Treslove resents his friend’s success and hi-jacks his surname Finkler as a shorthand descriptor for the word “Jew” because “It took away the stigma ….The minute you talked about the Finkler Question, say, or the Finklerish Conspiracy, you sucked out the toxins.” Another, much older friend, is Libor Sevcik, an elderly ex-Hollywood journalist who is in mourning for his beautiful dead wife. One of them, Sam Finkler, has become a celebrity as the author of popular mainstream books on philosophy.

He wants to be a Jew so that he can experience the sense of belonging possessed by his two closest friends who are Jewish. Treslove is a man much inclined to introspection who attacks an idea with the determination and perseverance of a dog with a bone. Not that he resembles anyone famous especially, he just looks like all kinds of people in general. He’s come down in the world and is now making a living as a celebrity lookalike. The Finkler Question is the story of Julian Treslove, a man who once worked on the kind of BBC Radio 3 programmes that no-one ever listens to (if you discount the insomniac man and his dog in the Outer Hebrides). It’s become only the second Booker Prize winning title that I have failed to finish - in case you’re wondering, the other was The Famished Road by Ben Okri, a book so bad I couldn’t even make it past page 80 ( my review explains what I hated about this book). I tried my best but around page 150 The Finkler Question and I parted company.

The finkler question by howard jacobson