Kalooki Nights

by Howard Jacobson

Do you like things Jewish?  Then you might like this book.  There is lots of dialogue from Max Glickman about being raised Jewish and what that means.  Unlike his best friend, Max was not raised as a strict Jew, rather his father taught him how to keep it mild and not be a fanatic.  You can read below and see where the story goes, but the honest truth is, this is one of a few books that I did not even bother to finish.  There is a fair amount of swearing in the text, most of which serves no purpose but to offend the ear.


From the book cover:

"Life should have been sunny for Max Glickman, growing up in peacetime with his mother's glamorous card evenings to look forward to, and photographs of his father's favourite boxers on the walls.  But other voices whisper to him of Buchenwald, extermination, and the impossibility of forgetting.  Fixated on the crimes that have been committed against his people, but unable to live among them, Max moves away, marries out, and draws cartoon histories of Jewish suffering in which no one, least of all the Jews is much interested.  But it's a life, or it seems a life until Max's childhood friend Manny is released from prison."