Julian Treslove, in search of an identity, becomes obsessed by the desire to become Jewish like his old school friend Finkler and aged professor Libor. Treslove's doomed excursions into Jewishness are a vehicle for Jacobson to analyse what it's like to be Jewish in the present day. Often funny, occasionally moving, this story of identity and obsession might, perhaps, be a little too obsessive itself? Deserved the Man Booker prize? I'm not sure, but worth reading.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 59 Winter 2011 ) |
