Books Set in Europe: London, England

The Finkler Question, by Howard Jacobson (2010)

I get it. The Finkler Question is satire; it's a comedy about anti-Semitism. It has won all sorts of accolades and awards. It is the recipient of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. I just didn't find the novel all that amusing.

The novel follows Julian Treslove, a sad-sack man without meaning in his life. He has never married and is unable to sustain any long-term relationships. He has acknowledged two sons, both with different mothers. Treslove becomes intrigued by his two Jewish and widowed friends, the elderly Libor Sevcik and Samuel Finkler. Samuel Finkler is the first Jew Treslove has ever known. He, therefore, has turned Finkler into his own euphemism for "Jew"; hence the title is really "The Jewish Question." Treslove feels that calling Jews "Finklers" instead takes away the "stigma" of being Jewish.

The Finkler Question is about the stereotypical Jewish angst and anxiety. A part of Treslove wants to become a Jew. At a Seder dinner with Libor and Finkler, Treslove meets Hephzibah, a zaftig woman with whom he soon moves in with. He begins to obsess about his uncircumcised condition. Treslove's obsessive racism becomes tiring. Finkler, himself, decides to begin a movement he calls ASHamed Jews, which is nothing more that another stereotype self-hating Jew.

I found The Finkler Question to perpetuate an offensive stereotyping of Jews. While there are some humous sections of the novel, as a whole, I did not find it amusing.

Read: January 15, 2011