The Finkler Question

by Howard Jacobson

flippant.’

Some arguments you don’t have in order that you will win.

felicity

Aren’t all dreads half desires?

Either way their demands wearied her. Who did they think she was – America? Give me your tired, your poor . . . the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

miasmas

and had listened to him spin a hellish tale about his sleeping with a Holocaust denier and negotiating numbers in return for favours. He’d come down a million if she’d do this to him, but would want to put a million back in return for doing that to her.

‘I did it out of honourable motives. I hoped I might fuck her to death.’ ‘Why didn’t you just strangle her without fucking her?’ ‘I’m Jewish.’ ‘It’s allowed with Holocaust deniers. It’s more than allowed, it’s obligatory. The Eleventh Commandment – Thou shalt wring the necks of all deniers for denial is an abomination.’

‘Probably is, but I also wanted to reform her. Like with hookers. You know me –’

melancholy

expiatory

totemic,

He would have punched the air had he been a man who punched the air.

sidle.

Kaddish

disparate

schadenfreude

aperçus