The Nature of Things

Shylock Is My Name by Howard Jacobson My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is another entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, the retelling of Shakespeare's classic tales by modern writers. It is a contemporary reimagining of The Merchant of Venice , with the emphasis, as is obvious from the title, on the character of Shylock. It is a study of his inner life and we get to know him more intimately than we ever did in the original play. I had last encountered Howard Jacobson when I read his Man Booker Prize winner, The Finkler Question , in which he ruminated at length and often with considerable humor upon what it means to be a Jew and on the roots of anti-Semitism. In many ways, this book is a continuation of that contemplation. It seems to me that Jacobson was the perfect writer to tackle the assignment of exploring the character of Shylock in all its complexities. He chooses to do this by materializing Shylock in a cemetery in northwestern England in the 21st century with the pers...

I'm not sure that Howard Jacobson would welcome the comparison, but he reminds me of Philip Roth. Roth at his best, that is, because Jacobson's Man Booker prize-winning The Finkler Question is very good. It is an exploration of the Jewish identity - the Jewish (Finkler) question - laced with good humor and a comic sensibility that is accessible to any reader without respect to religious background or preference. Jacobson tells his story through the perceptions and worries of one Julian Treslove, who isn't a Jew. In fact, he is one of the few characters in this book who isn't. His two best friends, Libor Sevcik and Sam Finkler, are both Jews and Treslove is envious of them. He feels excluded from their culture and he very much wants in. Treslove has lost his job at BBC and now makes his living impersonating famous people like Brad Pitt and Colin Firth. His life is changed when he is mugged one night - by a woman! - and he comes to believe that he was attacked beca...