JC Evening: Last Word
Jonathan Freedland, Howard Jacobson
The Finkler Question is the ‘first unashamedly comic novel’ to win the prestigious Booker Prize and flagrantly Jewish to boot. Howard Jacobson and Jonathan Freedland – two restlessly questing souls – wrestled “finklerisms” in intellectual combat: Does Jewishness provide a “way in” to the deep and meaningful questions of life? Is life invariably melancholy? Are friends inevitably disloyal? Can love endure? These two mighty Mega-Wits contemplated life’s tragicomic dimensions as they competed for JBW 2011’s final word.
Jonathan Freedland is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster. He writes a weekly column for The Guardian and is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s contemporary history series The Long View as well as the co-host (with the Israeli journalist Yonit Levi) of Unholy, a weekly podcast. He has written twelve books, the latest of which is The Escape Artist: the Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World.
Howard Jacobson is a multi-award-winning writer of 13 novels and five works of non-fiction, as well as a regular contributor to major newspapers and journals, including a regular column for The Independent. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question.
