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barbtrek's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book although I had to struggle through at some points. It is well written but seems to meander a lot while getting around to the point of telling the story.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it seemed to get better & better the further I read.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and it seemed to get better & better the further I read.
sandeestarlite's review against another edition
2.0
Jealousy and obsession drive this main character's whole life. I couldn't get past the obsessive documentation of the man he wants to set up to seduce his wife.
rebeccagee's review against another edition
3.0
The narrative is beautiful, as I expect from Howard Jacobson, but the story is odd to say the least: the lengths to which a man will go to be 'cuckolded' by his wife, apparently because he loves her so much. His belief is that all men secretly harbour the desire to see their wives with other men and, to support this, the slightly barmy antiquarian picks examples from history and his own experiences to lend tie in with his ever-increasing fervor for his wife to cuckold him. He goes so far as to set up an intricately-plotted meeting between her and the man of his choice and eventually wallows in his own self-made mess when she leaves him (presumably for being an insufferable bore, constantly asking her to recount everything she gets up to). Having said that, I couldn't put it down. Jacobson has the maddening skill to make me hate every character, almost every idea that c
omes out of his protagonist's (antagonist?) pen, and yet remain hooked. I was fascinated and I loved the end, not just because it was the end but because it seemed fitting. A very unusual story and one that I would recommend just so that someone else can feel as confused by it as I still am.
omes out of his protagonist's (antagonist?) pen, and yet remain hooked. I was fascinated and I loved the end, not just because it was the end but because it seemed fitting. A very unusual story and one that I would recommend just so that someone else can feel as confused by it as I still am.
jennjuniper's review
4.0
This is a little bit of a difficult book to review, as it's one that explores the idea of collective guilt and collective forgetting, and therefore to mention even the most basic details of the plot would be to end up changing the way that you approach and read it. Jacobson has created a thoughtful and unsettling near future in J, one where a terrible event that changed everything is being atoned for by everyone - if they're even willing to accept that it happened at all. What is known and not known, and acknowledged and not acknowledged is a theme running through the novel, and while it takes a bit of work for the reader to finally piece everything together, as J heads for its quiet but deeply disturbing conclusion, it's worth it for the unfurling of the chilly realisations as the truth comes out.
I've never read a Howard Jacobson before, I will admit, but I'm a fan of dystopian fiction and decided that this might be an interesting place to start. Despite initially struggling a little with the lack of explanations at the beginning of J, the gorgeous, witty writing carried me through, and his intimately, brutally drawn characters kept me reading. For all that its subject matter is increasingly ugly, J is a beautifully written book, rich and evocative in its language. J is more a series of vignettes linked together, past and present interwoven with letters and government reports and shared memories, little pieces of a dark jigsaw puzzle that nobody wants to recall.
I absolutely loved the two main characters, Kevern and Ailinn; their awkwardly unfolding love affair felt realistically brittle and plausible, and I found myself rooting for them in this increasingly dark and tangled world. Jacobson pulls no punches, and it is Kevern and Ailinn who pull the reader through, providing a human heart for the rest of the novel to build around.
Part dystopian fiction, part love story, part murder mystery, part uncomfortable statement on today's current affairs, J is a haunting, unsettling novel that takes a long hard look at humanity.
I've never read a Howard Jacobson before, I will admit, but I'm a fan of dystopian fiction and decided that this might be an interesting place to start. Despite initially struggling a little with the lack of explanations at the beginning of J, the gorgeous, witty writing carried me through, and his intimately, brutally drawn characters kept me reading. For all that its subject matter is increasingly ugly, J is a beautifully written book, rich and evocative in its language. J is more a series of vignettes linked together, past and present interwoven with letters and government reports and shared memories, little pieces of a dark jigsaw puzzle that nobody wants to recall.
I absolutely loved the two main characters, Kevern and Ailinn; their awkwardly unfolding love affair felt realistically brittle and plausible, and I found myself rooting for them in this increasingly dark and tangled world. Jacobson pulls no punches, and it is Kevern and Ailinn who pull the reader through, providing a human heart for the rest of the novel to build around.
Part dystopian fiction, part love story, part murder mystery, part uncomfortable statement on today's current affairs, J is a haunting, unsettling novel that takes a long hard look at humanity.
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