Canadian Author Challenge — August: Mordecai Richler & Gabrielle Roy

August authors:

Mordecai Richler
Gabrielle Roy

Back to general thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209622

Mordecai Richler, CC (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Quebec-Canadian writer. 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. He is also well known for the Jacob Two-Two children's fantasy series. Born into an Orthodox family in Montréal’s old Jewish neighborhood, a community he immortalized in his work, he was from the start a complex and uncompromising figure, at once rejecting many of the formal tenets of his faith while embracing its intellectual and ethical rigour. That tension, along with an innately absurdist vision of life, a raw, bracing comedic sensibility, and a fearlessness about speaking his mind, as both artist and citizen, ensured that nearly every word he published displayed a distinctive sensibility. No one else sounded like Mordecai Richler, and few other writers in Canada have ever demanded, and maintained, such a high profile as both an admired literary novelist and a frequently controversial critic. A Companion of the Order of Canada, two-time winner of the Governor General’s Award (1968 and 1971), and winner of the Giller Prize, Mordecai Richler is without question one of Canada’s greatest writers.

From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mordecai-richler/

Gabrielle Roy, CC FRSC (March 22, 1909 – July 13, 1983) Born in Saint Boniface (now part of Winnipeg), Manitoba. After training as a teacher at The Winnipeg Normal School, she taught in rural schools and in Saint Boniface proper. With her savings she was able to spend some time in Europe, but was forced to return to Canada in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. She returned with some of her works near completion, but settled in Quebec to earn a living as a sketch artist while continuing to write.

Her first novel, Bonheur d'occasion (The Tin Flute (1945), gave a starkly realistic portrait of the lives of people in Saint-Henri, a working-class neighbourhood of Montreal. The novel caused many Quebeckers to take a hard look at themselves, and is regarded as the novel that helped lay the foundation for Quebec's Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. The original French version won her the prestigious Prix Femina in 1947. Published in English as The Tin Flute (1947), the book won the 1947 Governor General's Award for fiction as well as the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal. Distributed in the United States, where it sold more than three-quarters of a million copies, the Literary Guild of America made The Tin Flute a feature book of the month in 1947. The book garnered so much attention that Roy returned to Manitoba to escape the publicity. Another of her novels brought additional critical acclaim. Alexandre Chenevert (The Cashier (1954), is a dark and emotional story that is ranked as one of the most significant works of psychological realism in the history of Canadian literature.

She is considered by many to be one of the most important Francophone writers in Canadian history and one of the most influential Canadian authors. In 1963, she was on a panel that gave the Montreal World's Fair, Expo 67, its theme: Terre des hommes or in English Man and His World. It was her suggestion to use Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1939 book title as the organizing theme.


Gabrielle Roy in 1945 with boys from Saint-Henri, the working-class
neighbourhood of Montreal where The Tin Flute takes place.

From wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Roy

Mordecai Richler has been part of my life as a Montrealer with Jewish roots ever since I can remember. However, I've managed to read only one of his books so far, his last—and found Barney's Version really delightful. I'd like to reread it eventually, but in the meantime I think familiarizing myself with some of his other works might be a good idea, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz seems like a must. It was released on audio last year along with other Richler titles, so that's one I look forward to.

I could say the same about Gabrielle Roy's work, i.e. something I've grown up with as a Montrealer. I also happen to live in the neighbourhood of Saint-Henri, where I understand a lot of the action in The Tine Flute takes place. Bonheur d'occasion (in the original French version) was also adapted to film in 1983, though I can't say whether I have seen it or not all that time ago. In any case, that's the book I'll be reading, hopefully in August, though I'm behind on my CAC authors and currently reading Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce.

Let us know what you plan on reading, or share what you've read by either author anytime you like!

The Tin Flute has been on my wish list for a long time. Richler sounds good too. I'm not sure either author has anything available in my libraries though. Hopefully I can read at least one.

A few years ago I read Roy's short story collection Garden in the Wind. Some elements in the stories have stuck with me.

I have three Richlers in my TBR and I've never read him--definite gap in my CanLit reading. I have The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, St Urbain's Horseman, and Solomon Gursky Was Here. I'm looking forward to all of them, but the last one appeals the most. However, it's long, so I keep saying "later".

>5 thornton37814: Hope you can find either or better, both authors at your library, Lori! I've been curious about The Tin Flute ever since I can remember, and Richler's works since my teens, so looking forward to both. I'm not seeing that much enthusiasm from others on this thread so far though!

>6 Nickelini: I read my first Richler book fairly recently, in 2011 when my father gave me Barney's Version along with other books for Christmas. I really loved that book and mean to reread it eventually, and both my father and I enjoyed the movie version too, which was a really good adaptation. I briefly went to college with his son and always wondered what it must be like to have such a well-known author as a father.

I have never read anything by Mordecai Richler even though his work is well known in Canada especially where I grew up in Montreal. I didn't read one of his well known works (mainly because they looked long), I picked up Cocksure at the library. It was an interesting, if dated satire.

Limited availability at the library so am hoping to get a copy of Where Nests the Water Hen. Also hoping to get to Solomon Gursky was here.