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• • • • American novelistsAmerican such as Philip Roth, in particularfor his habit creating of doppelgängersof - In the Land of Oz ed writer. In recent times, he has, on several occasions, attacked anti - From Wikipedia and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner this greatof prize." Jacobson the age of 68 ( autobiography 2002 His in it. novel baronluggage of South London Booker Prize. Jacobson described Kalooki Nights as "the most Jewish that novel has ever been written by anybody, anywhere". well As as writing fiction,also he contributes weekly a column for op reason has been labelled a "liberal Zionist". In October Jacobson 2010 won the Man Booker Prize for his novel the first comic tonovel win the sinceprize 's published by Bloomsbury, explores what it to means be Jewish today and loss also about and is "love, friendship."male , the chair of the judges, said:"The Finkler Questionis a marvellous book: funny, very of course, but clever, very also very sad and subtle. very It all is that it seems to be episode of teachingepisode in a football stadium in the is, novel according to Jacobson in a 1985 BBC interview, the only portion of the basednovel on a true incident. wrote He also a travel book in 1987, titled fiction,His particularly six innovelsthe he has published 1998, since is characterised chiefly by a anddiscursive humorous Recurringstyle. subjects in his work include male experienceJewish in Britain in the mid Jewish inhimself his fiction. Jacobson hasbeen "the called English Philip Roth", although himself he the calls "Jewish Jane Austen". 1999 novelHis Everyman Wodehouse Prize for writing. comic It isset in the Manchester the 1950sof and Jacobson, ahimself table tennis fan in his teenage years, admits that there is thanmore an element of Selwyn College,Selwyn Cambridge. later His teaching posts included a stint at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in the 1970s. Although Jacobson has described as himself "a Jewish Jane (inAusten" response to being described as English"the Phillip Roth"), he states,also "I'm not by conventionally any means Jewish. I don't go to shul. What is I that feel I have a mind, Jewish I have a Jewish intelligence. I linkedfeel to previous Jewish of theminds past. I don't know what kind of trouble this gets somebody into, a disputatious mind. What is a has Jew been bymade the experience of 5,000 that's years, what shapes the Jewish of humour,sense that's what shaped Jewish pugnacity or tenaciousness." He maintains that "comedy a important very is part whatof I do." time His at Wolverhampton towas form the basis of his first novel, comedy about a failing polytechnic that plans facilities to merge with a localfootball club. The Howard Jacobson a is British author and journalist, knownbest for comic his thatnovels often revolve around of the dilemmas British characters. Jewish Born in Manchester, Jacobson brought was up in Prestwich and educated was at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield, before going on to studyEnglish at Downing College, Cambridge under F. R. Leavis. lecturedHe for three years at the University of Sydney returning before to England to teach at

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307 pp.

13:9781608196111 - Bloomsbury Group Bloomsbury Book Summary Howard Jacobson, 2010Jacobson, Howard The Finkler Question Finkler The ISBN

Howard Jacobson Howard The Finkler Question Finkler The or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech always more more always a Czech Libor Sevcik, teacher, former with their or — is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, belonging, and exclusion loss, and friendship of story a scorching is

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

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Semites. Semites. -

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Discussion Questions Discussion Questions

Howard Jacobson Howard do you know a Juno?” (4) What impact this predictiondoes have on

The Finkler Question Finkler The boyfriends? Whatboyfriends? do Treslove, Finkler, and Libor learn from women, and ---

- )

Treslove’s romantic history begins with a fortune theAfter mugging, “Treslove was notwilling to accept that he hadencountered a withperson a

1. future, a “I Juno see life?Treslove’s Where does he find “Juno,” and is he where led astray in for search love?his 2. loose,screw or that he had happened just to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Why(109) can’t believe thatTreslove the mugging random?was Why he so is convinced that the incident has meaning? How does it leave him “like a man on the of edge a discovery”? (57) Reading Group Guides Discuss the of use humour in the it Is novel. specifically “Jewish humour,” itor does have broader Consider Libor’s mental state throughout the How novel. does he hisexpress grief over losing Malkie? Near the end of the novel, Treslove encounters two people from his past: “the schoolgirl in his once novelThe onends a scene of mourning: Hephzibah lamenting Libor’s death and the end of her According to Hephzibah, “You could the divide world into those who wanted to kill Jews and those who Discuss the of role women in What novel. insights do the women in the have novel about their Why does Treslove tell Libor about with affairhis Tyler Finkler? Liborsays that it was “more wrong of

What kind of “Finkler” Sam is Finkler? he Is representative of the Jewish people, asTreslove assumed Treslove, Finkler, and all Liborhave had winding paths. career Trace each man’s job history from his Consider the meaning of parenthood in the How novel. did Treslove and Finkler feel about their fathers? Finkler’sDescribe rise and fall as the leader theof Ashamed Why Jews. does Finkler insist on publicizing Consider the seder that Treslove attends at Libor’s house. is thisHow seder unique? How thisdoes scene Consider the rivalry between Treslove and Finkler, from school days to adulthood. How did their Treslove realizes that after the mugging, is he becoming “an unreliable witness to his own life.” (82) How

16. appeal? Which scenes best represent the novel’s dark sense of humour? (from repercussions of each of these indiscretions? 13. Why does he attempt to date women in while mourning? What, inLibor tothe end, drives suicide? Is his ansuicide act love,of of defeat, or else?something 14. recurring dream” himwho calls a “freak” (299), and the “grizzled warrior in Jew the PLO scarf” holding a vigil outsidesilent the museum. (303) What impact does each characters of these have upon Treslove’s mind? of state Why it significant is that confronts Treslove two recurring characters in these final scenes? 15. relationship with Treslove, and Finkler “mourning the Jewish people” a whole.as (307) Why this does humorous novel end on a of mourning? note What issues are resolved, and what unresolved? remains serve asserve a turning point novel, linkingin the part one and What part two? changes for Treslove during his first Jewish ? 10. wanted to be (224) Jews.” Where do Treslove, Finkler, and Libor fit within Hephzibah’s categories? it Is topossible belong to neither or both categories? In contrast, Libor Treslove, “We’re tells all anti noWe have choice. You. Me. Everyone.” (249) Which assessment Jewsof and anti accurate: Hephzibah’s, Libor’s, or neither? 11. husbands, boyfriends, and ex what relationship lessons do they learn? never 12. you than to tell me to do Which it.”is unforgivable: (247) more the affair or the confession? What are the reliable isreliable Treslove’s point ? view of Can the reader trust his perceptions? Why whyor not? 5. when he was a boy? Whywhy or not? 6. youth to adulthood. think doyou Why haveall friends three such lived lives?varied 7. How do they treat their own children? What alternatives to family do childless characters like Liborand Hephzibah out? seek 8. distastehis for Israeli politics? Why eventuallydoes he leave the group? 9. 3. unspoken competitionbegin? What of success” “yardsticks (44) dotheyuse to measureeach lives? other’s toWho be seems leading in their rivalry at the beginning of What the novel? about at the end? 4.

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But at the heart theof Julian book the is

witty when it needs to be, heartbreaking — has all the qualities we expectfrom Mr. (2007) to produce a more cerebral comedy , Mr. Jacobson has managed to channel his is reallyis of a tragicomic series meditations on one The Finkler Question through food, spurts research, of sex with Jewish Reviews —

) UK ( Kalooki Nights The Finkler Question....

Semitism and the exhausting complications of Zionism. - The Finkler Question The Finkler Question The Finkler Question Howard Jacobson Howard The Finkler Question Finkler The Zionist Jewish scholar. The two have reconnected with their elderly professor, -

) and the question Jewish becomes a metaphorwithout being ever overdone. Independent on Sunday

- — after reading something fineas as UK .) Winner theof , Jacobson's wry, devastating novel examines (

) — he becomes obsessed with what it means to be or Jewish, "a Finkler." Jacobson brilliantly especially a mordant sometimes wit, as acrid as exuberant.it is He has been called the UK — with Finkler's thorny relationship with hisJewish heritage and fellow Jews. Libor, meanwhile, ( even more out theof loop. But Tresloveafter is mugged — — Mr. Jacobson doesn't just summon [Philip] Roth; he summons Roth at best. Roth's This prizewinning book a riotousis morass and of jokes worries about identity, Jewish though it is by no too means myopic enjoyed to be by the wider world. It thathelps Mr. Jacobson's comic sensibility suggests Woody thatAllen's, his powers of cultural observation so keen,are and that influences assurprising Lewisas shape Carroll this book. YorkNew Times Although a there is plot, —

Semitism and much else... With Starred review the belonging he so craves. Jacobson's prose is effortless it countswhere Publishers Weekly Sunday Times ( the complexities identityof andbelonging, love, and grief throughof lens contemporarythe Judaism. Julian Treslove, a former BBC producer who as works a celebrity out double, syncof feels with his longtime friend and sometimes Samrival Finkler, a popular authorof philosophy books and a rabidly anti Libor Sevcik, following the deaths of Finkler and Libor's leavingwives, Treslove Gentile overtones contrasts Treslove's search for a identityJewish women struggles to find footinghis his after wife's death,the intense helove felt for herreminding of Treslove about. Observer charmingThis novel follows many paths of enquiry, the not present of least state Jewish identity in Britain and how it integrates with the Gentile population. Equally important explorationis its ofhow share men friendship. whichAll of played is out with Jacobson’s exceptionally funny riffs and happy sad refrains … Jacobson’s prose a is seamless roll blissfully of melancholic interludes. Almost every page has a quotable, memorable line. Christian House areThere some great riffs and in skits wannabe Jew, a wonderful comic creation precisely because ishe so tragically touching in his haplessness. The most moving (and funniest) scenes are those in which he and Libor, the widower with nothing more to live for, ruminate on and love Jewishness. A striking novel and a subtle one… Jacobson English Philip Roth, and that true it is the two authors have in common a white - themes and his characters' emotions...with nuance, insight and, laughter.yes, StreetWall Journal temptingIt is any meaningful but sense simply to urge youput to paper down this and go andmanyas buy copies as you can carry … Full wit, of warmth, intelligence, human feeling and understanding. It also is beautifullywritten … Indeed, there’s so much thatis first rate inthe manner of Jacobson’s delivery that I could all write day deployment on his languageof without once mentioning what the book is of humanity'sof most tenacious expressions of malice, which I sounds realize about as much fun as sitting shiva, Jacobson'sbut unpredictableis wit likely more to clobber you than his pathos. In these he'spages, refined the funny shtickof about the bizarre metastasis antiof Washington Post

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