Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.

Howard Jacobson has been described as "one of the funniest writers alive", his fiction a masterpiece of comedy. "At its best", writes Mary Loudon, "it simply tears you apart." Following the success of No More Mr Nice Guy in 1998--Jacobson's foul and funny rendition of the sex war--The Mighty Walzer moves into the strange, and passionate, world of ping pong to tell the life of one Oliver Walzer. "Grandiosity was in the family," Oliver announces at the very beginning of his account of a childhood in Manchester in the 1950s. "On my father's side. Normally, when I speak of "the family" I seem to mean my father's side. Make what you like of that." It's a challenge which runs throughout the book. We can make what we like of this "history of embarrassments" and the family--"from some sucking bog outside Proskurov"--which supports it.

"One disillusionment at a time" is the principle behind Jacobson's telling of a youth suspended between ping pong and masturbation, mortification and omnipotence, anti- Semitism and the Akiva gang. At the Akiva club, Walzer comes into his own: he's a natural, with the makings of a "star" (even if he is stoned by the "prefab boys" on his way there). At home, he's caught between the flamboyance of his market-trader father--the "swag", and swagger, he wants to pass on to his son--and his mother's famous "reserve". Balancing the split legacy--win or lose? laugh or cry? put up or shut up?--is part of the pain, and pleasure, of the book. No surprise, perhaps, that Walzer is unwilling to make a clear distinction between the two. When it comes to sex and friendship, family and history, life and ping pong, The Mighty Walzer is a brilliant story of one man's journey to the realm of "pain fun": the pleasure of a life spent losing and learning what you can ask for. --Vicky Lebeau

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Superb, 20 Jun 2008
One of Jacobson's great strengths is his facility with language. His prose style is wonderful, full of beautifully constructed passages which read as natural and unfeigned. This book demonstrates that skill throughout.

Another great strength is his humour, which here made me laugh out loud at times, and at others brought a wry smile.

The story is excellent, and his characters are vivid and well drawn.

Hard bats etc, 06 Aug 2007
A comic English novel and table-tennis, two of my Favourite Things. How could this not be a good read? Well, possibly because Jacobson still doesn't seem to have got over reading Philip Roth from around 1970, but reworks Roth's old formula-but-two: the faux-autobiographical style, the oh-so-naughty jokes, the displaced narrator alienated by life (and here, even by the new style of table-tennis). Whereas Roth and others have long since moved on to amazing and subtle kinds of story-telling, here's the dear old English version, still plugging on with a literary sort of Carry On palaver and its tedious set-pieces. I've read Jacobson being very drole indeed as a columnist but as a novelist he seems to have run out of steam, and ideas, by this point.

more ping than pong - very funny, 13 Sep 2005
I must admit i did laugh out loud at some of the episodes in this, my first, Jacobson. He is a very clever writer and with the Jewish, post war, likely lad nostalgic humour this a bit like Philip Roth crossed with Woody Allen in an Only Fools and Horses setting. Jacobson is extremely funny in his mock philosophic analysis of table tennis and there are lots of little coming of age episodes to keep the reader amused along with the obligatory dysfunctional family, his street trader father, spinster aunts and classic jewish mother. There is poignancy too and the book, although over long, does move you to ponder profound questions but fundamentally it's the comic adventures of young Waltzer. Recommended.

Mighty by name..., 21 May 2002
When I first read this book, I was not bowled over by it, but as time went by a nagging thought in my mind became increasingly apparent – “You have to read this book again.” And thank goodness I did; The Mighty Walzer is a minor masterpiece.

I think the main reason I love this book so much is that Walzer is something of an anti-hero, but sympathetic nevertheless – Alexander Portnoy rather than Holden Caulfield. He is a character with whom any teenage misfit is able to identify.

The novel’s humour is largely down to Jacobson’s deadpan delivery, without which the book would be much more heavy-going. There are moments which misfire – I was not convinced of the necessity of the Cambridge scenes, though maybe necessity is not the point – Jacobson is telling a story, and not everything in life makes sense. I found the reunion scenes particularly powerful.

I would urge anybody to read this book, but would advise that some prior knowledge of Yiddish (or at least Hebrew or German) could be useful. “The Joys of Yiddish” by Leo Rosten is a sound investment for the first-time Yiddish-user.

Tedious & Uninspiring, 01 Aug 2000
This book was extremely disappointing. From the cover it appeared to be a warm coming of age story involving a sport (table tennis) which is very infrequently written about (a sport I personally enjoy). The small amount written about table tennis was adequate, but the characters themselves, particular Walzer, are never engaging. The reader never develops any care for what happens to them. In the end, I was never motivated to read further the travails of Walzer. The most satisfying aspect of this book is the end, because it menat I could move on to something else.

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Superb, 20 Jun 2008
One of Jacobson's great strengths is his facility with language. His prose style is wonderful, full of beautifully constructed passages which read as natural and unfeigned. This book demonstrates that skill throughout.

Another great strength is his humour, which here made me laugh out loud at times, and at others brought a wry smile.

The story is excellent, and his characters are vivid and well drawn.

Hard bats etc, 06 Aug 2007
A comic English novel and table-tennis, two of my Favourite Things. How could this not be a good read? Well, possibly because Jacobson still doesn't seem to have got over reading Philip Roth from around 1970, but reworks Roth's old formula-but-two: the faux-autobiographical style, the oh-so-naughty jokes, the displaced narrator alienated by life (and here, even by the new style of table-tennis). Whereas Roth and others have long since moved on to amazing and subtle kinds of story-telling, here's the dear old English version, still plugging on with a literary sort of Carry On palaver and its tedious set-pieces. I've read Jacobson being very drole indeed as a columnist but as a novelist he seems to have run out of steam, and ideas, by this point.

more ping than pong - very funny, 13 Sep 2005
I must admit i did laugh out loud at some of the episodes in this, my first, Jacobson. He is a very clever writer and with the Jewish, post war, likely lad nostalgic humour this a bit like Philip Roth crossed with Woody Allen in an Only Fools and Horses setting. Jacobson is extremely funny in his mock philosophic analysis of table tennis and there are lots of little coming of age episodes to keep the reader amused along with the obligatory dysfunctional family, his street trader father, spinster aunts and classic jewish mother. There is poignancy too and the book, although over long, does move you to ponder profound questions but fundamentally it's the comic adventures of young Waltzer. Recommended.

Mighty by name..., 21 May 2002
When I first read this book, I was not bowled over by it, but as time went by a nagging thought in my mind became increasingly apparent – “You have to read this book again.” And thank goodness I did; The Mighty Walzer is a minor masterpiece.

I think the main reason I love this book so much is that Walzer is something of an anti-hero, but sympathetic nevertheless – Alexander Portnoy rather than Holden Caulfield. He is a character with whom any teenage misfit is able to identify.

The novel’s humour is largely down to Jacobson’s deadpan delivery, without which the book would be much more heavy-going. There are moments which misfire – I was not convinced of the necessity of the Cambridge scenes, though maybe necessity is not the point – Jacobson is telling a story, and not everything in life makes sense. I found the reunion scenes particularly powerful.

I would urge anybody to read this book, but would advise that some prior knowledge of Yiddish (or at least Hebrew or German) could be useful. “The Joys of Yiddish” by Leo Rosten is a sound investment for the first-time Yiddish-user.

Tedious & Uninspiring, 01 Aug 2000
This book was extremely disappointing. From the cover it appeared to be a warm coming of age story involving a sport (table tennis) which is very infrequently written about (a sport I personally enjoy). The small amount written about table tennis was adequate, but the characters themselves, particular Walzer, are never engaging. The reader never develops any care for what happens to them. In the end, I was never motivated to read further the travails of Walzer. The most satisfying aspect of this book is the end, because it menat I could move on to something else.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Superb, 20 Jun 2008
One of Jacobson's great strengths is his facility with language. His prose style is wonderful, full of beautifully constructed passages which read as natural and unfeigned. This book demonstrates that skill throughout.

Another great strength is his humour, which here made me laugh out loud at times, and at others brought a wry smile.

The story is excellent, and his characters are vivid and well drawn.

Hard bats etc, 06 Aug 2007
A comic English novel and table-tennis, two of my Favourite Things. How could this not be a good read? Well, possibly because Jacobson still doesn't seem to have got over reading Philip Roth from around 1970, but reworks Roth's old formula-but-two: the faux-autobiographical style, the oh-so-naughty jokes, the displaced narrator alienated by life (and here, even by the new style of table-tennis). Whereas Roth and others have long since moved on to amazing and subtle kinds of story-telling, here's the dear old English version, still plugging on with a literary sort of Carry On palaver and its tedious set-pieces. I've read Jacobson being very drole indeed as a columnist but as a novelist he seems to have run out of steam, and ideas, by this point.

more ping than pong - very funny, 13 Sep 2005
I must admit i did laugh out loud at some of the episodes in this, my first, Jacobson. He is a very clever writer and with the Jewish, post war, likely lad nostalgic humour this a bit like Philip Roth crossed with Woody Allen in an Only Fools and Horses setting. Jacobson is extremely funny in his mock philosophic analysis of table tennis and there are lots of little coming of age episodes to keep the reader amused along with the obligatory dysfunctional family, his street trader father, spinster aunts and classic jewish mother. There is poignancy too and the book, although over long, does move you to ponder profound questions but fundamentally it's the comic adventures of young Waltzer. Recommended.

Mighty by name..., 21 May 2002
When I first read this book, I was not bowled over by it, but as time went by a nagging thought in my mind became increasingly apparent – “You have to read this book again.” And thank goodness I did; The Mighty Walzer is a minor masterpiece.

I think the main reason I love this book so much is that Walzer is something of an anti-hero, but sympathetic nevertheless – Alexander Portnoy rather than Holden Caulfield. He is a character with whom any teenage misfit is able to identify.

The novel’s humour is largely down to Jacobson’s deadpan delivery, without which the book would be much more heavy-going. There are moments which misfire – I was not convinced of the necessity of the Cambridge scenes, though maybe necessity is not the point – Jacobson is telling a story, and not everything in life makes sense. I found the reunion scenes particularly powerful.

I would urge anybody to read this book, but would advise that some prior knowledge of Yiddish (or at least Hebrew or German) could be useful. “The Joys of Yiddish” by Leo Rosten is a sound investment for the first-time Yiddish-user.

Tedious & Uninspiring, 01 Aug 2000
This book was extremely disappointing. From the cover it appeared to be a warm coming of age story involving a sport (table tennis) which is very infrequently written about (a sport I personally enjoy). The small amount written about table tennis was adequate, but the characters themselves, particular Walzer, are never engaging. The reader never develops any care for what happens to them. In the end, I was never motivated to read further the travails of Walzer. The most satisfying aspect of this book is the end, because it menat I could move on to something else.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Not for me - yet!, 11 Jul 2006
I have read several of Howard Jacobson's books in the past and really enjoyed his humour and language.

I picked this book up several times to try to read it - a page turner it is not.

I had no real empathy for the main character, Henry Nagel, and never really warmed to him. Not that he was bad or evil just unsympathetic. Every few fages I would get fed up with his self-pity and put it down... I struggled with it.

Perhaps I'm not old enough yet to feel empathy with a 60 year-old underachiever. I rarely grinned, never mind laugh out loud as I have with his other books.

As for the plot! Coincidences pepper the plot in an attempt to increase Henry's comic confusion - does not help the reader. Moira falling for him... I think HJ is having a bit of wish fulfilment here.

Sorry HJ, maybe I'll get the joke later!

Brilliant, 25 Jul 2004
If you like books with a plot, this isn't for you. What Jacobson does is observation, rich human comedy, a rather twisted take on relationships, and a keen sense of the convoluted politics of family. He's a mordant, original writer whose darker edge may not be to everyone's taste. He creates great characters, and in some ways resembles Philip Roth. All in all this isn't his best book (Who's Sorry Now? is better, for instance), but it's very well written and shows a real thoughtfulness - quite lightly worn - about what it is to be a man. That may sound pretentious; if it does, Jacobson probably isn't for you.

0224073524, 25 May 2004
Gritty, funny and full of warmth. This is by far Mr Jacobson's best novel. Perfect for taking on holiday - really entertaining, grown up and perceptive.

Howard Jacobson is widely acclaimed as a humorous writer. Who's Sorry Now? is exceedingly funny but for all the bubbling wit, word play and satirical gibes it is infused with darkness. If his last book, the semi-autobiographical The Mighty Walzer, was Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint relocated to 1950s Manchester, then this is possibly Jacobson's American Pastoral.

Who's Sorry Now? centres on Marvin Kreitman, a middle-aged Jewish Lothario, a man with a "nostalgic affection for many of the old discredited categories of masculine swagger". He was once a promising young academic but somehow ended up following in the footsteps of his father--a curmudgeon who hawked purses at a street market in Balham. Now the owner of a thriving leather goods business, Kreitman has a wife and two grown-up children, an elegant house in south London and a string of mistresses. Each week he meets his old university friend Charlie Merriweather for a Chinese meal in Soho. Charlie is a big, puppy dog of a man, brutalised by his public schooling but seemingly (if a little soppily) devoted to his wife and family. The Merriweathers enjoy "nice sex" and write children's books. To indulge in a vaguely pertinent culinary metaphor, Charlie is sweet to Marvin's sour. However, on this particular day Charlie suggests that they should swap wives--so far so 70s sitcom. Before Marvin can persuade Charlie against the idea, Nyman, a muscle-toned cyclist, runs him down in the street. Nyman is the novel's malevolent force. Following the crash, this apparent nobody, an enigmatic wannabe television star, weasels his way into their lives and triggers a series of unexpected couplings, leaving Kreitman's daughter to enquire at one point: "Who's doing what to whom this time?"

Jacobson examines sexual obsession and infidelity in ribald, if poignant detail. However, it is his exploration of the painful scars left by family life that make this book both riveting and, certainly at its end, disturbing. Although it is littered with wonderfully amusing barbs against the cult of personality, installation art and even backpacker yarn The Beach, there is probably more tragedy than comedy in this remarkable novel.--Travis Elborough

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Superb, 20 Jun 2008
One of Jacobson's great strengths is his facility with language. His prose style is wonderful, full of beautifully constructed passages which read as natural and unfeigned. This book demonstrates that skill throughout.

Another great strength is his humour, which here made me laugh out loud at times, and at others brought a wry smile.

The story is excellent, and his characters are vivid and well drawn.

Hard bats etc, 06 Aug 2007
A comic English novel and table-tennis, two of my Favourite Things. How could this not be a good read? Well, possibly because Jacobson still doesn't seem to have got over reading Philip Roth from around 1970, but reworks Roth's old formula-but-two: the faux-autobiographical style, the oh-so-naughty jokes, the displaced narrator alienated by life (and here, even by the new style of table-tennis). Whereas Roth and others have long since moved on to amazing and subtle kinds of story-telling, here's the dear old English version, still plugging on with a literary sort of Carry On palaver and its tedious set-pieces. I've read Jacobson being very drole indeed as a columnist but as a novelist he seems to have run out of steam, and ideas, by this point.

more ping than pong - very funny, 13 Sep 2005
I must admit i did laugh out loud at some of the episodes in this, my first, Jacobson. He is a very clever writer and with the Jewish, post war, likely lad nostalgic humour this a bit like Philip Roth crossed with Woody Allen in an Only Fools and Horses setting. Jacobson is extremely funny in his mock philosophic analysis of table tennis and there are lots of little coming of age episodes to keep the reader amused along with the obligatory dysfunctional family, his street trader father, spinster aunts and classic jewish mother. There is poignancy too and the book, although over long, does move you to ponder profound questions but fundamentally it's the comic adventures of young Waltzer. Recommended.

Mighty by name..., 21 May 2002
When I first read this book, I was not bowled over by it, but as time went by a nagging thought in my mind became increasingly apparent – “You have to read this book again.” And thank goodness I did; The Mighty Walzer is a minor masterpiece.

I think the main reason I love this book so much is that Walzer is something of an anti-hero, but sympathetic nevertheless – Alexander Portnoy rather than Holden Caulfield. He is a character with whom any teenage misfit is able to identify.

The novel’s humour is largely down to Jacobson’s deadpan delivery, without which the book would be much more heavy-going. There are moments which misfire – I was not convinced of the necessity of the Cambridge scenes, though maybe necessity is not the point – Jacobson is telling a story, and not everything in life makes sense. I found the reunion scenes particularly powerful.

I would urge anybody to read this book, but would advise that some prior knowledge of Yiddish (or at least Hebrew or German) could be useful. “The Joys of Yiddish” by Leo Rosten is a sound investment for the first-time Yiddish-user.

Tedious & Uninspiring, 01 Aug 2000
This book was extremely disappointing. From the cover it appeared to be a warm coming of age story involving a sport (table tennis) which is very infrequently written about (a sport I personally enjoy). The small amount written about table tennis was adequate, but the characters themselves, particular Walzer, are never engaging. The reader never develops any care for what happens to them. In the end, I was never motivated to read further the travails of Walzer. The most satisfying aspect of this book is the end, because it menat I could move on to something else.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Not for me - yet!, 11 Jul 2006
I have read several of Howard Jacobson's books in the past and really enjoyed his humour and language.

I picked this book up several times to try to read it - a page turner it is not.

I had no real empathy for the main character, Henry Nagel, and never really warmed to him. Not that he was bad or evil just unsympathetic. Every few fages I would get fed up with his self-pity and put it down... I struggled with it.

Perhaps I'm not old enough yet to feel empathy with a 60 year-old underachiever. I rarely grinned, never mind laugh out loud as I have with his other books.

As for the plot! Coincidences pepper the plot in an attempt to increase Henry's comic confusion - does not help the reader. Moira falling for him... I think HJ is having a bit of wish fulfilment here.

Sorry HJ, maybe I'll get the joke later!

Brilliant, 25 Jul 2004
If you like books with a plot, this isn't for you. What Jacobson does is observation, rich human comedy, a rather twisted take on relationships, and a keen sense of the convoluted politics of family. He's a mordant, original writer whose darker edge may not be to everyone's taste. He creates great characters, and in some ways resembles Philip Roth. All in all this isn't his best book (Who's Sorry Now? is better, for instance), but it's very well written and shows a real thoughtfulness - quite lightly worn - about what it is to be a man. That may sound pretentious; if it does, Jacobson probably isn't for you.

0224073524, 25 May 2004
Gritty, funny and full of warmth. This is by far Mr Jacobson's best novel. Perfect for taking on holiday - really entertaining, grown up and perceptive.

TOO THOUGHTFUL BY FAR, 04 Feb 2007
I agree with reviewer John Self that this is not typical Jacobson and that was my main disappointment. It is full of long passages on the state of the relationship between men and women and, frankly, all the characters are pretty repulsive. Not particularly funny and that's what you expect from Jacobson, so I've had to mark it down. Not the book to start with if you want to see what a great coemdy writer he is. 'No More Mr Nice Guy' should be your first stop. Sorry, Howard, but if we want thoughtful Jewish there are plenty of writers who have already filled that market.

I'm sorry for reading this book, 27 May 2003
Really disapointed, well, to be fair, I can't say I was ever excited in the first place. I nearly stopped reading the book about a quarter of the way through, it just bored me.

Lots of airy fairy prose, it seems not to have the more linear narrative I expected.

But, each to their own, you may love it!

The Very Model of a Masterpiece, 08 Sep 2002
It's immediately easy to see why this was longlisted for the Booker and Jacobson's earlier comedy of sexual manners, No More Mister Nice Guy, wasn't - it's longer, denser, more intricate and frankly less out-and-out entertaining. The theme - an eternal for Jacobson - is similar: "men and women, women and men - it'll never work. Or will it?" The novel has two protagonists (because, even though they both have wives who play equally important parts in the book, with Jacobson it's the men who tell the tale, as always), Marvin Kreitman - "the luggage baron of South London" - and Charlie Merriweather - half of the husband-and-wife gestalt-entity children's author C.C. Merriweather (his wife is also called Charlie).

Charlie is faithful, if not uxorious - he has never slept with a woman other than his wife, but the question of what it would be like nags at him constantly. The reason it nags at him is because Kreitman (and this anomaly is never resolved in the book - Kreitman always referred to by surname, Charlie by first name, perhaps to make the one "good" and the other "bad") has five mistresses, and appears to be having the time of his life. Or is he? The two friends have never adequately discuss the relative merits of fidelity and promiscuity; indeed Charlie feels they have been spending the last twenty years avoiding the issue. And so he suggests they swap roles.

Don't get excited. It's not "Run for Your Wife!" If it's filthy sex and three-in-a-bed romps you're after, go back to No More Mister Nice Guy (which does it all, and more, hilariously and brilliantly). Who's Sorry Now?, as the title suggests, is an altogether more thoughtful piece, and the plot itself - such as it is - takes place almost in the background. The surface, meanwhile, is populated richly and densely with the husbands' and wives' - and their children's - thoughts and feelings and dialogues and interactions. In that sense it's an old-fashioned novel, concerned with the inner life and moral conundrums - but then Jacobson makes it clear as early as page 6 that he has no truck with the modish and depthless ("if these days ... but to hell with these days"). Instead he keeps the reader interested by his impeccable style and aplomb - there is literally not a bad sentence, not a word out of place, in the whole 326 pages - and a dark wit that surfaces less frequently than in his earlier books, but is all the more unforced and welcome for it.

Howard Jacobson is a great writer who deserves to be as highly praised as those American big boys whom I can now see he resembles - the Roths, the Updikes, the Bellows - but, more importantly, deserves to be much more widely read than they. The best way for that to happen is for Who's Sorry Now? to win its place on the shortlist and to go on to win the Prize. Are you reading this, Booker Prize panel? (If you're reading this after Who's Sorry Now? failed even to leap the first hurdle, then think of this review as a missive from a more hopeful age. Look, I was wrong - just let it go, will you?)

Where is the review?, 29 Nov 2008
I submitted a reivew of less than 1,000 words the day before yesterday. It should have posted by now. I'm curious as to why it's not posted.

Hmm, Not as Funny as I expected., 02 Oct 2008
In person Jacobson is very funny. On the page he is not as good. This is long, diffcult and interesting read but don't expect laugh out loud moments.

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS, 12 May 2008
Quite simply, one of the best novels written about Jews and their perpetual challenge of being the chosen ones. Jacobson has put together a book of great breadth and depth - disappointing for some of his fans, no doubt, who are used to something more superficial - which touches on so many aspects of Jewish life and the Jews' relationships with the rest of the world. The sparkling humour is still there and the narrator is characteristically flawed, but Jacobson goes much deeper than ever before and this book deserves all the praise it has received. Shame on those reviewers here who could not finish it - you have missed something truly special.

Kalooki Nights, 12 Jan 2008
Kalooki Nights by the English novelist Howard Jacobson tells a story of an English Jewish community in Manchester, England in the years following WW II. The chief protagonist is the narrator, Max Glickman, a cartoonist who has had three wives, two non-Jewish and anti-semitic, and one Jewish, who also endeavors to loosen Judaism's hold on Max. Max's father was an aspiring boxer who became an atheist and tries to give both Max and his other child, his daughter Shani, a secular life. Shani marries a non-Jewish man in what proves to be a successful relationship. Max's mother is an inveterate player of a card game called Kalooki, with a group of other Jewish women.

The book recounts Max's relationship with his childhood friend Manny Washinsky. Unlike Max, Manny was raised in an orthodox household. Manny teaches Max of the horrors of the Holocaust. When Max's older brother becomes romantically involved with a non-Jewish woman and the parents do everything in their power to terminate the relationship, Max ultimately gasses them to death in their bed and spends many years in prision. Years later Max and Manny meet again, when an anti-semitic television producer hires Max to do research on a story about Manny.

In many ways, this book is a cross between "Portnoy's Complaint" and other early books by Philip Roth and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", the story of two American Jewish cartoonists, by Michael Chabon. The book has as some of its themes the tension between secularism and traditional religiosity as options for modern Jews, the Holocaust and its impact on Jewish life and belief, and the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, particularly as the relationships involve sexuality and intimacy.

The book is funny in many places and insightful in some. But it is told in a blustery, wandering, and diffuse style which make it difficult to follow. The language is wordy, profane, and satirical -- probably in an attempt to create some artistic distance between the author and the events which he describes -- but much of the book I found painful. The characters, Jewish and non-Jewish, are full of bigotry for each other and hatred for themselves. Sexual themes play a large role in the book, as the Jewish men are embittered towards Jewish women -- thinking that the women will not become involved in a sexual relationship with them -- and the non-Jewish women are drawn to what they think they perceive of Jewish men. This is a story that has been told before, and it is drummed in unmercifully in this novel.

Some of this story has a context broader than the ambiguous situation that, for the author, many Jewish people find themselves in or create for themselves. The author deals implicitly with the need of people to find spirituality for themselves without the extremes of total secularism on the one hand on routinized fundamenalism or othodoxy on the other hand. But the self-pitying, solipsistic outlook of most of the characters of the book, together with its windy, unorganized character, make this novel a chore to read and largely unsuccessful.

Robin Friedman

Disappointing...and far too long, 07 Sep 2007
Other reviewers of the book appear to have had a similar reaction to mine--this book is just too long. Like Zadie Smith's rambling and unfocused On Beauty, Kalooki Nights is another example of an author in desperate need of an editor. The book might have been far more interesting if 200 or so pages were knocked off it. There is always a lovely edge of anger and frustration in Jacobson's characters, but for some reason Maxie's self-loathing is less interesting than previous Jacobson creations and his expressions of it are so repetitive that the edge is worn off long before you get to the end of the book. Manny's story on the surface is an intriguing and potentially offensive one, but it somehow fails to be as subversive as one would assume it to be. Jonathan Safran Foer's comparison of Jacobson to Phillip Roth on the back cover is ridiculous: Roth's recent work seethes and rages with a frightening intensity, whilst his earlier work is sharply self-loathing and precise (i.e not 500 pages). I always have thought of Jacobson as a very different sort of writer--his characters express intense frustrations in a more subtly comic way than in great intense bursts. I think Kalooki Nights was meant to be a "big" book in terms of its subject matter, but in some ways it is only a big book in terms of the number of pages.

Over long and rather self defeating, 06 Feb 2007

Kalooki Nights is a loosely biographical story of Maxie Glickman, a post-war Mancunian Jew.

The central theme seems to centre around victimhood and minority identity when the witchhunt moves elsewhere. Maxie and his schoolfriends soon learn deep anger at the treatment of the Jews in the war and exert enormous energy hating the war criminals. To justify their anger at events they never witnessed, they hunt for antisemitism in all around them. When they don't succeed, they seem to annoy others in order to provike reactions that can be seen as anti-semitism. This is exemplified in Maxies choice of wives and girlfriends, most of whom are anodyne at best but provoked into reaction against Maxie's constant self-pity and reference back to Jewsih themes. There is an amusing contrast on display in the form of Maxie's sister's man - an Irishman (sorry, the name escapes me), who is very eager to learn Jewish ways and frustrated when he never quite succeeds.

This is an interesting premise - how do members of an oppressed minority react when the oppression stops. Do members integrate with the whole, as some characters do; or do they continue to act the role of the victim, becoming increasingly frustrated as sympathy evaporates? But the premise might have been brought to denouement in half the number of pages. Although Kalooki Nights did have moments of humour in the early encounters, it became repetitive and dull. Not even the intrigue about Maxie's friend Manny (who had gassed his parents) was enough to sustain interest. I did read on to the bitter end (and there was much bitterness to be got through in the process), but I'm not sure it repaid the effort.



Superb, 20 Jun 2008
One of Jacobson's great strengths is his facility with language. His prose style is wonderful, full of beautifully constructed passages which read as natural and unfeigned. This book demonstrates that skill throughout.

Another great strength is his humour, which here made me laugh out loud at times, and at others brought a wry smile.

The story is excellent, and his characters are vivid and well drawn.

Hard bats etc, 06 Aug 2007
A comic English novel and table-tennis, two of my Favourite Things. How could this not be a good read? Well, possibly because Jacobson still doesn't seem to have got over reading Philip Roth from around 1970, but reworks Roth's old formula-but-two: the faux-autobiographical style, the oh-so-naughty jokes, the displaced narrator alienated by life (and here, even by the new style of table-tennis). Whereas Roth and others have long since moved on to amazing and subtle kinds of story-telling, here's the dear old English version, still plugging on with a literary sort of Carry On palaver and its tedious set-pieces. I've read Jacobson being very drole indeed as a columnist but as a novelist he seems to have run out of steam, and ideas, by this point.

more ping than pong - very funny, 13 Sep 2005
I must admit i did laugh out loud at some of the episodes in this, my first, Jacobson. He is a very clever writer and with the Jewish, post war, likely lad nostalgic humour this a bit like Philip Roth crossed with Woody Allen in an Only Fools and Horses setting. Jacobson is extremely funny in his mock philosophic analysis of table tennis and there are lots of little coming of age episodes to keep the reader amused along with the obligatory dysfunctional family, his street trader father, spinster aunts and classic jewish mother. There is poignancy too and the book, although over long, does move you to ponder profound questions but fundamentally it's the comic adventures of young Waltzer. Recommended.

Mighty by name..., 21 May 2002
When I first read this book, I was not bowled over by it, but as time went by a nagging thought in my mind became increasingl