Son of a Smaller Hero

by Mordecai Richler

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Young Noah Adler, passionate, ruthlessly idealistic, is the prodigal son of Montreal’s Jewish ghetto. Finding tradition in league with self-delusion, he attempts to shatter the ghetto’s illusory walls by entering the foreign territory of the goyim. But here, freedom and self-determination continue to elude him. Eventually, Noah comes to recognize “justice and safety and a kind of felicity” in a world he cannot – entirely – leave behind. Richler’s superb account of Noah’s show more struggle to scale the walls of the ghetto overflows with rich comic satire. Son of a Smaller Hero is a compassionate, penetrating account of the nature of belonging, told with the savage realism for which Mordecai Richler’s fiction is celebrated. show less

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53+ Works 9,078 Members
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 novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz show more (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

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Smith, Roy (Afterword)
Woodcock, George (Introduction)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Son of a Smaller Hero
Original publication date
1955
People/Characters
Noah Adler
Important places
Montréal, Québec, Canada

Classifications

Genres
General Fiction, Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
813Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English
LCC
PR9199.3 .R5 .S614Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish LiteratureEnglish literature: Provincial, local, etc.
BISAC

Statistics

Members
169
Popularity
194,245
Rating
½ (3.56)
Languages
English, French, German
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
13
UPCs
1
ASINs
7