J: A Novel Paperback – September 1, 2015

I work in a milieu of children, many who have a thought disorder. J is a book about a NATION with a mandatory thought disorder, (at least most of the citizens). The theme of J, which crops up frequently, is, WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED, which would indicate a knowingness, but, for the most part, Jacobson's dystopian world, which takes place in the future (but still the 21st century), is constructed on a foundation of a kind of schizophrenic behavior, but complicit and fraught.The denial-of-reality behavior reminds me of the line in the Matrix, "Did you take the red pill or the blue pill?" This is a nation who took the blue pill--they don't want to know the truth. What is the truth? Read it, and you will realize it, after many oblique twists and turns and drops in the rabbit hole. It is evident that some sinister annihilation of population occurred those several generations ago. But, who? And why? And, the tragedy is, anyone wanting to find out will need to be silenced.In this strange new world, I was also reminded of Orwell's doublethink; the people in this story hold contradictory or paradoxical beliefs, and are at odds with themselves for questioning the societal norms, set by a standard called Project Ishmael, run by a monitoring group called Orfnow."The overexamined life is not worth living." There's an official monitoring of the public mood, to ensure that everyone is under "moral hypnosis.""A compliant society meant that every section of it consented with gratitude -- the gratitude of the providentially spared."Most of the story takes place in Port Reuben, one of many renamed towns, inhabited by people with renamed (and often ridiculous) surnames. "The past exists in order that we forget it." The central characters, Kevern "Coco" Cohen and his new lover, Ailinn Solomons, might seem paranoid to members of the monitoring group, but they feel something or someone at their heels. It is dangerous to seek too much knowledge. There exists very little technology (except phones for local calls); art, music, and history have been varnished and saturated with the dippy philosophy of annoying optimism. Anything too deep, dark, or knowing is either outlawed--or, if not outlawed legally, it is frowned upon. Yet, ironically, this society is ever the more bleak for not allowing any shadows or clouds to obscure the bright and sunny disposition of life. Even the library books have pages missing, if any suggestion of "J" history is suggested or revealed.Suggestion, implication, intimation--this is how Jacobson slowly peels the layers of this story. The more WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED "folklore" is revealed, the more absurd this Orwellian-esque society becomes to the reader. And, not just absurd, but harrowing.I hesitate to say any more about the book. Like Kevern's father, who would place two fingers in front of his mouth any time he uttered a word beginning with the letter J, I will keep mum about most of this story. It is more a book of ideas than a plot, but the plot in itself is stunning. It is both comical and tragic, chilling, ludicrous, and devastating. Jacobson keeps the humor and tragedy dancing in a delicate balance on the head of a pin.If I have one complaint, it is that he was occasionally repetitive, and the story was strung out a bit sluggishly. However, these are small complaints for such a staggering story."We've lived through the end of the world," says a character. "This is the aftermath. This is the post-apocalypse."

This novel is beautifully written and engaging, though not without flaws. It's both a love story and a dystopian sci-fi novel. At the start, the reader feels a bit disoriented: Where and when are these events taking place, and what is this mysterious event referred to as "WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED"? Clearly we are in some sort of weird future. The world has regressed economically and technologically, and some horrible event has caused a collective erasure of all record of the past. The readers disorientation matches those of the main characters, who are puzzled about their own background and history. It's not giving away too much (because the reader guesses this part early) that the "WHAT HAPPENED" was a second holocaust of some sort. Yet there are many mysteries right at the outset - for example, if the story occurs after a second holocaust, why do all the characters have Jewish names? By the end of the book, some mysteries (such as the one I just mentioned) are cleared up, others are not.I liked the novel, but also found it disturbing. OK, dystopian novels are supposed to be disturbing I guess. But here, too many unanswered questions. How exactly did the world get from now to this imagined future state? Is the backwardness of this future society a cause or an effect of the presumed second holocaust? There's also a disturbing implication in the novel that mankind's nature is inherently evil, and if you try to suppress that (e.g. by banning disturbing art, music, and literature), then the evil will pop out in other ways. I find this a very unsettling notion. Somehow this idea reminds me of a joke that Sarah Silverman tells (just to lighten this review up a bit) that goes like this: She says "If there had been blacks in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened". Her straight man asks "How do you figure that?". And she replies "Well, it wouldn't have happened to the Jews, at least".Anyway, "J" is a worthwhile and thought-provoking read.

I suppose I'm not a Howard Jacobson fan. I want to understand what he's writing about and certainly the Thing that Happened, If it Happened is an event that has happened but I truly keep getting confused about the characters, forgetting who they are and having to go back to reread sections so I can move on with the story. The basic plot is easy to follow....a love story in a time of great anxiety. This dystopian future feels more like the past. As I got deeper into the book I did understand more but my overall feeling with this book is dissatisfaction, as if the author wrote it for himself and not the reader...too clever...

I don't know what to say, my mind is reeling. And I don't want to say much about the story and the themes because I want you to discover them for yourself and experience the end. This is not an easy book to read for the reasons that some have mentioned - wordy, descriptive, sometimes hard to follow. You have to let it slowly evolve and expand in its own way. Yes, it does veer sharply as new characters come and go and is frustrating in the beginning. But trust me - the payoff is staggering. The Man Booker Prize for this book is well-deserved. The only disappointment I have with it is that this is not a book you can re-read again for the purpose of reliving the experience.

At a time when our national pastime is hatred for the other in the form of Muslim this book is extrodinary in its profound understanding of bigotry. Beautifully written, I could not put it down and have added it to my list of books to,read again. As someone who has studied human cruelty, especially bigotry, my whole adult life his perspective made me rethink some of my own conclusions and added to my own understanding. Thus should be required reading in highschool and college literary classes, as well as classes on the human predisposition to hate the "other."