The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)

This is one of those classics of Canadian literature that I’d been meaning to read since high school 40 years ago, and was always embarrassed to tell anyone that I had not.
Apprenticeship, published in 1959, is set in Montreal and in the Jewish summer resorts of the Laurentian Mountains. We follow Duddy Kravitz as a boy that, if you are a certain age, you might describe as a two-bit punk: he fought, stole from Kresge’s department store and split streetcar tickets so they could be used twice. But Duddy wants to “make” it so, in his teens and twenties, following his grandfather’s advice that “a man without land is nothing”, he wheedles and hustles his way through scheme after scheme to purchase land for development. Along the way, he finds out just what morals he will compromise for his dream.
I’ve come to this CanLit icon late in life: this is only my second Richler, but along with Barney’s Version, it has convinced me that I must read his entire canon.
Read this if: you are interested in how other people achieve their dreams; you want to know about the Jewish experience in Montreal, Canada in the 1940s and ’50s; or you want an introduction to Mordecai Richler. 4 stars ( )

I read this book many years ago and remember really liking it. I did not feel the same this time. It was a good character study, but I was not impressed with the writing. I also felt it became tedious, and the different expploits of Duddy's added little or no new information. ( )

תופעה נדירה, ספר קנדי טוב ומעניין​ ( )

Richler succeeds in creating a character I truly feel totally ambigious about - despairing really captures my feelings about Duddy, as opposed to good/bad. Interesting Canadian literature, yes, well. ( )

I re-read this book after remembering liking it when I needed to read it in high-school.

It is an interesting read. Richler has a unique writing style. The reader begins to feel the nervous energy that seems to be coursing through Duddy (at least I did).

Through Duddy's adventures we see a certain time and place, but more importantly we see how the drive to achieve a singular goal can cause such problems, particularly at a young age when one isn't ready. Also we see them arise when the goal is partly driven from external sources which is the case for both Duddy and his brother. We also see how the need for acceptance, among ones family or friends, can lead the characters to take risky actions.

The version I read (ISBN: 077109972) has a really nice afterword by David Carpenter. ( )