THE FINKLER QUESTION by HOWARD JACOBSON

'United Kingdom is full of anti-Semites.Attacks against the Jew are on the increase.'
     This is the impression you get if you read Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question,the Man Booker Prize won fiction in 2010.When I started reading the novel,it had only been shortlisted for the award.I hoped to read it easily as usual,in two or three days until I understood that the novel lacks a developing plot in which each chapter or division narrates something new chronologically.But you read about Julian Treslove, a middle aged man first.He has two friends by name Samuel Finkler ,a Philosopher and Libor Sevick an octogenarian who was their teacher once.
     The novel has two parts.Both the parts contain almost flashes of their reminiscence.Zionism, Antisemitism,the Holocaust etc are the terms that you read quite often in the novel.
    Being confused about the anti-Semitic rages of the British found in the novel,I  tried to get it clarified.I asked one of my friends in London about it.He had not even heard of it before.Then I met a couple from Briton who are now with BBC I think,during my tour to Munnar recently.The man said it would be highly exaggerated to say that the British are so much anti-Semitic in their outlook.
    The novel,anyway,gives us an account of such attacks in several countries.One thing I can assure you:
The Finkler Question is witty and rich in language.Those who are fed up with the English translations will find it as a treasure with a lot of original and beautiful English expressions.That is why I read it twice or thrice.Its detailed critical review will be added in a few days(I hope).Given below are the photos taken by me in Munnar in Kerala.In the first one,you can see the British lady I mentioned above,with my students.

  (  I hope you will not dislike the pics below,though they have nothing to do with the book reviewed here.)