Tag Archives: Bloomsbury

#41 – The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

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‘He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one…’

Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results.

Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor’s grand, central London apartment.

It’s a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends’ losses.

And it’s that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. And after this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change.

The Finkler Question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best. – Publishers Website

I was looking forward to this book, when I started reading it, was a whole other story.  It does sound promising from the book jacket/description.

I stopped reading it at about 100 pages in.  I could not stand one of the characters (Treslove) whining throughout the whole entire book.  The 2 other men are talking about their recently deceased wives, while the Treslove was talking how unlucky in love he has been in…never married, etc., when all of a sudden he is  walking home and stops in front of the old music store where he is robbed by a woman.

There was an interesting thread of both of the men being jewish, what it meant to them, whether it mattered in their lives.  Treslove (the whiner) has always wanted to be Jewish.  He honestly thinks that if he was born Jewish, he would have fared better in live and love.  I did understand the plot of the book, it was Treslove’s incessant whining and complaining that turned me off the book.

From what I understand about the book and consensus is that you either loved it or hated it.  Not a clear definitive between the two.

The Finkler Question won the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Even The Dogs – Jon McGregor

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Wow is all I can say right now.

Even the Dogs chronicles the details of what happens after a man’s body is found in an abandoned flat between Christmas and New Year’s.

The friends he had before his demise, who look on as ghosts from the shadows, keeping vigil with him as he is discovered, moved, autopsied, then cremated.

Some may not like the style of Jon’s writing in this novel.  Told in a fragmented stream of consciousness style, even for me it was awkward, but once I became accustomed to it, I was immediately engrossed in the tale of drug addiction, the story lines of the others interwoven into this stylish, dark, accurate novel.

Through their thoughts, the addicts point of view, getting their next fix to homelessness face them on a daily basis.  Their circumstances are preventable yes, but this is where they are, why they are there – their stories as shocking as the narration itself, leaves nothing to the imagination.

Not only intense, thrilling, and eye-opening, there is this small ray of hope that they all carry with them hoping, wondering.

I found interesting that living they are treated worse alive than when they are found dead.  The people take more time and emphasis on them while on a gurney in the morgue then they are on the streets.

I did attend the Canadian Launch of the book last night in Toronto at a wonderful independent bookstore – Ben McNally Books.  On had were two publicists that I work with on a steady basis.  It was a really wonderful time to finally meet face to face, talk about books, talk to the author and others who attended the event.  When I had a chance to talk to Jon, I asked him what kind of research he made while writing the book and he replied that he talked to people who are addicts that are now clean, talked to counsellors, pathologist, as well as others to be able to give the book a undoubtly authentic feel.  I agree on this point, breathtakingly accurate.

Jon was most gracious to sign my book, and my son Nick received a t-shirt that showcases the UK cover.  Here are a few pictures from the event last night.

Jon’s Website

Penguin / Bloomsbury Books

An interview with Jon from the Torontoist

So, a heartfelt thank you to Jon for coming to Toronto, the publicists – Barbara and Bronwyn  that organized the launch.  It was really great to finally meet you face to face, I look forward to doing it again.