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The Finkler Question
The Finkler Question: A Novel | Howard Jacobson
"He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one..." Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular and disappointed BBC worker, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czechoslovakian always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor's grand, central London apartment. It's a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you had less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends' losses. And it's that very evening, at exactly 11:30pm, as Treslove hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country as he walks home, that he is attacked. After this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of exclusion and belonging, justice and love, ageing, wisdom and humanity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best.
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BarbaraBB
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Mehso-so

Finishing this book felt like working. Three men, two of which are Jewish, are friends and are meeting one another all the time. They discuss Judaism, Zionism, antisemitism, sexism… and all in that sarcastic, self-mockery tone of voice Philip Roth does as well. Plus I don‘t think I have ever read as extensively about circumcised penises as I did here. Another favorite subject of the men. It was hard working and I didn‘t really enjoy it. #booker

Librarybelle Doesn‘t sound like a book for me…I do love the color scheme of your photo, matching the background with the book cover! 1y
Vansa I did not get this book at all. Reading it was a massive slog! 1y
See All 12 Comments
CarolynM Me neither @Vansa I bailed. I‘m a bit sorry I missed the circumcision discussions though🤣 1y
BarbaraBB @Vansa @CarolynM I think I got the point after the first 50 pages and then it dragged along for another 200. You didn‘t miss much Carolyn, just men bragging about themselves 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 1y
sarahbarnes I‘ve wondered about this one and now will feel okay not wondering about it anymore. 😆 1y
MicheleinPhilly I was bored to tears by this book. 1y
BarbaraBB @sarahbarnes Don‘t bother! 1y
BarbaraBB @MicheleinPhilly So glad I‘m not the only one! 1y
MrsMalaprop Baha, not surprised my husband loved this then & just said to me the other day that he needs to read more Jacobsen 🍆😂 1y
BarbaraBB @MrsMalaprop Haha! It won the Booker price so more people must have loved it 🥴! I read another Jacobsen that I enjoyed much more: 1y
Megabooks Lol! This sounds…interesting in a boring way. (edited) 1y
67 likes2 stack adds12 comments
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Sophronisba
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BiblioLitten
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Picked up these for some comic relief, instead got philosophically schooled.

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CAGirlReading
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Pickpick

A very interesting book which examines what it means to be Jewish in the UK and by extension Europe.

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CAGirlReading
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Up next! This has been on my shelf for a few years but I am determined to read it before Shylock is my Name

Yossarian I read that and now can't remember a single thing about it! 9y
1 like1 comment