Congratulations to Howard Jacobson, winner of the Man Booker Prize -- and $80,000 -- for his comedic novel, "The Finkler Question." He won on a 3-2 vote, beating five other writers for the prize reserved for authors whose countries are linked to the British Empire. Other on the short list were Peter Carey, Tom McCarthy, Andrea Levy, Emma Donoghue and Damon Galgut.
The BBC noted that the novel is about a former BBC radio producer who is attacked on his way home from an evening out reminiscing with friends. After the attack, his sense of identity begins to change. Jacobson, who describes himself as "the Jewish Jane Austen" has said the book is about "what Jewishness looks like to someone from the outside". He added, "I bring the ways of Jewish thinking into the English novel," the BBC said.
Booker prize chairman Sir Andrew Motion, was quoted in the Guardian: "You expect a book by Howard Jacobson to be very clever and very funny and it is both those things. But it is also, in a very interesting way, a very sad, melancholic book. It is comic, it is laughter, but it is laughter in the dark."
Sounds like a great next book for my book club, which has a Jewish theme. At my urging, we're now reading "Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart. Jacobson's book appears to echo a similar theme of identity, told with a similarly light touch. Can't wait to pick it up.
Last year's winner, by the way, was Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall."