The Finkler Question (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Sam Finkler: Julian's friend
• Julian Treslove: Is seeking for meaning to life - but lacks stability and any sense of responsibility
• Samuel Ezra Finkler: Successful Jewish TV personality - lacks sensitivity
• Malkie Hofmannsthal: Libor's wife
• Heifetz: Add a description of this character.
• Libor Sevcik: Wise old 90 yo Jewish man - in his life times gone from poverty to success in movie biographies
• Hephzibah Weizenbaum: related to Libor
• Samuel
• J. P. Guivier
• Abe: Hepzebel's ex-husband
• Tyler Finkler: finkler's wife, died two years ago
• Alfredo: one of Treslove's sons
• Josephine: Mother of one of Treslove's sons
• Ronit Kravitz: Sam Finkler's mistress
• Rodolfo: one of Treslove's sons
• Judith
• Jules
• Emmy Oppenstein: someone Libor knew a long time ago, makes contact with him after his wife's death
• Tamara Krausz
• Horowitz: Famous opera artist.
• Merton Kugle: A member of ASHamed Jews
• Judith Treslove
• Jerome
• Ben
• Dr Gerald Lattimore
• Leonie Leapmann
• Marilyn: Marilyn Monroe, the actress
• Joia
• Blaise
• Ivo Cohen
• Alvin Poliakov
• Emily
• Janice
• Avital Avi
• Immanuel
• Kimberley
• Lonnie Eysenbach
• Reuben Tuckman
• Bernard Treslove
• Jocelyn
• Meyer Abramsky
• Hugh
• Anne Elliot
• Jean Norman
• Violetta
• Mimi
• Jules . . . You Jule . . . You Ju

Quotes edit see section history

• “Just when you think you've overcome the grief, you realise you are left with the loneliness.”

  Libor Sevcik

• “Whenever Julian passed a willow or a brook, or best of all a willow aslant a brook <...> he saw Ophelia in the water, her clothes spread wide and mermaidlike, singing her melodious lay.”

• “His incompletion, his untogetherness, his beginning waiting for an end, or was it his end waiting for a beginning, his story waiting for a plot.”

• “Though once Libor did say, 'Just when you think you've overcome the grief, you realiseyou are left with the loneliness.'Treslove tried to imagine a loneliness greater than his own. 'Just when you get over theloneliness,' he thought, 'you realise you are left with the grief.'”

• “Better to go through life waiting for what never came, because that way you had less to mourn?”

• “Julian Treslove knew he would never be clever in a Finklerish way”

  Howard Johnson

• “I judge Jews by a more exacting standard. I judge Israel by a more exacting standard”

  Sam Finkler

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• At any age there is future one doesn’t have. Never enough life when you are happy, that was the thing. Never so much bliss that you can’t take a little more.

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• Talking feverishly about being Jewish was being Jewish.

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• You have to be born and brought up a Jew to see the hand of Jews in everything. That or be born and brought up a Nazi.

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• What moved him was this proof of the destructibility of things; everything exacted its price in the end, and perhaps happiness exacted it even more cruelly than its opposite. Was it better then – measuring the loss – not to know happiness at all? Better to go through life waiting for what never came, because that way you had less to mourn?

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• ‘Just when you think you’ve overcome the grief, you realise you are left with the loneliness.’ Treslove tried to imagine a loneliness greater than his own. ‘Just when you get over the loneliness,’ he thought, ‘you realise you are left with the grief.’

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London
• Hampstead
• Eastbourne
• Hollywood
• England
• Buenos Aires

Organizations edit see section history

• ASHamed Jews: Add a description of this organization.
• Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Howard Jacobson (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Man Booker Prize (2010)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• National Public Radio: Review on All Things Considered