Featured Reading Guide
Howard Jacobson
Marvin Kreitman, the luggage baron of South London, lives for sex. Or at least he lives for women. At present he loves four women – his mother, his wife Hazel, and his two daughters – and is in love with five more. Charlie Merriweather, on the other hand, nice Charlie, loves just the one woman, also called Charlie, the wife with whom he has been writing children’s books and having nice sex for twenty years. Once a week the two friends meet for a Chinese lunch, contriving never quite to have the conversation they would like to have – about fidelity and womanising, and which makes you happier. Until…
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Howard Jacobson is the author of six novels and four works of non-fiction. His last novel, The Mighty Walzer, won the Everyman Wodehouse Award for comic writing.
topAbout the Book
Marvin Kreitman, the luggage baron of South London, lives for sex. Or at least he lives for women. At present he loves four women – his mother, his wife Hazel, and his two daughters – and is in love with five more. Charlie Merriweather, on the other hand, nice Charlie, loves just the one woman, also called Charlie, the wife with whom he has been writing children’s books and having nice sex for twenty years. Once a week the two friends meet for a Chinese lunch, contriving never quite to have the conversation they would like to have – about fidelity and womanising, and which makes you happier. Until today. It is Charlie who takes the dangerous step of asking for a piece of Marvin’s disordered life, but what follows embroils them all, the wives no less than the husbands. And none of them will ever be the same again.
topStarting Points for Discussion
- Despite Kretiman’s established role as a serial adulterer, it is in fact the steadfast Charlie, a man whose identity is thoroughly wedded to his wife’s, who initiates the wife swapping. Although Kreitman is happy to play along, would he ever have initiated this scenario himself? If not, why not?
- The women in the novel could be viewed as of secondary importance to the crises of Charlie and Kreitman. How does your opinion of Charlie and Hazel change through the novel? Who do you eventually believe is in charge of the situation – the men or the women?
- Nyman, the courier, lurks in the background throughout the novel. What do you feel his role is in the novel? What is it about him that makes Kreitman so angry?
- It would appear on the surface that Kreitman’s life is dominated with the need for sexual gratification and the company of women, however, he does not appear to actually enjoy the act of sex, can be incredibly uptight and is never happy with the situation he currently inhabits. Is Kreitman a man in love with unhappiness?
- Kreitman lives under the shadow of his parents and particularly the need to please a mother who seems unpleasable; no matter what his achievements, in her eyes he has never aimed high enough. Is this novel in fact an examination of the effects of family life on an individual?
- Is the entire novel an apology for adulterers – male adulterers – whose response to the accusation of misogyny is that, on the contrary, they love women?
Other Books by Howard Jacobson
Coming From Behind
Sefton Goldberg: mid-thirties, English teacher at Wrottesley Poly in the West…
Kalooki Nights
Life should have been sunny for Max Glickman, growing up in Crumpsall Park in…
No More Mr Nice Guy
Frank Ritz is a television critic. His partner, Melissa Paul, is the author…
Peeping Tom
Barney Fugleman has two major preoccupations in life: sex and literature. He…
Redback
Karl Leon Forelock is a product of the northern English town of Partington (the…
The Act of Love
No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else…
The Making Of Henry
One day, out of the blue, Henry Nagel receives a solicitor’s letter telling him…
The Mighty Walzer
From the very beginning Oliver Walzer is a natural – at ping-pong. Without even…
Suggested Further Reading
- Portnoy’s Complaint ~ Philip Roth
- Injury Time ~ Beryl Bainbridge
- True History of the Kelly Gang ~ Peter Carey
- Doing It ~ Melvyn Burgess
- Any Human Heart ~ William Boyd
- Atonement ~ Ian McEwan