has jumped on the no-comma train. I am not a fan of that train! But now I'm the one being repetitive...
P.S. This author has jumped on the no-comma train. I am not a fan of that train! But now I'm the one being repetitive...
January 8, 2023
Self-indulgent introspective rubbish. Got half-way and had to give up
December 2, 2024
What an intense reading experience. The writing is superb and the effect is quite claustrophobic as we live with the main character's all consuming obsessions.....oh and love.
February 28, 2023
Of course imagining is not the same as longing; what you see in your mind's distempered eye you might not welcome into your heart. But then again you might. What else is imagination for if not to lure the heart away from safety?
Where to begin when it comes to leaving a review for a book that made me feel more like myself upon having read it? At the approximation of the start, I suppose?
I picked up this book first as an ebook from the library (long live Libby!) because I am a sucker for most books that point to my primary concern in the title. Namely, love. Which leads me to ask, what is the act of love that this novel means? I have my assumptions.
And so I read it. I don't make a habit of reading blurbs and summaries because I enjoy a surprise, and surprise me this book did. I did not think I was going to venture into the realm of cuckoldry but I did, and I was interested. It doesn't help that Felix Quinn is an impeccable narrator and literary figure. A well-read man in the book business, who can't help but love his wife and talk about it, can often reek of pretention, and he does, but I can't help but like him. I suppose this means I have long passed my tendency to dislike those characters that remind me of me, and instead attest to loving them. What a growth.
Between the first of August to this date, I began to read this book, highlighted many lines, and thought to myself, 'there is no way I can continue reading this in a digital format.' So I purchased a used copy. It was not until December rolled around that I began to read once more, in earnest. And I know for a fact that I put it off this long because inasmuch as I want to read it, I don't want to have finished reading The Act of Love. A paradox I must learn to bear, because the moment of reading is as fleeting as the now.
I have qualms about the ending and its sudden jab of complication from the sickness that infects the narrative, but I do appreciate its symmetry of beginning and ending at a cemetery. Felix Quinn, after all, is a literary man through and through, and my hero.
February 5, 2015
Wonderfully selfish, sexy and bitter about a book-dealer, Felix Quinn, and his wife's infidelity. Felix's reactions to his wife's lover are both understandable and his theory of jealousy are both difficult and true. Any kind of profession of love without jealousy is implied to be a simulacra of love.
The obsessive nature of love and sex is described in brilliantly uncomfortable prose. There is a savagery to the writing which is largely absent from novels featuring the love lives of middle-class, educated people. Quite often, the sex life is absented for the love life completely, and it is refreshing to find a book that is not afraid to shun this approach.
I am a late convert to Jacobson but he leaves a forceful impression on the page. His men and women are not of the kind that seek to cleanse and simplify their lives. They are messy drinking, fucking, smoking kind of people who screw up and get angry and jealous. They have as many unpleasant traits as they do 'normal' ones that we may recognize. Their appeal lies in the fact that they choose to live selfishly and engage with negative consequences of their existence with the same legitimacy as they do the positive and chosen paths of their lives. I say negative, they are not presented as such. Instead, they are the normal part of life and cannot to be avoided.
The obsessive nature of love and sex is described in brilliantly uncomfortable prose. There is a savagery to the writing which is largely absent from novels featuring the love lives of middle-class, educated people. Quite often, the sex life is absented for the love life completely, and it is refreshing to find a book that is not afraid to shun this approach.
I am a late convert to Jacobson but he leaves a forceful impression on the page. His men and women are not of the kind that seek to cleanse and simplify their lives. They are messy drinking, fucking, smoking kind of people who screw up and get angry and jealous. They have as many unpleasant traits as they do 'normal' ones that we may recognize. Their appeal lies in the fact that they choose to live selfishly and engage with negative consequences of their existence with the same legitimacy as they do the positive and chosen paths of their lives. I say negative, they are not presented as such. Instead, they are the normal part of life and cannot to be avoided.
May 16, 2013
This is a book about sexual perversion - mainly about the narrator's desire to be a cuckold. So after stealing the luscious Marisa away from her first husband, Felix marries her, then contrives for her to take a lover. The plot continues from there, But the plot is somewhat irrelevant, just a devise for Jacobson to expostulate on the theme of perversion. Jacobson is a towering intellectual, extremely well read and literate - his books challenge the reader. But on page 206, the narrator (Felix) discusses a book he read on marital jealousy with the remark "It's so authentically tedious in its minuteness of observation it's unreadable." And that's the problem with this book: too narrow a subject treated in too much detail, hence tedious.
I still like Jacobson as a writer, but only recommend this book to his loyal fans.
I still like Jacobson as a writer, but only recommend this book to his loyal fans.
October 15, 2017
Interessant jetzt, 5 Jahre nach dem ersten Lesen, soviele neue Ekenntnisse über die Geschichte zu gewinnen. Interessant, einen feministischen Helden zu lesen - macht es lesbar, trotzdem ein Mann über Männer schreibt. Interessant, dass es zusammenpasst, 200 Seiten lang zu erklären, wie geil Frauen, die sich nehmen, was sie sollen, sind, und dann aber von Frauen, die sich anbieten, angewidert zu sein. --- Nicht du hast zu entscheiden, wen eine Frau fuckable findet, alter Freund!
Lieblingszitat: "Große Litereatur - wahre, große Literatur - von männlichen Autoren jedenfalls, handelt doch immer von Eifersucht."
Lieblingszitat: "Große Litereatur - wahre, große Literatur - von männlichen Autoren jedenfalls, handelt doch immer von Eifersucht."
April 5, 2015
This was an odd book. It took a while to get into and to be honest the plot is a bit lacking. It's the way it's written that makes it. The language is flowery. Actually flowery is quite an inept way to describe it, it's more poetic. It feels. More like a work of proper literature than just a novel. It is a book out of time, juxtaposing a more archaic tone with modern material. In a way I guess this of the beauty of the book because that describes the main protagonist in a nutshell - he is a man out of time, at war with himself. It is Jacobson's way wih words that made it a struggle for me to put the book down.
January 2, 2014
Jacobsen is a witty, literate writer and this novel dives in to explore where love, lust and passion intersect. Of course it is from a male view, those wanting a fully faceted tale can skip this and save themselves some grunts and groans. I was quite taken with the protaganist, Felix Quinn. A husband I could secretly aspire to be, all due to his literary, musical and artistic knowledge, of course.
If you need to be reminded that a sexy life of perpetual longing comes from the mind not the heart, this is a novel for you.
If you need to be reminded that a sexy life of perpetual longing comes from the mind not the heart, this is a novel for you.
August 23, 2009
I enjoyed this book although I had to struggle through at some points. It is well written but seems to meander a lot while getting around to the point of telling the story.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it seemed to get better & better the further I read.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it seemed to get better & better the further I read.
April 25, 2013
A joy to read. It’s so much better written than the earlier novel of his that I read. It’s a narrative of obsession, and Jacobson seems to revel in obsession. The obsession is with arranging for his wife to cuckold him, to be in control of what he sees as inevitable. It’s fine entertainment.
May 25, 2014
Jealousy and obsession drive this main character's whole life. I couldn't get past the obsessive documentation of the man he wants to set up to seduce his wife.
November 7, 2009
Strange. Though the novel is about obsession, it's written from a very removed point of view. I thought it would have more substance.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews