The Finkler Question

• Author: Howard Jacobson
• Amazon Link

This book was awarded the Mann Booker Prize for 2010. I have read many past winners of this award and until now have never been disappointed. As they say, there is always a first time and this certainly was it for me.

The premise of the book was definitely something that piqued my interest. It was about Jewish identity in the 21st century and what makes them different. The main character is Julian Treslove a single, never-married, but with a couple of kids to call his own, 49 year-old non-Jew living in London. He is obsessed with his Jewish friends and wants more than ever to be all things Jewish. This is the basic premise of the book and while it is amusing the first couple of times that it is presented, it gets really tiring and not-at-all-funny after a while. There are many attempts at humor that fall flat and what makes them all the more annoying is the fact that the author repeats these attempts over and over again. The whole thing of the ASHamed Jews is an example of this. I recommend staying as far away from this book as possible. The only useful thing I could glean from this book was the meaning of some interesting Yiddish words.

The Stranger

• Author: Albert Camus
• Amazon Link

This was one of those "filler" books; something to fill the amazon cart with, so that you qualify for free shipping. Only later did I learn that this was Camus first novel and one that put him on the international map, when it was first published in 1946. This is also the first Camus that I have read, and on reading this I can see why Camus is so revered in the annals of literature.

The main character, Meursault is a middle-aged, middle-class man who has nothing to look forward to in life. It is written in the first person and Camus goes out of his way to make the whole setting look very ordinary. The brilliance of Camus is how he can describe the ordinary life of Meursault with such clarity and eloquence that make the book a joy to read. You can't help but develop a keen interest in Meursault and what thoughtless action he is going to do next. Most of the characters in the book are of a "loser" nature and the interesting thing is to see how they intersect with Meursault. The book is barely a 120 pages or so and you can't get a better value for such a little investment of your time.