|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a novel about costs. How much will Duddy sacrifice to get what he wants? "Born with a rusty spoon in his mouth," Duddy is a hustler and a schemer, scrambling to acquire the idyllic lakefront property he thinks will raise him out of the Jewish ghetto of post-war Montreal, where "the boys grew up dirty and sad, spiky also, like grass beside the railroad tracks." In the hilarious and tragic progress of his career, Duddy--along with everyone around him--discovers how much he will pay for material success.
Duddy's Uncle Benjy sums him up as "two people": "The scheming little bastard I saw so easily and the fine intelligent boy underneath that your grandfather, bless him, saw." Simcha, the stern but adoring immigrant grandfather, becomes the locus for Duddy's battle with ends and means. An embodiment of old-world values, Simcha impresses upon Duddy the maxim, "A man without land is nobody," never anticipating the depths (lying, forgery, theft, manipulation) to which Duddy will stoop to acquire the resort land to launch his empire. Breaking Simcha's heart with his unscrupulous victory, Duddy loses the respect, and--at least emotionally--the life he wanted: "a boy can be two, three, four potential people, but a man is only one. He murders the others."
Duddy Kravitz is the novel that moved Mordecai Richler into the stable of major 20th-century novelists, and it did so at a time (1959) when "world famous" and "Canadian novelist" were mutually exclusive terms. Like so many of the anti-heroes of Richler's contemporaries John Updike and Philip Roth, Duddy is neither likeable nor forgettable. Sadly, or perhaps thankfully, Duddy is all too human. --Darryl Whetter
Review
“Duddy Kravitz sits alone in its urbanity, energy, relevance, direction and raw talent.”
–Toronto Star
“It burgeons with its special talent and vulgar vitality.”
–Chicago Tribune
“Richler [is] one of North America’s most powerful novelists.”
–Washington Times
“Richler has been praised highly for his clear-eyed vision and his realistic style. This novel will confirm that estimate… the total effect is brash and blatant as a sports car rally – and as suggestive of power.”
–New York Times Book Review
“There can be no doubt of [Richler’s] prodigal talent.”
–Times Literary Supplement
From the Trade Paperback edition.
–Toronto Star
“It burgeons with its special talent and vulgar vitality.”
–Chicago Tribune
“Richler [is] one of North America’s most powerful novelists.”
–Washington Times
“Richler has been praised highly for his clear-eyed vision and his realistic style. This novel will confirm that estimate… the total effect is brash and blatant as a sports car rally – and as suggestive of power.”
–New York Times Book Review
“There can be no doubt of [Richler’s] prodigal talent.”
–Times Literary Supplement
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
What with his wife so ill these past few weeks and the prospect of three more days of teaching before the weekend break, Mr MacPherson felt unusually glum. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
What with his wife so ill these past few weeks and the prospect of three more days of teaching before the weekend break, Mr MacPherson felt unusually glum. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
duddy-the little nietzsche boy!,
By ganesan s. (Pudukkottai, tamilnadu, south india) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Paperback)
richler's work is, though spiced with ample dose of humour, is a painful portrayal of the ruthless nature of human ambitions. the young jewish,motherless urchin, duddy has only one goal before him, to emulate 'jerry dingleman'-the boywonder of st.urbain, montreal.duddy takes a materialist interpretation of his zeyda's profound words of wisdom, "a man without land is nobody.' this fires duddy, to embark on scheme after scheme, to pursue his goal of possessing a lake and the land surrounding it. for that he is shameless enough to forge the signature of epileptic friend and to crush the love of yvette, the all-giving french-canadian girl friend. duddy doesn't believe in gew-gentile relationship either, after seeing how his doctor-brother was harrassed and hounded by the gentile circle. he is the jewish-avtar of nietzschen neo-man , one who is devoid of feelings like love and shame. duddy hardly bothers about the fate of ladders which he use to climb. unfortunately,for him, the end is important ; not human relationships, outside his family.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Does End Justify Means?,
By
This review is from: Penguin Modern Classics Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Paperback)
Richler's "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" is a masterpiece and another one of his classics. It fashions the protagonist, Duddy, as a young Jew who has his mind set on a single piece of wisdom, passed on to him by his paternal grandfather, that a "man without land is nobody". This statement constitutes a mantra or a leitmotif throughout the novel. It hardly, therefore, an overstatement if one were to maintain that this grandfatherly wisdom defines Duddy's life. His near obsession with owning a land forces Duddy to resort to underhanded acts that in his mind would bring him nearer to realizing his dream and which they actually do so ultimately.Some of the things he has done to amass the money to pay for the purchase of the estates were reprehensible but the last act shows to what lows he can stoop just to achieve the dream of his life. Without giving too much away, the last act undoubtedly was not only immoral and illegal, but lacked human sympathy and consideration as well. Duddy is described in a blob at the back of the edition that I own as an "antihero", which in many ways he is. However, I would say that what describes Duddy best is what his father, Max, said in charaterizing his son: "He thrives on adversity". That is exactly what he does. In my view, the novel carries a parallel, or a sub, narrative. In an indirect way the novel tells the history of the Jewish people. Since they went into the diaspora, many centuries ago, the Jews yearned for a homeland to which they can belong and from which they can derive their identity. In other words, the need to have a geographical space that they would call the fatherland, or motherland, does in a very signifcant way define the history of the Jews. Duddy Kravitz symbolizes that Jewish yearning. The parallel narrative continues to suggest that the founding fathers of the Jewish homeland in Palestine might have perpetrated wrongful,illegal and immoral acts along the way. The most culpable of those is probably the dispossession of the endogenous Palestinian population. Simcha, or zeyda as he is referred to in the novel, who is Duddy's grandfather represents the Jewish conscience. Despite the fact that he passed on to Duddy the notion that a " man without land is nobody", zeyda never meant that in the acquisition of this land one can have recourse to whatever means regardless of their moral or legal standing. That is why we see zeyda in a wistful mood at the end of the novel as Duddy takes him, his father and his brother to show them the land that he now owns. Simcha knew about Duddy's reprehensible action which he committed in order to acquire the final portion of the land and he was not happy about that. Zeyda told Duddy that he needed to go back to the car as the latter effusively and enthusiastically showed them the estate. "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" is a captivating read, but I should hasten to add that it lacks the depth and scope of the author's other, but less well known, masterpiece: "Solomon Gursky was Here".
5.0 out of 5 stars
By one of our great Canadian writers,
By "sweeneyjca" (Swift Current, SK Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Mass Market Paperback)
It was my New Years Resolution to read more "literature" especially by Canadian authors. I am ashamed to say that I have managed to get this far through life without reading anything by this someone who is widely regarded as one of Canada's greatest man of letters.This is Richler's cautionary tale about the evils of greed and unrestrained ambition. This topic has been explored by a countless other writers but seldom with as much skill as that displayed by Mr. Richler. The main character is both repugnant and fascinating to watch. I can't recommend this enough.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
