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Likely Stories: J

Jim McKeown
J byy Howard Jacobson

Eerie tale of a village in the aftermath of some catastrophe – if it happened.

One of these years, I am going to assemble all the novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and read them along with the jury, and then try and guess which will win.  For years I have been waiting until the final announcement before buying any of the nominees.  But lately, I have been reading some novels written by previous winners, and I have enjoyed them every bit as much as the winners.  Howard Jacobsen won the Booker in 2010 for The Finkler Question.  His shortlisted 2014 novel, J, shows me exactly what I am missing among the also-rans.

Set on an island surrounded by seas that “lap no other shore,” the mysterious villagers, suspicious of strangers and each other, constantly apologize for even the slightest of offenses.  The government suppresses all history, heirlooms, photos, and anything which might remind the people of “What Happened, if it happened.”  Many residents have secret stashes of letters, diaries, and old books, which they use to try and piece together the past.  The novel is a chilling reminder of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, with tinges of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Kevern Cohen meets the stunningly beautiful Ailinn Solomons who arrives one day on the shore.  Kevern experiences love at first sight, and Ailinn is attracted to Kevern after some prodding by Esme Nussbaum, her guardian.  Many of the characters have cryptic phone conversations about the couple, including a shady police inspector, a gnarly barber, and Esme.

Jacobsen writes, “Esme Nussbaum looked around her while Rabinowitz spoke.  Behind his head a flamingo pink LED scroll repeated the advice Ofnow had been dispensing to the country for the last quarter of a century or more.  ‘Smile at your neighbor, cherish your spouse, listen to the ballads, go to musicals, use your telephone, converse, explain, listen, agree, apologize.  Talk is better than silence, the sung word is better than the written, but nothing is better than love’” (17-18).  This sounds innocuous, but apparently, music has been censored, the telephones are all tapped, and everyone reports -- to some unknown person -- what they have heard and seen.

The title of the book is actually a capital “J” with two horizontal lines across the middle.  It became the custom to put two fingers across the mouth each time a word is spoken which begins with a “J.”  This novel cries out for a second read. 

Kevern’s father left him several boxes labeled for opening at important stages of his life.  These boxes disturb Kevern, because, as Jacobson writes, “Hoarding, surely, was random and disorganized, the outward manifestation of a disordered personality.  His father’s boxes hinted at a careful, systematic, if overly secretive mind” (51).  Kevern suffers from OCD, and he worries about everything.

Howard Jacobson’s J will provide lots of absorbing reading.  Part mystery, part love story, and all dystopian, it warns me about what I might be missing in those novels which lose out every year.  Certainly many more of them must deserve -- 5 stars.

Likely Stories is a production of KWBU.  I’m Jim McKeown.  Join me again next time for Likely Stories, and HAPPY READING!

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Life-long voracious reader, Jim McKeown, is an English Instructor at McLennan Community College. His "Likely Stories" book review can be heard every Thursday on KWBU-FM! Reviews include fiction, biographies, poetry and non-fiction. Join us for Likely Stories every Thursday featured during Morning Edition and All Things Considered with encore airings Saturday and Sunday during Weekend Edition.