Part 1, One Summary

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson is an intriguing novel about three friends, two of whom are Jewish and one who decides to be a Jew. Julian Treslove struggles with his newfound identity as a Jewish Gentile while Libor Sevcik mourns his wife's death and Sam Finkler learns to cope with his convoluted feelings about being Jewish. The Finkler Question is a very interesting and entertaining novel that questions what it means to be Jewish in an inherently anti-Semitic world.

Because he always sees things coming, he should have been prepared. On a school holiday in Barcelona, Julian paid a gypsy to read his palm, and she warned him that, in the future, he could not avoid a woman named Juno, Julie or Judith, and danger would accompany the woman, though the gypsy could not tell if the danger would be...