Book Review: The Finkler Question

In many ways, The Finkler Question is a love letter to Judaism, with its rich history and idiosyncrasies.

When The Finkler Question won the Man Booker Prize in 2010, many critics raised their eyebrows and muttered about it being a ‘comedy’. However, the gentle wit of the book is overshadowed entirely by the needle-point precision of Howard Jacobson’s prose and his beautiful turn of phrase, an attribute which he shares with other Man Booker winners such as Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy. A further common feature amongst these writers is their ability to look beyond the cynical stereotypes inflicted upon and indeed perpetuated by their societies, and connect with their characters not as aspects of the caste system (Roy) or as Jews, (Jacobson) but as humans.

By examining the nature of Judaism through the eyes of Treslove, a central character who is not Jewish but wants to become so, Jacobson opens up world which can sometimes seem closed off or incomprehensible to outsiders. The fact that Judaism is a culture and way of of life, with its own language and customs makes Treslove’s ambition seem impossible, like an Irishman deciding he would like to be Swiss. The Jewish characters in the book could reasonably be described as hostile to Treslove’s involvement with their culture and his task of becoming a Jewish man seems insurmountable. Treslove refers to Jews as “Finklers”, named after his boyhood friend, Sam Finkler, who seems reluctant to associate himself with the world that Treslove dearly wants to inhabit. As such, the title of the piece could be read as “The Jewish Question”, which is reminiscent both of the holocaust, the fall-out of which the Jewish community is presented as still struggling to deal with, but also the question of what it means to be a Jew. By referring to Jews as “Finklers”, the “toxins” are “sucked out” and they are permitted to be human, people like everyone else, without the barriers put up against Jews on account of their being “finklerish”.

In many ways, The Finkler Question is a love letter to Judaism, with its rich history and idiosyncrasies. But it is also an unflinching look into the eye of the storm which it faces, especially the problems presented by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and conflicting Jewish emotions around it. There is also a bracingly frank examination of the nature of anti-Semitism, including the idea that it can in fact come from inside Judaism, from one faction to another or even from Jew to Jew. Jacobson’s characters feel raw and real, they are pleasingly complex and the grief faced by Libor in particular haunts the reader’s mind for a long time after the book ends. The problems faced by Judaism, continuing but ignored anti-Semitism and mixed feelings over Zionism are presented to the reader from every angle, and the more human dilemmas faced by the characters, who battle jealousy, guilt, confusion and bereavement lend a very human angle to these bigger issues. The conflicts and contradictions which categorize British Judaism are laid clearly before the reader, opening up a community in all its life, love and laughter and allowing the characters to break free of stereotypes or obviousness and simply be.

The Finkler Question

Author: Howard Jacobson
Publisher: Bloomsbury