Peeping Tom

by Howard Jacobson

Beyond believing that he is the reincarnation of a nineteenth-century novelist and insatiable voyeur, Barney Fugleman's penchant for perversity prompts him to play a passive role in a menage a trois of his own design

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, British Literature, 20th Century

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

Howard 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.

Reviews

[Ruth Booth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was a literary snob and felt that on the whole I read books with depth and feeling. But this book has made me feel like a schoolchild who just can not move off the guided readers.
I wish I had read the book on my kindle as I honestly didn't know the definition of about 1 word in 10. I therefore struggled to understand paragraphs at a time, which meant my reading experience was disjointed at best
The book is proclaimed as the funniest book about sex ever written (50 shades had not been written at the time of publication). My description would be nearer to 'the most convoluted book about Thomas Hardy with a bit about the Marquis De Sade woven round the edges finished off with a dollop of some strange sexual tendencies of our narrator.
I got to the end of the book with a feeling of sheer relief that it was over. Most of the book felt like trudging up the side of a huge mountain shrouded in fog. Occasionally you would hit a bit of decent plot line and it was like hitting a flat plain of land as the Sun shines out. Over dramatic analogy? Read the book and you will understand. 2 stars. And no doubt I will be classed as a literary heathen for my rating.

[Brent Legault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I really be the only goodreads reader to have read this novel? Or is it that I'm just the first to bother to rate and write about it? It doesn't seem possible. Or fair. Well. I think it's a shame because it is a good book. Not a great book. It is a book for its time, which was about twenty-five years ago. It is not for the Ages but it's all right for right now. Better then all right. If you like the English humour of Black Adder and Peep Show I think you'd do well to seek this one out. If you like Martin Amis but are confused by his high style and his literary tricks then this book might be for you. And it's funny. It had me laughing on the bus. It had me laughing in the mechanic's waiting room. It had me laughing at the lunch counter. In fact, it embarrassed me nearly everywhere I went with it. (Why is it okay to laugh with other people but it's crazy to laugh on your own?) Suggestion: If you must read this book, read it at home where only your wife will hear you laughing. She probably figures you're crazy anyway.

[Robert Pereno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Howard is a clever chap. Perhaps too clever for this simple reader. I will finish reading this essay but I know already that it will not be added to my favourites list.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of Howard Jacobson's novels feel similar to me. They're all about middle aged Jewish men who have slightly peverse attitudes to sex. I will say I think this is the best of the 3 I've read, including the Booker winner "The Finkler Question".

I thought it was engaging at first, and I liked how the timeline jumped around the main character's life, showing the ups and downs of his 2 marriages. It did drag a bit in the middle but the ending packed somewhat of a punch.

3.5 ish rounded down due to the slow middle.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was completely captivated by the beginning but...soon lost interest. It took me the longest time to finish reading. I often left the book lying there untouched for days. Although the writing was fantastic, the whole story rambled along and, at times, didn't seem to have a point.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does anyone remember the movie Blame it on Rio? This book has a ridiculous, campy vibe like that movie. It's fun, but not very memorable.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[Nikolas Koutrakis]

7/10

[Vincent Darkhelm · Rating 1 out of 5]

There really is no reason to read this boring, pretentious, rubbish. Jacobson may be clever, but that doesn't make him a good novelist.

[Frank Ware · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a disappointment after Coming from Behind

[Loris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t find it funny

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A guy gets off on sharing his wife with other men, and this somehow ties into the fact that he is the reincarnation of Thomas Hardy and the Marquis De Sade.

Like most Jacobson I've read, it's smart and funny in generous measures with flashes of inspired brilliance, such as one character's essay that argues that "thermo-nuclear time, as perceived in extremity by any one of J.G. Ballard's isolated protagonists, can be paralleled in Thomas Hardy by the minute accretions of the past that go to form and determine the present for all of his tragically modern and therefore entirely un-free heroes..." (pg. 127)

Cover note: I read the Black Swan paperback edition, which features a hilarious cartoon sketch of Thomas Hardy in bondage gear, holding a riding crop whilst seated astride a miserable-faced bare-breasted woman - a caricature of Howard Jacobson can be seen peeking in the window.

First line: Signs are, even to my drugged eye, that the village is finally coming out of winter.

Last line: Once there, I made for one of my most favorite vertiginous ledges, where I sat awhile and peered down into the absurd fuss and ferment below me; then, choosing my current of air as craftily as if I were a kestrel, I up-ended Camilla's envelope and let the pages of what she thought of her husband hang and sway for a moment before floating down with a rocking motion into the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea.

[Debbie Windley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jewish angst and thomas Hardy- what not to like?

[Kate]

A must read for Thomas Hardy detesters, amusing, sexy, fun.