Howard Jacobson - what to start with

Any recommendations on which Jacobson novel to read first? Most accessible, funny, etc. Thanks.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/13/howard-jacobson-man-booker-interview

With the post-apocalyptic J, his 13th novel, named one of the six books on the Man Booker shortlist last week, Jacobson says he is grateful that a work he regards as his most confident yet has been recognised, and for the sales boost that will follow. But he points out its subject is determinedly bleak not for literary effect, but because he really believes in its dark message. It is the duty of novelists to take a gloomy perspective, he argues. "I have never met an intelligent optimist. That is not to say I think pessimism makes you intelligent, but I have always felt like an Old Testament Jeremiah or Cassandra from ancient Greece. I want to run down the streets warning people."

J tells the story of a nightmare future world, hobbled by the suppressed memory of a mass pogrom, only ever referred to as "the thing that happened, if it happened".

Jacobson's inclusion on the prize list this summer, putting him in the rare position of a potential two-time winner, has been applauded even by those reviewers who have quibbled in the past about his clever kind of word-wrangling. Last month the poet John Burnside rated J as worthy of being "seen as the dystopian British novel of its times" because it "so artfully mirrors the main features of our current 'lifestyle', from the endless production of formulaic pop culture and the glorification of infantile consumption, to the avoidance of difficulty and a systemic contempt for privacy".

We have a thread on this guy..

Barely.

Was the Chotiner interview posted about elsewhere on here?

No, not seen it.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/rationalizing-the-horrors-of-israels-war-in-gaza

when I used to listen to R4 a lot I caught this guy on A Point of View numerous times, a fucking despicable guy. Can guess where that goes without seeing past the paywall.

I read J. It seemed to be written by someone whose world view was so different from mine as to be incomprehensible.

Also it was bad.

The thing that struck me about Jacobson in that interview is how stupid he is, and how confident he is with it.

his schtick on R4 seemed to me to be: grumpy old guy, sneery towards feminists/lefties, because he's too wise and grown up for student politics.

Old guy for sure, he's 82!

I remember a great show Jacobson did on Channel back in the late 80s, about the figure of Judas in Christian and Jewish cultures. It was extremely enlightening to me, coming from an orthodox (though not devout) Christian upbringing, and introduced me to Jewish cultural criticism, and an entirely new and provocative way of looking at Western/Christian received ideas. He did a show about Shylock a few years about on the Beeb which was far less provocative and interesting, and mainly an excuse for him to pontificate from a gondola, but it gave an appreciation of Shylock from a Jewish perspective. Just like Schama, whose insanity I posted on the Coates thread, it's been pretty fucking depressing seeing these guys descend into a politics indistinguishable from the American neocon religious right.

*Channel 4. This was it

https://jfi.org/year-round/jfi-on-demand/sorry-judas

https://vimeopro.com/celialowenstein/history/video/107698033

Jacobson has been on this trajectory for quite some time, it's not accurate to suggest that this is a recent descent, or a sudden turn of character. Here's Jacqueline Rose from 2009:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/23/howard-jacobson-antisemitism-caryl-churchill

I couldn’t stop thinking about this interview. It’s not the horror of what he is saying. It’s the way his mind has got to this place. Chotiner is always really good at on the fly responding to things and eliciting meaningful responses, and there was a lot of insight into HJ’s mind.

The excerpt everyone was talking about was this one:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GZ8QtCeXoAEWqtA?format=jpg&name=large

Because he flips back and forth between they and we and feels torn between his emotional and rational responses and ends up a mess in the middle. It’s something I had struggled to understand as a non Jewish person but I think it has made more sense to me over the years, especially talking to British people, the importance of Israel to the diaspora. The notion of having a place that will always take you in, where you can practice religion freely, where you are not a minority, where nobody can ever harm you again. Of course there’s a huge emotional connection. Paired with generations of trauma it’s a potent combination. That’s why he feels so defensive about it, that’s why his brain completely breaks here. And I understand that!

The question which Chotiner asks repeatedly in a variety of different ways and which HJ cannot answer, is why is this necessary?

I do believe HJ felt fear and shock and upset beyond my comprehension on October 7th. I do understand the strength of his reaction. As before, I agree with Chotiner, that this is not necessary, this is excessive, this is unconscionable. And HJ knows that too, that’s why his mind cannot settle on this.

Really just a fascinating interview. I didn’t find him sympathetic but Chotiner gave me real insight into his mind and how he arrived at the place he’s in.

Jacobson has been on this trajectory for quite some time, it's not accurate to suggest that this is a recent descent, or a sudden turn of character. Here's Jacqueline Rose from 2009:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/23/howard-jacobson-antisemitism-caryl-churchill

― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 15 October 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Yeah he is an Observer type bigot/Amis-like Islamophobe. The S Yizhar novella Rose mentions is fantastic btw, and confronts the issues in a way Jacobson cannot face in that interview.