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 First edition | |
| Author | Mordecai Richler |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Viking Canada |
Publication date | 1989 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 557 |
| ISBN | 0-670-82526-3 |
Solomon Gursky Was Here is a novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler first published by Viking Canada in 1989.
The novel tells of several generations of the fictional Gursky family, who are connected to several disparate events in the history of Canada, including the Franklin Expedition and rum-running. Some fans and critics have cited this as Mordecai Richler's best book, and in terms of scope and style it is unmatched by his other works. The parallels between the Gursky family and the Bronfmans are such that the novel "may be seen as a thinly disguised account of the [Bronfman] family". [1] While Richler himself denied any similarities, "one longtime Bronfman associate put it, 'I don't know why Mordecai bothered to change the names.'" [2]
The tale centres on Moses Berger, an alcoholic failed writer who is obsessed with Solomon Gursky, the brother of Bernard and Morrie and absent from the family empire after a fatal plane crash. It is implied that it is disappointment with his own father, the failed poet L. B. Berger, with whom Moses has a deeply dysfunctional relationship that put him on the trail of Solomon, a character as strong-willed as he was mysterious.
Solomon Gursky is told in a non-linear fashion, jumping around in both Moses' personal timeline as well as through four generations of the legendary Gursky family. Though much of the story is told from Moses' perspective, parts are also told from the perspectives of different members of the family and the people attached to them, creating a much more ambiguous picture of the Gurskys.
Reviewing the book in The New York Times, Francine Prose noted, "In this, his ninth and most complex novel, Mr. Richler, a Canadian, is after something ambitious and risky, something slightly Dickensian, magical realist", adding that, "Regardless of what its author may actually have experienced, Solomon Gursky Was Here reads as if it were great fun to write. Dense, intricately plotted, it takes exuberant, nose-thumbing joy in traditional storytelling with all its nervy cliffhangers and narrative hooks, its windfall legacies, stolen portraits, murders and revenges, its clues that drop on the story line with a satisfying thud".
However, Prose judged that, "while the novel's plot turns are seldom predictable, its characters often are: the bigot is a repressed religious nut, the millionaire a pompous slob and, most upsettingly, the Eskimos a bunch of whoop-em-up mystic blubber-chewers and wife-swappers. Though being Jewish apparently enables Mr. Richler to feel on safe ground with outrageous Jewish jokes, he is, so to speak, on much thinner ice here".
Nevertheless, Prose found that in "the book's final paragraph, we discover that Solomon Gursky (and Mordecai Richler) have shaped their clever plot in a perfect circle, a narrative design that restores order and brings a welcome reassurance of closure, two things we so rarely expect from life and cherish, all the more, in the novel". [3]
Mordecai Richler was a Canadian writer. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and Barney's Version (1997). His 1970 novel St. Urbain's Horseman and 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here were nominated for the Booker Prize. He is also well known for the Jacob Two-Two fantasy series for children. In addition to his fiction, Richler wrote numerous essays about the Jewish community in Canada, and about Canadian and Quebec nationalism. Richler's Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! (1992), a collection of essays about nationalism and anti-Semitism, generated considerable controversy.
This is an article about literature in Quebec.
Samuel Bronfman, was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Bronfman family.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a 1974 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Richard Dreyfuss. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Mordecai Richler.
The Bronfman family is a Canadian family, known for its extensive business holdings. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman (1889–1971), the most influential Canadian Jew of the mid-20th century, who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during American prohibition through founding the Seagram Company, and who later became president of the Canadian Jewish Congress (1939–62).
The Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh. The novel follows the fortunes of the Roth family during the Lindbergh presidency, as antisemitism becomes more acceptable in American life and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels. The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics. Roth based his novel on the isolationist ideas espoused by Lindbergh in real life as a spokesman for the America First Committee, and on his own experiences growing up in Newark, New Jersey. The novel received praise for the realism of its world and its treatment of topics such as antisemitism, trauma, and the perception of history. The novel depicts the Weequahic section of Newark which includes Weequahic High School from which Roth graduated. A miniseries adaptation of the novel aired on HBO in March 2020.
Abraham Moses Klein was a Canadian poet, journalist, novelist, short story writer and lawyer. He has been called "one of Canada's greatest poets and a leading figure in Jewish-Canadian culture."
Ernest Leo Kolber, was a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and Senator, serving from 1983 to 2004.
The Gold Range is a Canadian hotel and bar located in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
Francine Prose is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center.
Charles William Foran is a Canadian writer in Toronto, Ontario.
Mordecai is one of the main personalities in the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible.
Jacob Two-Two is a series of children's books written by Canadian author Mordecai Richler: Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang (1975), Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur (1987) and Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case (1995) written by Mordecai Richler, and Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas (2009) written by Cary Fagan.
The Traitor and the Jew, a history by Esther Delisle, was published in French in 1992. She documented the history of antisemitism and support of fascism among Quebec nationalists and intellectuals during the 1930s and '40s.
Cocksure is a novel by Mordecai Richler. It was first published in 1968 by McClelland and Stewart.
Nancy Richler was a Canadian novelist. Her novels won two international awards and were shortlisted for three others; Richler was also shortlisted for the Canadian Booksellers Association Author of the Year award in 2013.
The Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards were a Canadian program of literary awards, managed, produced and presented annually by the Koffler Centre of the Arts to works judged to be the year's best works of literature by Jewish Canadian writers or on Jewish cultural and historical topics.
Montreal's Jewish community is one of the oldest and most populous in the country, formerly first but now second to Toronto and numbering about 100,000 according to the 2001 census. The community is quite diverse, and is composed of many different Jewish ethnic divisions that arrived in Canada at different periods of time and under differing circumstances.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a musical written by David Spencer and Disney composer Alan Menken. The play is based on Canadian author Mordecai Richler's 1959 novel of the same name. The musical is a "morality tale" set in 1950s' Montreal, Canada, about 19-year-old Duddy Kravitz, from the Jewish working-class inner city, who is desperate to make his mark and prove himself to his family and community. After his grandfather tells him that "a man without land is nobody," he works and schemes to buy and develop a lakefront property, but his ambition threatens his personal relationships with those who love him, among them a French Canadian girl he meets while working at a summer resort. Duddy often behaves as a "nervy young hustler" but is at the same time fiercely loyal to those whom he loves. He must "ultimately decide what kind of man he's going to be." The story ended on a bleak note with Duddy isolated and morally compromised, having accomplished his goals only by betraying close friends, including his epileptic and paraplegic friend Virgil, and becoming estranged from his grandfather.
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition is a book by Owen Beattie and John Geiger, first published in 1987 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The book focuses on the dramatic events surrounding the Franklin Expedition of 1845-1848, led by Sir John Franklin, as well as the scientific work and forensic testing on the bodies of three perfectly preserved Victorian seamen 138 years after their deaths, solving the mysteries of the Franklin Expedition. In 2004, the authors substantially revised the book, adding an epilogue and altering and updating the text. Margaret Atwood wrote an introduction. In 2017, the authors added a new afterword to the Canadian edition, and a new foreword by Wade Davis was added.
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