Description
Book SynopsisIn an ever divided Britain, this wryly observed novel is a timely and thought-provoking read from the Booker-winning author of The Finkler Question.
''A very funny, bitterly intelligent novel...do read it'' Malcolm Bradbury
Sefton Goldberg: mid-thirties, English teacher at Wrottesley Poly in the West Midlands; small, sweaty, lustful, defiantly unappreciative of beer, nature and organised games; gnawingly aware of being an urban Jew islanded in a sea of country-loving Anglo-Saxons. Obsessed by failure - morbidly, in his own case, gloatingly, in that of his contemporaries - so much so that he plans to write a bestseller on the subject.
In the meantime he is uncomfortably aware of advancing years and atrophying achievement, and no amount of lofty rationalisation can disguise the triumph of friends and colleagues, not only from Cambridge days but even within the despised walls of the Poly itself, or sweeten the bitter pill of another''s success
Trade Review
Howard Jacobson is one of the funniest writers alive... His writing pulsates with nerve and edge; it is colossal in its comic precision; at its best it simply tears you apart * The Times *
Lucky Jim undated... Witty, observant, clever, a first-rate entertainment and something more besides * Guardian *
Jacobson's humour is unashamedly savage and his jokes as sharp as a switch-blade... comic vitriol worthy of Evelyn Waugh * Sunday Express *
The funniest book I’ve ever read… Every line is funny in a cutting, clever way -- Sophie Hannah * Daily Express *
Every word of this novel rings true, and nothing is funnier than the truth. But as a master of creating laughter on the edge of pain, Jacobson also likes us to think -- Rosalind Miles * Week *
