Notes on The Finkler Question

A friend of mine recommended to me The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, which recently won the Man Booker Prize. The book explores the question of religious (Jewish) identity in modern times through one man's daily life experiences. The book features both Jews and non-Jews, and the different levels of religious observance (or anti-observance, including self-hatred) tell the story of how different people viewed religious identity differently. I found it remarkable how various non-Jews in the book, like the main character, did more to be Jewish (and wanted to become Jewish), while the Jews behaved in the opposite manner. The book raised many questions, like the meaning of religion and its differences from culture and family (style and tradition).

Overall, the book started very slowly and was quite a long read. It takes place in England, and the audio version featured a reader with an English accent. While this was "authentic," it was painfully difficult to understand (at double or triple speed like I like to listen to audio books); it took me about half the book to get up to triple speed with good comprehension. (Audio books should be offered with multiple speakers to choose from!)

I found the book mostly depressing and sad (this was also the main character's recurring personality), with many themes related to mourning and death and little in the way of humor or comedy. I guess it's not my preferred genre, but after making it through to the end, I do realize why the book won its prize, and the central questions of religious identity and cultural tolerance the book raises are important for everyone to consider. I did enjoy the actual language and literary style as there were many plays on words and cool language tricks that I appreciated.

My notes on the book are below; I'm sure I must have messed up some chapter numbering (and name spelling) at some point, but I hopefully captured the main elements of the plot and my most important takeaways.

Part 1

Ch. 1

• Treslove: Journalist at BBC, non-Jew
  
• Student, writer from Oxford
• Sam Finkler: Jew
  
• Stereotype
  
• Role of Israel
  
• Philosophy
  
• Death of wives
  
• Grief
  
• Bereavement
  
• Loneliness
  
• Trouble finding and keeping love
  
• Robbed and called a Jew by a woman who mugged him 
  
• Libor: teacher, wife Malki beautiful and passed away
  
• Finkler: Jewish, dad pharmacist with stomach pill, wife passed away
  
• Tresolve: BBC journalist, works as a party lookalike, trouble with women
  

Ch. 2

• Role of guilt
  
• Widower bonding
  
• Mistaken identity
  
• Real Jew not faithful
  
• Non-Jew confused with Jew
  
• Had 2 sons with different women who left him
  
• Rodolpho and Alfredo
  

Ch. 3

• Woman who liked him mistook him for Jew
  
• 2 mis-identifications as Jew
  
• Made love to Finkler's wife (Finkler cheated on his wife too)
  
• Finkler's wife Tyler converted to Judaism
  
• Finkler preferred shiksas
  
• Lots of global antisemitic attacks
  
• Thinks others think he's Jewish
  

Ch. 4

• Two girlfriends that had his sons but couldn't be with him
  
• Could he be with a living woman?
  
• Jews aren't the only broken-hearted people.
  

Ch. 5

• Ashamed Jews
  
• Antizionist Jews
  
• "Jewess" word
  
• Cut or uncut: preference by women
  
• Seder
  
• Met woman from fortune teller: Juno
  

Part 2

Ch. 6

• Finkler didn't like Gaza reaction, platform against it
  
• Boycott from universities
  
• Tresolve took vacation with sons
  
• Sons asked if he's Jewish
  
• Just because parents Jewish doesn't mean children necessarily
  
• Can you be part-Jewish?
  
• Antisemitic attacks in London
  

Ch. 7

• Fell in love with Jewish woman Hepsiba
  
• Studied Yiddish dictionary to woo woman
  
• Gave up working as a double at her request so he could be himself
  
• Became assistant curator for Anglo-Jewish museum

Ch. 8

• Can you be defined by what you're not?
  

Ch. 9

• Antisemitic attack at university against Finkler's son Emanuel
  
• Sister Blaise
  
• Emanuel accused Jews of stealing a country (followed what Finkler said)
  
• Emanuel (who is Jew) did an antisemitic attack
  
• Treslove learned Hebrew and Jewish history
  
• Circumcision to limit lust
  
• Book: Moses Maimonides
  
• Commentary on commentary
  
• Hep is true Jewish mother, large body
  
• Bacon smeared on museum doors
  

Ch. 10

• Want to think ill of Jews in their own way
  
• Blogger who tries to restore circumcised foreskin
  
• Meetings of ashamed Jews
  
• Treslove wants to be Jewish to feel more gloom

Ch. 11

• Trouble with women, relating to people
  
• Face-painting incident
  
• Talking feverishly about hating being Jewish is being Jewish
  
• Finkler: online poker
  

Ch. 12

• Libor committed suicide by jumping off ledge
  
• Burdened Libor with info on Treslove's affair
  
• Libor funeral at Jewish cemetery
  

Ch. 13

• Treslove hits Arab demonstrator at museum opening and falls on ground
  
• Stands up for something as a Jew 
  

Epilogue

• Hep said Kaddish for Libor
  
• Cried for Julian
  
• Finkler doesn't give up saying Kaddish for wife after 30 days
  
• Last line: "There are no limits to Finkler's mourning." (True Jew in end?)