A: Comic is the cruelest word. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2012. The Finkler Question is one of six novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. The title itself is a euphemism for "the Jewish Question." The meaning of Judaism as a religion or philosophy or guideline for living is largely lost. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Others have a very strong identity that frames their response to the human condition and gives them a medium by which they can connect with others. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one … Can we pay a novel any greater compliment?” ―Barnes & Noble Review, “Let's hope that this recognition for The Finkler Question... gets Jacobson the recognition he deserves--not as a comic novelist, or a Jewish novelist, or a British Philip Roth--but on his own terms.” ―New Yorker "Book Bench", “The Finkler Question, a clever, canny, textured, subtle, and humane novel exploring the friendship of three ageing male friends…is a work of greatness… Although The Finkler Question is by no means a straightforward comic novel, it once again demonstrates Jacobson's mastery of the form… Jacobson's capacity to explore the minutiae of the human condition while attending to the metaphysics of human existence is without contemporary peer.” ―Daily Beast, “The acrobatic wit and biting humor Jacobson displayed in Kalooki Nights and The Mighty Walzer is honed sharp in The Finkler Question. This book is a very sad and funny depiction of a conundrum that people face. But that's not what you get with me. Be warned: The Finkler Question will probably distress you on its way to disarming you. It is the story of three adult Englishmen, friends, in contemporary London. Some people have no idea who they are and don't know what to do with themselves. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. Dining together one night at Sevcik's apartment—the two Jewish widowers and the unmarried Gentile, Treslove—the men share a sweetly painful evening, reminiscing on a time before they had loved and lost, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. The Man Booker prize feels like a vindication of what I do and have done for a quarter of a century, casting a backward light on my earlier novels, introducing and part explaining them to readers who have not read me before. The usual: disappointment, frustration, bafflement, and the fear of being forever labelled 'an undervalued writer.' After this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. The other reason I'm not comfortable with the term comic novel is that it's redundant. Do you think most novels lose their footing without a comedic hum? I struggled to understand the message behind it. The interplay among the three and the development of these characters is worth the price of the book although perhaps not the Man Booker Prize which it received. His life had been one mishap after another. Jonathan Safran Foer has just said of me to the L.A. Times that "I don't know a funnier writer alive," and I take that to be a huge compliment. Masterfully, Jacobson will bury a joke only to knock you out with a punch line 10 pages later. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2012. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one … I never finished reading it. However, given the impressive list of books short-listed for the Man Booker this year, I was somewhat surprised that The Finkler Question emerged victorious. And it's that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. The latter part of the book is more sombre dealing with death and prejudice; this more serious half is overlong and tends to induce skimming. Caste (Oprah's Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In The Finkler Question it's combined with his characteristically unsparing--but not unkindly--ruminations on love, aging, death and grief. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge. The dialogue is clever, intellectual and quite thorough. I enjoyed this romp, despite a confusing and dismissive ending, and the depressing aspects of the story. So the space I occupy is airy, and the world I look out upon is vast. Please try your request again later. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2011. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Either exceptionally dull or over my head, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2019. The novel began in comedy (Rabelais, Cervantes) and continues to owe an obligation to it. It helps that Mr. Jacobson's comic sensibility suggests Woody Allen's, that his powers of cultural observation are so keen, and that influences as surprising as Lewis Carroll shape this book… Even in its darkest moments The Finkler Question offers many examples of… the most pernicious and authentic strain of Jewish humor: the kind that's so real it isn't funny at all.” ―New York Times, “Like all of [Jacobson's] work, The Finkler Question has a kind of energy that you have to look at through your fingers, like an eclipse. is a tragicomedy, centered on a wayward man whose quest for a self serves as a platform for Jacobson to explore the complexities of British Jewish identity…this is a book of big, rich ideas and, if those ideas sometimes take precedent over plot, it's still a joy being on Treslove's journey and inside Jacobson's head.” ―San Francisco Chronicle, “The Finkler Question is often awfully funny, even while it roars its witty rage at the relentless, ever-fracturing insanity of anti-Semitism, which threatens to drive its victims a little crazy, too. The Finkler Question is a scorching story of exclusion and belonging, justice and love, ageing, wisdom and humanity. However, given the impressive list of books short-listed for the Man Booker this year, I was somewhat surprised that The Finkler Question emerged victorious. In practical terms, The Finkler Question has been riding high in the bestselling charts around the English speaking world and will be translated in countries that have never before shown much interest in my work. “Mr. Q: Where do you write? So he should have been prepared for this one...' Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2013. He also manages his customary--but not easy--trick of fusing all of the above with genuine comedy … No wonder that, as with most of Jacobson's novels, you finish The Finkler Question feeling both faintly exhausted and richly entertained.” ―James Walton, Sunday Telegraph (UK), “A terrifying and ambitious novel, full of dangerous shallows and dark, deep water. I can best describe what I feel as a profound sensation of relief. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. 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. It takes in the mysteries of male friendship, the relentlessness of grief and the lure of emotional parasitism.” ―Guardian (UK), “The Finkler Question balances precariously a bleak moralizing with life-affirming humor.” ―Independent (UK), “Jacobson writes perceptively about how durable friendships are compounded, in large part, of envy, schadenfreude and betrayal.” ―Literary Review (UK), “The Finkler Question is very funny, utterly original, and addresses a topic of contemporary fascination … The writing is wonderfully mobile, and inventive, and Jacobson's signature is to be found in every sentence … The Finkler Question is a remarkable work.” ―Anthony Julius, Jewish Chronicle, “Jacobson is at the height of his powers … As the men tussle with women and their absence, and their own identities, Jacobson's wit launches a fusillade of hard-punching aperçus on human nature and its absurdities that only he could have written.” ―Metro (UK), “The Finkler Question, which is as provocative as it is funny, as angry as it is compassionate, offers a moving testimony to a dilemma as ancient as the Old Testament. 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