Customer Reviews

The Act of Love

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves..." wrote Oscar Wilde, I might add, '...or else it kills him first.'
Felix Quinn (the novel's central character) chooses (or is chosen by?) jealousy, as his lethal weapon. The novel carries us along, as voyeur bordering on co-conspirator, as Felix plots to bring about the very condition he most fears, i.e. his wife lying in the arms of a lover. Why should he be so daft, you might ask? Because it is the only means he knows to experience the intense pain of love that surpasses all others in his experience. Far from opposites, love and hate constitute a double helix spiral, each dependent upon, and dependable for, the other. Wind yourself around this novel, or let it wind itself around you. It's quite a journey.

BEautifully written, generously sprinkled with literary references this is a tale of one mans fetish. He thrives on the agony of knowing, presuming, wanting to be cuckolded. Erotic without being titillating it's an interesting story of love, affairs but not quite betrayal. My book club all hated it, but I loved it. Perhaps I'm a little more liberated...

I was initially resistant to this novel on the grounds that, after the first few pages I anticipated that this was going to be little more than Jacobson's take on the "literary prize" genre. Perhaps a parody on the pseudo academic literature that aims to please a select circle of academics,critics,and metropolitan self servers. Maybe he does allude to this,however there is also much to admire in this work.
The character study of the protagonist,Felix Quinn(FQ!) is terrific. The first person account of Felix's story brings out some remarkable prose that captures the sensitivity and nuances of his character with wit, irony, and sardonic social observation. As a literary study of love and sex as seen through the eyes of a disfunctional masochist the writer manages to maintain a sense of anticipation and reader involvement that displays great skill, humour and a disciplined structure.
At times the writing style tends to exemplify an essay rather than a novel,with frequent references to relevant works of literature and art. However most of this can be justified by the comparative relationships between writers, artists, their readers and critics, with the relationships in the novel. It certainly provides the author with the platform to impart his personal perspective and I feel he enjoys playing a game with us readers as well as the precious world of art and literature. Perhaps it may have worked better as a short story or a play but as with most of Jacobson's work there is much to enjoy.

This novel was misunderstood by a number of reviewers when it first appeared. The crux of the matter seemed to be that they disagreed with the following statement from early on in the narrative:

"No man has ever loved a woman and not imagined her in the arms of someone else [...] You will sooner get a man to give away his money than admit he longs to give away his wife".

So says Felix Quinn, the narrator of this novel. For Quinn, it's only when his wife is in the arms of another and in the throes of a passionate affair he has orchestrated that he feels most truly in love with her. Indeed it is during those moments around 4pm, the "handover" hour when the wife is passed from husband to lover, that Quinn feels most alive.

So far, so weird for most of us (although if this doesn't sound alien and you enjoy a good cuckolding, then purchase this book immediately). Indeed it's one of the main reasons why this book got lukewarm reviews from critics who really should have known better. They made the basic mistake of thinking that Quinn (and/or Jacobson) was trying to assert a universal truth about all men desiring to be cuckolded. Of course it isn't true, but therein lies the rub for Quinn: he really DOES believe that and he gets into a terrible mess as a result.

Having a weird narrator of a novel is no reason for rejecting it. Make no mistake: this is a powerful story since it gets you right inside the mind of someone who seems, to the average man or woman, a sad and twisted individual, one more in love with notions, descriptions and his own imaginings than with real people. But I guess that's part of the darkly humorous fun of this book, that of placing our trust in as superb a novelist as Jacobson so that he can reveal such an alien aspect of the human condition. Ultimately this means you can see why Quinn has such peculiar erotic desires, even if you can't sympathise, truly understand or, ultimately, forgive them.

Sometimes it's rather interesting to be exposed to an alien point of view and a way of living we might find reprehensible, if only to remind us not to take our own coventional ways so much for granted.

This is only the second Jacobson novel I have read. "The Act Of Love" is so different from the Booker prize winner-which I loved- you have to compare it with other books about Obsession. Things like Roth's "Sabbath's Theatre", some of his "Kepesh" books, perhaps Updike's "Brazil", certainly "Lolita", McEwan's "Enduring Love" and Nicholson's "The Trial of True Love" and of course Leopold Bloom in "Ulysses". Each of the obsessions is different, but all require an explanation, a justification- if that is possible- and an account of the effects that this particular obsession has on the lives of the characters. Jacobson does all this admirably. I don't feel envious of Felix Quinn, who has an overwhelming emotional and erotic desire to contemplate, see and hear his wife in amorous conjunction with another man, but Jacobson makes it possible to understand why someone might. The style of the writing is comedic, ironic and humorous; the range of emotions explored is very wide but tragedy is never very far away. The novel starts with a funeral and ends with a funeral, but whose? There is the very satisfying twist at the end. Enuff said! A wonderful read.

Howard Jacobson is, arguably, the best writer of our time and my own, personal favourite. He is daring, bold, analytical, intelligent, highly intellectual and incisive and takes you to places and through emotions that you may not necessarily have chosen to go - but go you must. His best ever book was Kalooki Nights. It made "slow readers" of us as we tackled highly challenging issues and developed such thoughts that we were invariably brought to a halt, time after time. The Act of Love is a journey of a different kind. A difficult topic is stunningly tackled. Not a "comfortable" read, but for your own development, you need to go where Jacobson takes you next. On that score alone, I highly recommend the book.

This is the first book by Howard Jacobson which I have read. It is a strange and compelling work of literature. The protagonist is Felix Quinn, an antiquarian bookseller of such class that he sees customers by appointment only. He tells his story mostly in internal monologue, with the occasional reported speech interlude.

Jacobson's concept is highly unusual, at least to me. Felix fancies himself as an Othello, or an Anselmo, as they suffered the pangs of jealous love as they feared that their wives were being unfaithful to them. This fear was brought about, in Othello's case, by the lies which Iago poisoned his thoughts with.

Felix, however, intends to take this a step further. He is deeply in love with his beautiful and faithful wife, Marisa, but intends to lead her unknowingly towards making him a cuckold. He wants to experience the pain felt by Othello, Anselmo, and others throughout the literary canon.

He grooms the man whom he intends to do the cuckolding practically from the start of the book. We do learn that he had already met Marius at a funeral, but that he had no concept then of what he was to attempt throughout the rest of the story.

Jacobson peppers the book liberally with literary allusions, very much in the character of Felix. Some people think that is simply showing off. I feel he is working on the assumption that his readers are likely to be as interested in literature as he seems to be, and that the reader will understand the allusions. I did, some, but not all. Having researched the others I hope I will follow them if I come across them again.

Does Felix succeed in his intentions? Is there a happy ending for at least one of the main characters? I'm not going to spoil the book for you by telling you.

Just be assured that I found it a riveting read about one man's peculiarity. I found it very difficult to stop reading when I had to go to work in the morning, or to bed at night.

For many readers, especially those more familiar with Jacobson's Booker long-listed and winning novels Kalooki Nights and The Finkler Question, The Act Of Love may prove something of an endurance test. Explicit (without ever being pornographic) in its meditations on sexuality, and unflinching in its portrayal of voyeurism and masochistic cuckoldom, the novel takes a scalpel to the anatomy of an unconventional marriage. I say "unconventional"... If the book has one overriding message, it's that behind closed doors no marriage is conventional.

That said, the extraordinary - and cheerfully admitted - perversity of the narrator, not to mention his unrestrained pompousness, may prove a little off-putting for some. It takes some getting used to; the language at times very florid, the narrator's observations always framed by acute snobbery. The justification for having such an apparently repellent narrator only becomes clear in the novel's final, dazzling chapter, in scenes that force the reader to reevaluate everything that's gone before. Unfortunately, that may be too late for the more tender souls who balked during the chapter that flings us, head first, into an underground sex club, or the narrator's reminiscences about a visit to a brothel with his father and uncles. It is, at times, a challenging read.

That said, however frank and graphic its discussions of sex and sexuality may be, The Act Of Love never once made me cringe; unlike, say, The Humbling by Philip Roth (an author Jacobson is often compared to). There is a vein of dark humour throughout, and Jacobson's eye for detail, not to mention his passion for art, theatre and literature, make this a compelling novel from start to finish.

This queasy, wry, hilarious tale is - for those who don't take themselves too seriously - a great read. I spent hours cackling to myself down the pub. Sumptuous prose, better than talking with my mates.

could have been more detailed on the characters of the wife and lover.Attempts to be a high brow look at the subject matter,which is quite entertaining to begin with but I think the author became bored half way through.Its a shame as you feel little for the characters in what could have been a very interesting book.