When I think of Mordecai Richler, I think of the time I read part of "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec," reading a Jacob Two-Two book, watching the 1974 movie "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" when my sister was reading the book, and this year, reading it for school.
Mordecai Richler was born January 27th, 1931 in Montreal, where he grew up in the Jewish community of Saint Urbain Street which is featured in many of his novels including Duddy Kravitz. He went to Sir George Williams University but left before he got his degree, in 1951, and went to Europe. He traveled around and during his stay, mainly in Spain and France, he wrote his first novel, "The Acrobats," in 1954.
In 1959, he wrote arguably his best novel, "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" which was criticized by some of the Jewish community as anti-Semitic although clearly it isn't. He went to England, where he started to do journalistic work and worked on film scripts such as Life at the Top, in 1965.
In 1968, his book, which was banned in Britain, "Cocksure" was published. It won the Governor General's Award. He has often said that the more he went away from Montreal, the more he felt rooted in Saint Urbain Street, and in 1971, he wrote "St. Urbain's Horseman," which also won the Governor General's Award. He returned to Montreal in 1972.
In 1974, his book "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" was made into a movie staring Richard Dreyfuss. "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang," a children's book whose character was based on his son Jacob, was written in 1975, and was made into a movie two years later.
In 1980, he wrote one of his most famous books, "Joshua Then and Now," which was also made into a motion picture. In 1989 he wrote "Solomon Gursky Was Here," and "Barney's Version" in 1997.
He was very controversial and accused the French extreme nationalists of being anti-Semitic and closed on their culture. His book "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!" was a big hit for Anglophones in Quebec but was criticized harshly by the Francophone majority.
Mr. Richler will be remembered as a novelist, a journalist and a political mind who opened the Canadian voice to the world in a time when Canadians suffered from an inferiority complex.
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