Does Not Enjoying 'The Finkler Question' Make Me Anti-Semitic?

[Chil1234]

I'm 3/4 of the way through this year's Booker Prize winning book and I'm really battling to enjoy it. I know it's deliberately meant to examine what it is to be Jewish... but for goodness' sake... every minute deviation in the story is accompanied by so many angst-ridden, soul-searching questions on 'Finklerishness' that if my eyes roll any further up into my head they may never come back down. 'Comic' novel is also a slightly optimistic description....think 'Last of the Summer Wine' on tranquilisers.

Am I being unkind? Missing the point? Or is there a knack to seeing the funny side of Jacobson's work? Anyone?....

Loved your post which we've just seen. Dh and I are battling to progress with this book. It's just sitting there like a Tax Return waiting to be filled in. Feel like such a patsy - every time I buy one of his novels I feel the same. Kalookie Nights got to me last year.. dh says it's very laboured and self obsessive. I haven't even got that far and am bored. We are Jewish and feel that noone should feel sensitive about being able to criticise a book for fear of being labelled Antisemitic. I also dislike the way he has called himself the Jewish Jane Austen. Pompous, self-congratulatry and spectacularly untrue. JA is one of the great literary masters. HJ is not - by a long chalk.

I was so put off after hearing him talk on Radio 4, that I decided not to ever read any of his books. He is very egocentric (to say the least...) and I just didn;t like the guy. Don't think I'll like his books either.

glad it's not just me, I have tried and failed to read several of his books

I didn't find it funny. It is a bit laboured.

I wondered what a word search on the word Jewish would yield? Every page. It was a good thing there was an alternative too.... Finkler.

I started off enjoying it then felt a bit tired by it.