When people talk about the pantheon of North American Jewish writers, most often they mention Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud -- and rightfully so. It's unfortunate that Mordecai Richler usually isn't mentioned in the
same breath. He should be.
The late author, a Canadian, was among the deepest, most interesting and funniest writers of the second half of the 20th century. He's perhaps best known for the novel "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," which he published in 1959 and which was made into a film starring a young Richard Dreyfuss.
The book tells the story of a young Jew always on the lookout for an angle in his often shady business dealings. When "Duddy Kravitz" came out, some Jews took issue with its portrayal of what they saw as this negative stereotype of Jews.
I just finished re-reading this gem of a novel; it's still remarkable. And while I can see where the critics were coming from, it's impossible to miss just how influential Richler turned out to be among later Jewish writers. He and a couple of others were among a generation of Jewish writers who began writing self-critically and honestly about themselves and the people they knew.
The doors opened by people like Richler in this regard are still being traveled through by the young Jewish writers of today. Indeed, some literary observers say we're in a new age of irreverence today with writers such as Gary Shteyngart, Adam Langer and Shalom Auslander taking up the mantle of the Richlers and the Roths.
Roth, of course, needs no one to take his place, he's still active and successful. Indeed, he seems to keep getting better as a writer. The same could have been said of Richler. In my opinion his last book, "Barney's Version", was his best. It's heartbreaking and hysterical.
That Richler died in 2001, a few years after its publication, is a first-rate shame. That he never got his due in the United States is also depressing. Luckily there are young writers now walking along the path he originally trod.
