{"id":8702,"date":"2017-10-30T09:26:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T08:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8702"},"modified":"2017-10-30T11:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T10:13:29","slug":"manchester-literature-festival-howard-jacobson-at-the-central-library-18th-october-7pm-reviewed-by-henry-cockburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8702","title":{"rendered":"Manchester Literature Festival: Howard Jacobson at Central Library, reviewed by Henry Cockburn"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Howard Jacobson at Central Library, hosted by Rachel Cooke; 7 October 2017.<\/h5>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s take it as read\u2014we all love Howard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re three audience \u2018questions\u2019 down and the host has to step in to stem the lovefest, it probably means a couple of things.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The thinkers in the room have been given a few things to chew over.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s hard to dislike Jacobson in the flesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When it comes to the world of internet comments though, there\u2019s a less generous atmosphere\u2014and he tells us it\u2019s getting worse. His most recent opinion piece about dressing for the theatre had the most ferocious digital backlash of all. We\u2019re left imagining Jacobson cowering before the screen, opera cape raised towards top hat, the monocle popping from his head at the vehement ire of the tracksuited, Carmen-loving masses. It leads to an interesting conversation about the changing temperature of debate in the digital age, and his latest novel concerns the hottest topic out there.<\/p>\n<p>Howard Jacobson, writer of a lot of books, winner of a lot of prizes, is here to talk about <em>Pussy<\/em>, a satirical fable based on the current president of the USA.<\/p>\n<p>He recounts the germ of it all, the night of the election\u2014he was tucked up in bed when a malevolent spirit began calling his name. The ghost of Hillary Clinton, seeking vengeance. The writing began six hours later and finished six weeks after that. That\u2019s fast. The need for speed, the need to vent, was for one reason\u2014he gave up his column in <em>The Independent<\/em> in April 2016 in the full-frontal belief he had nothing left to comment on (thus proving novelists don\u2019t always have the second-sight) and he needed an outlet.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Jacobson compares the hosts of Fox News to doxies. \u201cDoxies?!\u201d shrieks an audience member, convulsing into me. The titters are rolling all night, which makes things difficult for the reviewer who takes a laugh as his cue to get down a quote.<\/p>\n<p><em>Pussy<\/em> is set in a city state whose main industry is tower creation. Fracassus is a man-child without words, heir to a dynasty, lover of celebrity TV. Brits Caleb Hopsack (Nigel Farage\u2014remember him?) and Philander (Boris J\u2014still knocking about) feature, as does a Jacobson stand in attempting to tutor Fracassus. You\u2019d better read up quick\u2014the book is aging fast. Nothing that\u2019s come out about Trump since he took office in January will be in here.<\/p>\n<p>Rachel Cooke, hosting, points out there is one name in the book that wasn\u2019t disguised: Corbyn. Corbyn is \u2018the next big problem\u2019 according to Jacobson\u2014and he can\u2019t decide whether he dislikes more the idea of a leader who has not changed his mind in 65 years (old Corbyn) or one who starts dabbling in the never-ending flip-flop of realpolitik (new Corbyn).<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You think you encounter the worst of the right of politics, then you encounter the left of politics\u2019 he says, specifically referring to the look of horror on Bernie Sanders\u2019 face when he presented him with a copy of <em>Pussy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re assumed to be a lot of things tonight\u2014remainers, anti-Corbyn, anti-Trump, pro-Hilary\u2014we\u2019re those elusive metropolitan liberal elite we\u2019ve heard so much about.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018This book is for us\u2019, he says.<\/p>\n<p>So, we\u2019re in here with our books and our authors and they\u2019re out there with their&#8230;what?<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Jacobson notes that despite his Booker win in 2010 his sales are nothing like they were in the 80s.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it\u2019s a bit of a stretch to say that the Central Library looks like a bubble. It\u2019s a bit round I suppose.<\/p>\n<h5>Henry Cockburn<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Howard Jacobson at Central Library, hosted by Rachel Cooke; 7 October 2017. \u201cLet\u2019s take it as read\u2014we all love Howard.\u201d When you\u2019re three audience \u2018questions\u2019 down and the host has to step in to stem the lovefest, it probably means a couple of things. The thinkers in the room have been given a few things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Manchester Literature Festival: Howard Jacobson at Central Library, reviewed by Henry Cockburn - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8702\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manchester Literature Festival: Howard Jacobson at Central Library, reviewed by Henry Cockburn - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Howard Jacobson at Central Library, hosted by Rachel Cooke; 7 October 2017. \u201cLet\u2019s take it as read\u2014we all love Howard.\u201d When you\u2019re three audience \u2018questions\u2019 down and the host has to step in to stem the lovefest, it probably means a couple of things. 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