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A Brief Chat with Mordecai Richler - Page 2

© Paula E. Kirman

Kirman: Speaking of Duddy Kravitz, over the years because some of your Jewish characters fit certain stereotypes, particularly Duddy, your work has been accused of being anti-Semitic. Does that still happen now, and how do you react to those sorts of accusations?

Richler: It doesn't seem to have happened in recent years. I never meant Duddy Kravitz to be a metaphor for the Jewish people, and I don't consider him a stereotype. In fact I feel quite affectionate about him. Certainly he's part of the kind of people I grew up with.

Kirman: Throughout your novels you have characters with Jewish backgrounds -- Barney Panofsky, Joshua Shapiro -- who have a huge struggle with the gentile world, wanting to fit in. Is this something that you yourself have had to deal with?

Richler: Yes, at one point. It doesn't bother me one way or the other now.

Kirman: Do you consider yourself a Jewish writer, a Canadian writer, or just a writer?

Richler: Well, I consider myself all three. [laughing]

Kirman: You are as well known for your journalism as your novels. Do you have a preference for one genre over the other?

Richler: I obviously prefer writing novels but I take my journalism very seriously, and I enjoy doing it between novels. It gives me an opportunity to move in the outside world, whereas if you're writing a novel, you're on a room for three or four years. There's not much coming in from the outside.

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Next Week: More with Mordecai Richler as he talks about writing satire and Quebec nationalism.

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