The Finkler Question (2010)
Who wrote it?
Howard Eric Jacobson (1942- ; active 1983- ), born Manchester, England to parents of Russian-Jewish heritage. He studied English at Downing College, Cambridge, under F. R. Leavis. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to the UK to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge and later at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.
He published his first novel, Coming from Behind, in 1983, a comedy based in part on his time at Wolverhampton. His novels are typically comic in nature, and his 1999 novel The Mighty Walzer won the Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing, a feat he repeated in 2013 with Zoo Time. The Finkler Question was the first straightforwardly comic novel to win the Booker since Kingsley Amis' The Old Devils in 1986. He received his second Booker shortlisting in 2014 for J, though he has been longlisted on several more occasions.
Jacobson has been a visible public figure commenting on the arts and on topics relating to Jewishness and Israel. He has written regular columns for the Independent and made numerous TV appearances in the UK and Australia.
What's it about?
The Finkler Question is a comic but thought-provoking novel focusing largely on the lives and relationships between three men. Julian Treslove is a former BBC radio producer, drifting through middle age with a lack of direction and stable relationship, and working as an impersonator of various Hollywood stars. He is friends with two men who are both recently widowed: Sam Finkler, his old school friend, is a popular Jewish philosopher and TV personality, and Libor Sevcik is their former teacher and a former Hollywood gossip columnist, nearing ninety.
On the way home from an evening at Libor's apartment in Mayfair, Treslove (who is not, to his knowledge, Jewish) is mugged by a woman who he believes says "You Jew" to him during the attack. This furthers an apparently pre-existing fascination with all things Jewish (or "Finklerish", in Treslove's awkwardly amusing terminology) which culminates in him starting a relationship with Libor's grandniece Hephzibah, and working with her on the opening of a museum of Jewish culture in North-West London. Finkler, meanwhile, becomes the figurehead of a pro-Palestinian group of "ASHamed Jews" while Libor struggles with a lack of purpose following his wife's death. Hanging over the whole novel and cutting through its comedy is the shadow of the seemingly inevitable recurrence of anti-Semitism in the modern world.
What I liked
It is actually funny! Darkly, and often uncomfortably so, but funny nonetheless.
Yet it still manages to maintain an extremely serious purpose. The undercurrent of violence (against Jews, against perceived Jews, Jews against other Jews, and against the self) means it’s hardly a lightweight entry in the Booker canon.
The lack of side-taking is another strength: almost every viewpoint on Jewishness and Israel is represented, exemplified in the hopeless disunity of Finkler’s supposedly united ASHamed Jews group.
Much as Treslove is a hilariously terrible person, I did find aspects of his character worthy of empathy. His lack of a sense of identity, and desire to align himself to something meaningful, however half-hearted and ill-conceived, is relatable. Addressing it via a creepy and ultimately racist obsession with becoming Jewish is probably less so, but then that’s the point I suppose.
It’s an enjoyably easy and lively read, packed with nice turns of phrase.
What I didn’t like
At times the relentless stupidity and self-centredness of Treslove did start to grate. He’s not a pleasant character to spend time with, and it doesn’t help that the book isn’t exactly balanced out with any more likeable folks (Finkler is equally awful in his own way.)
Ultimately, it’s not a novel that leaves you with much in the way of faith in humanity.
Oh, and it’s another one where most of the female characters feel under-written, dead or caricatures. It’s by no means as bad as, say, Amsterdam, for this, though, and Hephzibah has a bit more to her, at least.
Food & drink pairings
Omelette cooked using 5 pans
Tea at the Ritz
Fun facts
Early speculation was that Carey was the favourite, which would have made him (to date) the only three-time winner with what he believed to be his best novel. However, rumours around the ceremony led to a surprise late favourite in the form of Tom McCarthy’s C, to the extend that betting was suspended on it. Jacobson triumphed in a 3-2 split among the judges, though chair Andrew Motion declined to reveal who was the narrow runner-up.
Jacobson was the oldest winner since William Golding who won the prize in 1980, aged 69, for Rites of Passage.
In his acceptance speech, Jacobson claimed he was going to spend his £50,000 prize money on a handbag for his wife, asking, "Have you seen the price of handbags?"
Vanquished Foes
Peter Carey (Parrot and Olivier in America)
Emma Donoghue (Room)
Damon Galgut (In a Strange Room)
Andrea Levy (The Long Song)
Tom McCarthy (C)
Not sure if this is the strongest every shortlist in terms of big names or recognised classics. Any that are worth a read? People seem to have enjoyed Room in general?
The 2010 Orange/Women's Prize was won by Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, which triumphed over last year’s Booker winner Wolf Hall, among others.
Context
In 2010:
Greece is bailed out by the IMF and eurozone
Attempted suicide of a street vendor triggers Tunisian Revolution and wider Arab Spring (into 2011)
Iceland volcanic eruption disrupts air traffic across Europe
One of the deadliest earthquakes on record hits Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince
First in a sequence of earthquakes rocking Christchurch, New Zealand, causing massive damage
Dilma Rousseff is elected first female president of Brazil
Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest after 21 years
Germany makes final reparation payment for World War I
Numerous Wikileaks episodes, notably those concerning the Iraq war
Kasubi Tombs in Uganda destroyed by fire
Polish president Lech Kaczynski killed in a plane crash
Official opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
South Africa World Cup, won by Spain
Germany's Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest F1 champion
Launch of Instagram
Formation of British boyband One Direction on The X Factor TV show
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
Bret Easton Ellis, Imperial Bedrooms
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
The Social Network
The King's Speech
Inception
Despicable Me
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Robyn, Body Talk
Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid
Arcade Fire, The Suburbs
Life Lessons
Don’t tell a grieving old man about your devious sexy shenanigans with your mate’s wife
Searching for identity in other people’s cultures is a bit creepy
Score
7.5
A solid read, funny in places (certainly much more so than the Amis) and dark in others. I suspect I won’t remember much about it in a few years, though, if I’m honest.
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee (1999) - 9.5
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst (2004) - 9
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (2008) - 9
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (1992) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2006) - 9
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (2002) - 8.5
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman (1994) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000) - 8
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (2009) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Sea - John Banville (2005) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre (2003) - 7.5
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
The Finkler Question - Howard Jacobson (2010) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
The Gathering - Anne Enright (2007) - 7.5
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey (2001) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
Last Orders - Graham Swift (1996) - 7
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (1993) - 6
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
The Ghost Road** - Pat Barker (1995) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (1998) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
**Third part of a trilogy of which I hadn’t read pts 1&2
Next up
Julian Barnes finally gets the nod for 2011’s The Sense of an Ending.
