Kalooki Nights

By Howard Jacobson

Cartoonist Max Glickman recalls his childhood in a British suburb in the 1950s, surrounded by Jews, each with an entirely different and outspoken view on what it means to be Jewish. After his friend Manny Washinsky is released from prison, Max is compelled to uncover the motive behind Manny's crime—the discovery of which leads Max to understand the indelible effects of the Holocaust and to explore the intrinsic and paradoxical questions of a post-war Jewish identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jan 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9780143176527

Howard Jacobson

Howard Jacobson

Reviews for Kalooki Nights

[bergs47 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Do I give up on Jacobson? I loved all his earlier works then I got to the Henry one, which I just managed to finish. I gave up on An Act of Love and took 2 years to read this one. Will the original Howard please come back all is forgiven

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

When Jewish novelists resort to writing about the Holocaust in the 21st century it seems so very obvious. This book is unashamedly obsessed, not just with not just Nazism but the chosen people it sought to extinguish - but just because it is knowingly obsessed doesn't making it any less trying. A weak plot and florid writing, combined with one of my least favourite topics; if this is Jacobson's masterpiece, I suppose he's not for me.

[sushidog · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read this after hearing a great interview with Howard Jacobson on CBC. Perhaps I missed something, but I was disappointed by the book. The central character believes every gentile is an anti-semite. The only two non-jewish characters in the novel that aren't anti-semites have devoted their lives to loving and understanding Jewish history and culture. I was hoping that the narrator would learn something by the end, but I must have missed it. I will read more of his books, though, as I liked his style.Maybe it was all meant to be a charicature (the narrator is a cartoonist after all), but it was lost on me. Perhaps I was trying too hard to see the narrator's point of view that I missed the author making fun of his narrator. If so, too subtle for me.

[hazelk_9 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Jacobson is an inventive and comic writer and so I felt something lacking in myself that I didn't finish this novel. Perhaps it is that his exuberant style overwhelms me at times