The Work of a Whole Career
(Gabrielle)
Mordecai Richler was for sure a well-known author and a great cultural critic. What really set him apart from the rest was the way he delivered the words with such a brutal honesty. He had strong and firm opinions on several challenging moral questions for his time. His perspective was obviously affected by his background. Mordecai demonstrated a clear Anglo-Montrealer thinking through each and every one of his works, but what seems to have inspired most of his greatest works are his cultural roots. Richler was born and raised in a Jewish community, although many believe he cultivated a certain hatred towards his own community just as he seemed to be beating on the Franco-Canadian community. They are mistaken, Mordecai was really only a great writer who described what was the reality of his time with his own words and knowledge. It is known that the reality is not always as beautiful as we would like it to be, so we should be expecting the type of atmosphere that is portrayed in many of Mordecai's novels.
(Milie)
Now that Mordecai Richler has been introduced, let me tell you a little bit more about his works that left the greatest impression on the readers. I will briefly start by mentioning, two of his works which are his novel St.Urbain's Horseman published in 1970 and his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here published in 1989. Both of those novels were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, I will not extend on those novels because I believe there is another more important work to talk about. Yet, I wanted to mention them because they did have some sort of impact in their own way and were recognized by the writer's community.
(Gabrielle)
With that being said, let me introduce you to the main point of this article, his novel The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz. The story figuring Duddy Kravitz, a daring and ambitious Jewish boy who values success above all else, is by far his best-known work. Even though Mordecai's publications will initially be ignored by audiences in his hometown of Montreal. Today, years later, people are starting to recognize his work and give him credit for it. As I mentioned, Mordecai had a unique perspective on the duality among communities in Montreal and his words were probably misinterpreted at the time. I believe the people of his time felt as if he was exposing them, and the French community felt particularly attacked by Richler's perceptions. These factors are probably at the origin of the late success of his work in Canada, people had a hard time grasping the artistic style of Mordecai. However, looking back today, we are much better equipped and informed about the conditions of the time and it is now easier to realize that Mordecai's views on different ethnic communities are only a reflection of his own experience. It really gives us VIP access to "the behind the scenes" of a 1950s Montreal. On the other hand, in the majority of his works, we notice that Mordecai added depth to his characters through his autobiographical approach which has encouraged him to include multiple details and anecdotes from his personal life. As for me, I think this adds even more realism and relatability to his story.
Anyway, you probably guessed it, this blog will be about the novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. We will go through every part of the novel, give you some reviews, and give you some interesting feedbacks. We strongly recommend that you read the novel, this way you will be able to comment on our articles and give us your own opinion on the different points we are going to discuss. If we still have not convinced you to start reading, we can recommend that you watch the movie. Indeed, the novel was adapted for the screen, we took the time to watch the movie ourselves. Although some differences are noticeable as in any film adaptation, the film gives a very good overview of the universe of the novel. So, we leave you with this excerpt and if you are interested we will attach some links for you to listen to the movie!
Watch this clip of the movie to give you a general idea:
Want to watch the whole movie? We got you!
Follow this link to watch the whole movie for free on Youtube and it is with subtitles!
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