The Finkler Question - by Howard Jacobson

I was slightly nervous about reading this book, fearing that a Booker winner might be too heavy going and a struggle to finish. It wasn't easy and it did take a while, but I got through it OK. The writing style is actually quite relaxed and manages to introduce touched of humour, even though the subject matter is quite serious.

On the surface, it is a story of a period of time in the lives of three men - two Jews and one who aspires to be Jewish. But really it is an investigation into what being Jewish is all about. One of the characters is called Finkler and another uses this as an alternative word for Jew. Hence the book title. It also considers the question of what loving someone is all about.

Having spent a lot of time with Jewish people over the years and having some Jewish blood myself, the topic interests me and that curiosity drove me along, as well as wondering what would happen in the story. I learned lots of facts about Judaism, along with strong impressions and feelings about the emotional landscape. Where else would I learn the Yiddish word "svontz"?

Reading it as an e-book proved useful. Apart from the accessibility and portability and being able to acquire it quickly, the availability of an easy dictionary lookup proved invaluable, as there were many words that I needed to check. Sadly there were also some also some errors that crept into the conversion - mostly superfluous hyphens or omitted spaces.