Mordecai Richler
Paperback | Pages: 384 pages Rating: 3.72 | 7741 Users | 276 Reviews
List Books Concering The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
| Original Title: | The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz |
| ISBN: | 0671028472 (ISBN13: 9780671028473) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Montreal, Quebec (Montréal, Québec)(Canada) |
Rendition As Books The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
From Mordecai Richler, one of our greatest satirists, comes one of literature's most delightful characters, Duddy Kravitz -- in a novel that belongs in the pantheon of seminal twentieth century books.Duddy -- the third generation of a Jewish immigrant family in Montreal -- is combative, amoral, scheming, a liar, and totally hilarious. From his street days tormenting teachers at the Jewish academy to his time hustling four jobs at once in a grand plan to "be somebody," Duddy learns about living -- and the lesson is an outrageous roller-coaster ride through the human comedy. As Richler turns his blistering commentary on love, money, and politics, The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz becomes a lesson for us all...in laughter and in life.
Mention Containing Books The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
| Title | : | The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz |
| Author | : | Mordecai Richler |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 384 pages |
| Published | : | March 1st 1999 by Gallery Books (first published 1959) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Canada. Classics. Literature. Canadian Literature |
Rating Containing Books The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Ratings: 3.72 From 7741 Users | 276 ReviewsNotice Containing Books The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
WHY I READ IT:It has a cultural meaning to a boy from Montreal. My history professor in CEGEP recommended it and it has been on my to-read list for the past five or six years.WHAT I THOUGHT OF IT:A co-worker saw me reading it at work, an English major, and he remarked that he had studied that. Why, or how, I cannot decipher. It's a good story, humorous and witty, but I could not see anything there that made me think this is a book to study. Maybe from a historical point of view, like, this isIts not what you achieve but how you achieve it...salutory ending. If the start feels difficult, please persevere. It takes flight about page one hundred and the altitude keeps climbing. For writers there is a terrific lesson here in how to keep a reader entranced when the main character is morally dubious.
Maybe Montreal was a different place in the late 1940s/50s when young Duddy Kravitz was taking on the world. A poor, motherless Jewish boy, he had big dreams; most of all he wanted to fulfill his grandfather's mantra: "a man without land is nothing." In order to do so, he knew no bounds. Nothing would or could stop him in his quest for money and power. In the wake of his brash single-mindedness he leaves the detritus of his actions: the teacher's disabled wife who dies trying to get to the phone
http://tinyurl.com/4azt5uI wasn't so certain about picking this book to read. The most prevalent comment among other readers was that it was hard to love the character-- he's just such a slimy bastard, there isn't much to love about him.That didn't seem to be the point to me, though. I thought it was a unique portrayal of Judaism and the Jewish people of that time and in that place (1950s Montreal). A lot about what they struggled against (racism on both sides, inadvertent or not), hoped for (a
Duddy Kravitz is a self centered sneak, a thief, a con-artist, a scheister and thoroughly detestable character- but I love him. A Jewish kid growing up in Montreal during world war two, in a motherless family and mostly left to his own devices, Duddy Kravitz is basically a decent human being, deep down inside, somewhere Im sure theres a modicum of decency. Duddys grandfather once tells him that a man without land is nobody, Duddy takes this to heart and when he finds the property of his dreams
I threw the book across the room when I finished.
Its shocking to me that this novel was published in 1959. It feels just as unflinching and edgy as something that would be published today. The main character is about as anti- as a hero gets, and yet I couldnt help but root for him to get his land and become a somebody. His questionable tactics and actions dont go unchallenged by the author or the other characters, but it never veers into a preachy moral fable. Its messy and hilarious, but you cant help but admire Duddys tenacity and as his
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