Joshua Then and Now
by Mordecai Richler
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Joshua Then and Now is about Joshua Shapiro today, and the Joshua he was. His father a boxer turned honest crook, his mother an erotic dancer whose greatest performance was at Joshua's bar mitzvah, Joshua has overcome his inauspicious beginnings in the Jewish ghetto of Montreal to become a celebrated television writer and a successful journalist. But Joshua, now middle-aged, is not a happy man. Incapacitated by a freak accident, anguished by the disappearance of his WASP wife, and caught up show more in a sex scandal, Joshua is besieged by the press and tormented by the ghosts of his youth. Set in Montreal, the novel chronicles the rocky journey we all make between the countries of the past and the present. Raucous, opinionated, tender, Joshua Then and Now is a memorable excursion into Mordecai Richler's comic universe. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This creatively constructed novel has the reader travel from Canada to England to Spain on Joshua Shapiro's journey through life. Intelligent and intellectual, it also recounts Jewish history but does a great job of giving voice to various characters, poor and rich, young and old, Christian and Jewish... a veritable fresco of humanity. Richler uses biting humour to bind it all together. A delightful and thought-provoking novel.
A generally likeable main character with a jarring narrative switching between past and now( then and now) makes for an enjoyable read.
A good novel about success and what it means to the writer. MR was a good novelist, and the book has had many good reviews over the years.
Loved this book. My son is actually, in part, named Joshua because of it. Great movie too.
למעשה ספר זכרונות הומוריסטי של ריכלר
Jan 30, 2012Hebrew
intéressant, atmosphère bien décrite
Jun 11, 2015French
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53+ Works 9,047 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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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Joshua Then and Now
- Original title
- Joshua Then and Now
- Original publication date
- 1980
- People/Characters*
- Joshua Shapiro; Reuben Shapiro 'Ruby'; Stephen Andrew Hornby; Esther Leventhal Shapiro 'Esty Blossom'; Pauline Hornby Shapiro 'Trout'; Stuart Donald McMaster (show all 29); Harvey Leventhal; Fanny Leventhal; Sheldon Leventhal; Jane Mitchell Trimble; Jack Trimble; Kevin Hornby; James Edward Peabody; William Markham 'Bill'; Oscar Shapiro; Yossel Kugelman 'Jonathan Cole'; Morty Zipper 'Moish'; Sonny Colucci; Bessie Orbach; Sidney Alexander Murdoch; Irving Pinsky; Juanito Tur-Guerra 'Pus'; Seymour Kaplan; Dr. Dr. Gunther Mueller; Mariano; Colin Fraser; Ralph Murdoch; Isaac Singer 'Izzy'; Monique
- Important places
- Canada; England, UK; Spain
- Related movies
- Joshua Then and Now (1985 | IMDb)
- Epigraph*
- Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
W.H. Auden - Dedication
- For old Ted Kotcheff,
young Ted Allan,
and Miss Nina Bourne - First words
- Look at me now, Joshua thought.
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Well, yeah, right, he thought.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- 66,030
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 7
