Mordecai Richler

Author profile

born

in Montreal, Canada

January 27, 1931

died

July 03, 2001

gender

male

genre

Fiction

About this author

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Mordecai Richler, was a Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist.

His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and Barney's Version (1997); his 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-Two children's stories. .

The son of a Jewish scrap yard dealer, Richler was born in 1931 and raised on St. Urbain Street in the Mile End area of Montreal. He learned Yiddish and English, and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped out before completing his degree.

Years later, Leah Rosenberg, Richler's mother, published an autobiography, The Errand R...more Mordecai Richler, was a Canadian author, screenwriter and essayist.

His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and Barney's Version (1997); his 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-Two children's stories. .

The son of a Jewish scrap yard dealer, Richler was born in 1931 and raised on St. Urbain Street in the Mile End area of Montreal. He learned Yiddish and English, and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped out before completing his degree.

Years later, Leah Rosenberg, Richler's mother, published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses Mordecai's birth and upbringing, and the sometime difficult relationship between them.

Richler moved to Paris at age nineteen, intent on following in the footsteps of a previous generation of literary exiles, the so-called Lost Generation of the 1920s, many of whom were from the United States.

Richler returned to Montreal in 1952, working briefly at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, then moved to London in 1954. He published seven of his ten novels while living in London, as well as considerable journalism.

Worrying "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent", Richler returned to Montreal in 1972. He wrote repeatedly about the Jewish community of Montreal and especially about his former neighborhood, portraying it in multiple novels.

In England, in 1954, Richler married Catherine Boudreau, a French-Canadian divorcee nine years his senior. On the eve of their wedding, he met and was smitten by Florence Mann (née Wood), a young married woman.

Some years later Richler and Mann both divorced and married each other. He adopted her son Daniel. The couple had five children together: Daniel, Jacob, Noah, Martha and Emma. These events inspired his novel Barney's Version.

Richler died of cancer at the age of 70.(less)

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Average rating: 3.84 · 10,718 ratings · 666 reviews · 43 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz 3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 3,188 ratings — published 1959 — 25 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Barney's Version 4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 avg rating — 3,495 ratings — published 1997 — 27 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Solomon Gursky Was Here 3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 avg rating — 1,045 ratings — published 1989 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (Jacob Two-Two Adventures by Mordecai Richler, Fritz Wegner (Illustrator) 3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 652 ratings — published 1975 — 21 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	St. Urbain's Horseman 3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 575 ratings — published 1971 — 16 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Joshua Then and Now 3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 avg rating — 486 ratings — published 1980 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cocksure 3.21 of 5 stars 3.21 avg rating — 252 ratings — published 1968 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Street 3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 147 ratings — published 1969 — 11 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Incomparable Atuk 3.06 of 5 stars 3.06 avg rating — 134 ratings — published 1963 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Son of a Smaller Hero by Mordecai Richler, Ray Smith (Afterword) 3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 avg rating — 121 ratings — published 1955 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Mordecai Richler

“I don't hold with shamans, witch doctors, or psychiatrists. Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or even Dickens, understood more about the human condition than ever occurred to any of you. You overrated bunch of charlatans deal with the grammar of human problems, and the writers I've mentioned with the essence.”
― Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version

tags: human, literature, psychiatry

18 people liked it

“Each man creates god in his own image.”
― Mordecai Richler, Son of a Smaller Hero

8 people liked it

“Mr. Bernard died on a Monday, at the age of seventy-five, his body wasted. He lay in state for two days in the lobby of the Bernard Gursky Tower and, as he failed to rise on the third, he was duly buried.”
― Mordecai Richler, Solomon Gursky Was Here

6 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: By Blood or Marriage (25.2)	41	251	Aug 24, 2009 02:23pm
The Seasonal Read...: 10.8 (OH CANADA!)	37	188	Dec 21, 2009 02:06pm
Challenge: 50 Books: Tim's 50 books for 2009	19	200	Dec 30, 2009 05:53pm
CBC Books: Richler, Mordecai	2	8	Mar 24, 2011 04:23pm
CanLit Challenge: St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler, #23	1	5	May 20, 2011 01:42pm

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Mordecai Richler

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combine editionsMordecai Richler's Books

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combine editions
Mordecai Richler's Books