Jewish Book Club discussion

March's Book is 'The Finkler Question' by Howard Jacobson
Enjoy!

שלומ

I read all of his books years ago

I'll check it out!

Sara wrote: "I read all of his books years ago"

But, he keeps writing more of them!
I've read this one only.

I did not much care for this book.

I read it a few years back and didn't care for it either.

I read it and liked it. I had the audio, I think--which sometimes helps. This is also the book that made me irritated at the New Yorker reviewer James Wood. Not only did he dislike it, which is his privilege, he didn't get it. Grrr! I can't remember if I reviewed it here or if it was before I began.

I read this book quite a while ago and was surprised that it had won the Man Booker Prize. The title, I thought, was a satiric take on the Jewish Question, whose historic reference I don't have to elaborate on. It was, from what I can recall, the story of a non-Jew who wants to "be Jewish" and the protagonist becomes hypersensitive ("paranoid") about a comment he hears that infers that he is Jewish when he's not, so he becomes that aspect of the Jewish experience rooted in a history of persecution based on not much, that misheard comment, an allusion, I suppose, to the baselessness of antisemitism, but maybe also on the oversensitivity of some Jews to basically innocuous statements by non-Jews who aren't aware of the issues involved. I didn't really like the book, because I found it frivolous and offensive, not up to the seriousness of the issues and material it attempts to deal with. It didn't move me at all, other than causing some mild irritation.

At the risk of being self-promotional, I took a different tack in my book. There are so many books that define Judaism and Jews by people leaving it, or deriding it. I wanted to take back the turf, in a way, so there are an assortment of Jewish characters, from a Chassidic rabbi to a middle of the road guy, and especially, a deeply contradictory female paranormal. They all have questions, like normal people, but they don't look down on their belief, either.

I loved this brilliant book. Though layers of serious issues abound, I found it hysterically funny in parts and full of humor throughout. The longing this man had to belong to a tribal group he knows little about but admires and seeks and seriously desires, is one I can understand. His life and the people in it seems bland by comparison to the luscious, funny, ebullient, full of life characters he sees as Jews. The fact that they are constantly under some sort of attack on some
Level at all times, makes them awaken an even stronger lust for their world. I loved every word and found it eye-opening as well. I found it a unique take on Contemporary Jewish life.

I'm in a book study group where we're trying not to stop with whether we dislike a book or not. Would it further the discussion here to ask what we got out of it, even for those who didn't much like it?

I am trying to ask myself that question since I read this one several years ago. First of all I was irritated that I hadn't even found out about this book until a year or so later, and I was sort of blaming the professional reviewers that panned it--hence my annoyance with that New Yorker reviewer. Then I looked up all the reviews I could find on line about its winning the Booker prize etc.

I think maybe what struck me was how upfront Jacobson was re Judaism etc. whereas I'm inclined to be more circumspect, I'm afraid. Could his approach be what turned some people off? And I remember that in one of the articles I read that when his win was announced, the audience spontaneously applauded. Maybe he'd been on the shortlist before and hadn't won.

I did do a short review back when I read it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I want to read his book [book:Shylock Is My Name|25614272.