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Mordecai Richler (1931–2001)

Author of Barney's Version

47+ Works 8,075 Members 123 Reviews 25 Favorited

About the Author

Novelist, journalist and screenwriter Mordecai Richler was born on January 27, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended Sir George Williams College for two years. He lived in Paris, Spain and England, and while in England worked as a journalist and radio and television scriptwriter. His fourth show more novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959), was received with far more enthusiasm than previous efforts. He has written a number of screenplays (including Fun with Dick and Jane and the script for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz). His awards include the Governor-General Awards, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award. (Bowker Author Biography) Mordecai Richler, the author of such distinguished novels as "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," "St. Urbain's Horseman," & "Solomon Gursky Was Here," was born in Montreal in 1931. He has won the Commonwealth Prize, the Paris Review Humour Prize, & was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay of "Duddy Kravitz." Over the years he has contributed to "Atlantic Monthly," "GQ," "Esquire," "Harper's," "The New York Review of Books," "The New York Times Book Review," & "The New Yorker" (which will publish a portion of "On Snooker"). Richler is married & has five children; he now divides his time between winters in London & seven months at a cottage on Lake Memphremagog in Quebec. (Publisher Provided) show less

Series

Works by Mordecai Richler

Barney's Version (1997) 1,782 copies
Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) 868 copies
St. Urbain's Horseman (1971) 557 copies
Joshua Then and Now (1980) 429 copies
The Best of Modern Humor (1983) — Editor — 287 copies
Cocksure (1968) 269 copies
Son of a Smaller Hero (1955) 153 copies
The Street (1969) 151 copies
Writers on World War II (1989) 149 copies
This Year in Jerusalem (1994) 142 copies
The Incomparable Atuk (1963) 124 copies
A Choice of Enemies (1957) 75 copies
The Acrobats (1954) 36 copies
Shovelling Trouble (1972) 24 copies
Hunting Tigers Under Glass (1968) 22 copies
Fun with Dick & Jane [1977 film] (1977) — Screenwriter — 19 copies
Room at the Top [1959 film] (1959) — Screenwriter — 14 copies
Canadian writing today (1970) — Editor — 10 copies
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz [1974 film] — Screenwriter/Original novel — 7 copies
Images of Spain (1977) — Author — 4 copies
Life at the Top [1965 film] — Screenwriter — 2 copies
Akrobatene 1 copy
Mordecai (2011) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Innocents Abroad (1869) — Introduction, some editions — 3,739 copies
The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998) — Contributor — 127 copies
From Ink Lake: Canadian Stories (1990) — Contributor — 124 copies
The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English (1986) — Contributor — 112 copies
Great Canadian Short Stories (1971) — Contributor — 53 copies
Barney's Version [2010 film] (2011) — Original novel — 33 copies
One World of Literature (1992) — Contributor — 22 copies
The Best American Short Stories 1963 (1963) — Contributor — 17 copies
New American Review #4 (1968) 15 copies
Sixteen by twelve;: Short stories by Canadian writers (1970) — Contributor — 7 copies

Tagged

19th century (105) 20th century (73) adventure (39) American (67) American literature (144) anthology (111) biography (39) books (46) books about books (59) Canada (265) Canadian (317) Canadian author (46) Canadian fiction (107) Canadian literature (289) children's (43) classic (110) classics (121) essays (99) Europe (108) fiction (1,151) history (71) humor (376) Jewish (105) literature (216) Mark Twain (83) memoir (93) Middle East (49) Montreal (143) Mordecai Richler (37) non-fiction (222) novel (151) own (38) Quebec (79) read (73) satire (75) short stories (128) to-read (392) travel (375) Twain (46) unread (73)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Go past the first part, which is often a bit too political and didascalic. Know your English and your American culture: you'll need it.

But I cannot help loving a book that makes me wanna try cognac.

Culturally voracious, adamant about his shortcomings, generous and uncompromising, if somewhat unbearable. "Now I know. The monster was me"

Splendid - but still inferior to the very similar "Till we have faces" and "L'età dell'oro".
 
Flagged
kenshin79 | 37 other reviews | Jul 25, 2023 |
A very impressive first novel. Set in Franco’s Spain post WW II, far from usual Richler country although several Richler characters are there. Plot somewhat impressionistic but a vivid sense of place and people.
 
Flagged
booksaplenty1949 | May 27, 2023 |
Although I got a good start on this novel by page 140 it was wearing thin. I decided to move on to a more entertaining read.
 
Flagged
endaclon | 4 other reviews | May 1, 2023 |
Loved this book. My son is actually, in part, named Joshua because of it. Great movie too.

 
Flagged
oshafiro | 4 other reviews | Mar 3, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

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Associated Authors

David Giler Screenwriter
John Braine Screenwriter
Dusan Petricic Illustrator
Norman Eyolfson Illustrator
Fritz Wegner Illustrator
Michael Chesworth Illustrator
Eric Wright Afterword
Bruce McCall Contributor
J. B. Morton Contributor
John Mortimer Contributor
Marianne Moore Contributor
Thomas Meehan Contributor
Cyra McFadden Contributor
Stephen Leacock Contributor
Groucho Marx Contributor
A. J. Liebling Contributor
Fran Lebowitz Contributor
Flann O'Brien Contributor
Ring Lardner Contributor
Jean Kerr Contributor
Garrison Keillor Contributor
V. S. Naipaul Contributor
Wilfrid Sheed Contributor
S. J. Perelman Contributor
Kenneth Tynan Contributor
Tom Wolfe Contributor
P. G. Wodehouse Contributor
E. B. White Contributor
Eudora Welty Contributor
Evelyn Waugh Contributor
Jr. Vonnegut, Kurt Contributor
Calvin Trillin Contributor
Leo Rosten Contributor
James Thurber Contributor
Alexander Theroux Contributor
Frank Sullivan Contributor
Terry Southern Contributor
Oliver Jensen Contributor
Damon Runyon Contributor
Philip Roth Contributor
George S. Kaufman Contributor
Jessica Mitford Contributor
Joseph Heller Contributor
Robert Benchley Contributor
Lynn Caraganis Contributor
Truman Capote Contributor
Art Buchwald Contributor
Marshall Brickman Contributor
Jr. Blount, Roy Contributor
Thomas Berger Contributor
Saul Bellow Contributor
Alan Coren Contributor
Maurice Baring Contributor
Russell Baker Contributor
Beryl Bainbridge Contributor
Max Apple Contributor
Kingsley Amis Contributor
Lisa Alther Contributor
Woody Allen Contributor
John Cheever Contributor
Donald Barthelme Contributor
Dan Greenburg Contributor
Wolcott Gibbs Contributor
Veronica Geng Contributor
Bruce J. Friedman Contributor
Peter de Vries Contributor
Ian Frazier Contributor
Stanley Elkin Contributor
Nora Ephron Contributor
Adam Gopnik Introduction
Ted Kotcheff Afterword
Silvia Morawetz Translator
Paul Gagné Translator
John Scully Cover artist
Matteo Codignola Translator
Xavier Pàmies Translator
Jos den Bekker Translator
Paul Gagne Translator
Joanna Kopel Translator
Ann Macdonald Foreword
Allan Bevan Introduction
Joop van Helmond Translator
David Carpenter Afterword
Matthew Richardson Illustrator
Roy Smith Afterword
George Woodcock Introduction
Peter Gzowski Afterword
Neil Besner Afterword
Aislin Illustrator
Michael Tejn Translator

Statistics

Works
47
Also by
13
Members
8,075
Popularity
#3,000
Rating
3.8
Reviews
123
ISBNs
366
Languages
14
Favorited
25
Touchstones
297

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