This won the Booker Prize in 2010. I was hesitant to read it because it was described as a comic novel. Then I saw plenty of reader reviews claiming it just wasn’t funny. Hmm. So I started reading it and was pleasantly surprised to find it contained mostly sarcastic, single paragraph, turn of phrase, wry observation type of humour rather than expansive slapstick. Which suited me, and I did find it quite funny, though I can see why readers have a problem with the “comic novel” tag.

I would describe the book as more-or-less an observation on what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century as seen through the eyes of Julian Treslove, a rather bumbling gentile, examining the lives of his Jewish friends Sam Finkler and Libor. Julian’s enamourment with the Jewish way of life grows as the book goes on. I found it an enjoyable read with lots of interesting moments but ultimately I would have liked the plot to have been more cohesive. The narrative is tightly based around a mugging in the first half of the book but in the second it wanders off in all directions and I would have preferred more closure at the end of the book. I felt as if the author had just run out of things to write rather than finished the book.

So overall, I enjoyed it but wasn’t entirely satisfied by it in the end.