A quest for identity

If it had been possible to listen to Howard Jacobson’s brilliant Booker Prize-short- listed novel in one sitting I would happily have done so; but even on motorways congested to the point of strangulation, a return journey from Chipping Norton to Brighton has yet to take 13 hours.

If it had been possible to listen to Howard Jacobson’s brilliant Booker Prize-short- listed novel in one sitting I would happily have done so; but even on motorways congested to the point of strangulation, a return journey from Chipping Norton to Brighton has yet to take 13 hours.

I have emerged from a state of tunnel-vision absorption; rarely have I come across a novel with such a range of themes and emotions to digest: anguish, infidelity, loyalty, circumcision, Zionism, Judaism, mugging, the BBC, even online poker — and one would have to listen all over again to absorb fully the stinging humour and myriad jokes.