Booker winner Howard Jacobson talks comic novels at UBC’s Frederic Wood Theatre

It’s often remarked that comic works of art don’t get nearly enough respect from big cultural awards like the Oscars. But the serious pursuit of humour scored a major victory last year when the jury of the hugely prestigious Man Booker Prize named veteran British author Howard Jacobson its winner. Jacobson’s The Finkler Question became the first comic novel in almost a quarter century to take the cake—and not a moment too soon, given that Jacobson, aged 68, became the oldest recipient since William Golding won back in 1980. Jacobson will be at UBC’s Frederic Wood Theatre on Wednesday evening (April 13) to talk about The Finkler Question, which the Times of London praised for running the gamut of the profoundly funny: “dark humour, bittersweet humour, black humour, irony, comic timing, comic subtlety, comic cynicism, knowing humour, unknowing humour.”