307 pages
English language
Published Feb. 3, 2010 by Bloomsbury.
In general, the book was not well received. A couple people appreciated the glimpse into British Jewish culture, or the finely drawn female characters standing in the background. But the major characters were nebbishes, and it was difficult to sympathize with them. There were funny bits in the book, but the jokes tended to be drawn out too long.
Any review of The Finkler Question is required to make at least a passing reference to Woody Allen, so I'd like to say that the first half of this book is like Annie Hall-era Woody Allen. Funny, engaging, a pitch-perfect work. The second half of the book, however, is more like Everyone Says I Love You Woody Allen. Flawed, not as fun, and it makes you feel sort of uncomfortable finding young Natalie Portman so attractive.
Ok, it won the Booker Prize. It did seemed pretty well written, although, there were occasional jumps out of the 3rd person omniscient into 'narrator has no idea what is going in POV' (most notably in Libor's final train journey to Eastbourne) which were strange and jarring.
Mostly, I struggled to get through this book. I was given it as a gift, otherwise I would have abandoned it part way through. I just hated all the characters (ok, Libor was likable). I couldn't see wanting to spend any time with them, much less read hundreds of pages about their lives and thoughts. I would read a few pages and just feel so icky about them I had to put it down for a while. Does not being Jewish exclude me from understanding the whiney self-obsessed navel gazing that pretty much all the characters wallowed in throughout the book? I suspect …
Ok, it won the Booker Prize. It did seemed pretty well written, although, there were occasional jumps out of the 3rd person omniscient into 'narrator has no idea what is going in POV' (most notably in Libor's final train journey to Eastbourne) which were strange and jarring.
Mostly, I struggled to get through this book. I was given it as a gift, otherwise I would have abandoned it part way through. I just hated all the characters (ok, Libor was likable). I couldn't see wanting to spend any time with them, much less read hundreds of pages about their lives and thoughts. I would read a few pages and just feel so icky about them I had to put it down for a while. Does not being Jewish exclude me from understanding the whiney self-obsessed navel gazing that pretty much all the characters wallowed in throughout the book? I suspect though it wasn't a cultural divide that made me dislike it.
Treslove is shallow and creepy. I can't think of any reason I would ever want much to do with Finkler. None of the rest of the characters seemed to have much substance to them outside of Treslove/Finkler's worlds. Maybe the novel raises important questions about Israel and Palestine but I would rather read a pamphlet about the issues than read it through all these character's point of view. I am quite relieved to have finished it and can move on to other books now.
This book is pretty brilliant. It explores the Jewish (aka Finkler) question from many angles -- including the goy who wants to be a Jew and the Jew who doesn't want to be a Jew. So...identity. It also talks about friendship and love. Three men who have been friends for a long time and the women who love (and hate) them. Extremely well written
