RaveThe San Francisco ChronicleMasterfully, Jacobson will bury a joke only to knock you out with a punch line 10 pages later. Though undeniably a comic novel, The Finkler Question is a tragicomedy, centered on a wayward man whose quest for a self serves as a platform for Jacobson to explore the complexities of British Jewish identity … Despite a Jewish friend's assertion that ‘you can't be us,’ Treslove sets out to prove otherwise, keeping kosher, studying Yiddish and moving in with a Jewish woman named Hephzibah (both name and woman biblical in scope). Of course, Treslove finds that becoming a Jew is more elusive than he anticipated. Because what truly makes one a Jew? The joy of the book is following Jacobson as he explores that tangled question … This darkly absurdist meditation is classic Jacobson and highlights a major theme throughout the book: that Jewish reverence and prejudice are inextricably bound.
