The Finkler Question (54 page)
--Matthew Syed,
Times
(UK)
"Jacobson writes perceptively about how durable friendships are compounded, in large part, of envy, schadenfreude and betrayal."
--Jonathan Beckman,
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 apercus on human nature and its absurdities that only he could have written."
--Ben Felsenberg,
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. It also marks another memorable achievement for Jacobson, a writer who never fires blanks and whose dialogue, which reads like an exchange between Sigmund Freud and Woody Allen, races along like a runaway train."
--Alan Taylor,
Herald Scotland
"Howard Jacobson's latest holler from the halls of comic genius ... The opening chapters of this novel boast some of the wittiest, most poignant and sharply intelligent comic prose in the English language ... Jacobson's brilliance thrives on the risk of riding death to a photo-finish, of writing for broke. Exhilaration all the way."
--Tom Adair,
Scotsman
"Here are three men who are in varying ways miserably womanless. This is rich soil for comedy, and Jacobson tills it for every regretful laugh he can muster ... Perhaps [Jacobson's] Leopold Bloom time has come at last."
--
Irish Independent
"
The Finkler Question
is characterised by [Jacobson's] structuring skill and unsimplifying intelligence--this time picking through the connections and differences, hardly unremarked but given fresh treatment here, between vicariousness and parasitism, and between Jewishness, Judaism and Zionism."
--Leo Robson,
New Statesman
"Full of caustic moments ... that are also, essentially, funny ... No matter the book's themes, the way Jacobson weds humor to seriousness makes it affecting for anyone."
--Eric Herschthal,
Jewish Week
Copyright (c) 2010 by Howard Jacobson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.
ISBN: 978-1-60819-611-1 (hardcover)
First published by Bloomsbury USA in 2010
This e-book edition published in 2010
E-book ISBN: 978-1-60819-612-8
