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Mordecai Richler was, especially in Canada, an increasingly rare breed: a professional writer. Except for the few brief stints as a writer-in-residence chronicled as part of this collection, Richler avoided what Paul Theroux calls the "straight jacket of the college professor's tie and sports coat." He didn't teach. He rarely edited. He really did live by his pen, and he did so from the tender age of 23.
Like his four previous volumes of non-fiction, Belling the Cat collects reviews, essays, and articles, most of them written for GQ or The New York Times Book Review. In these scattered essays divided into "Books and Things," "Going Places," "Sports," and "Politics," we see the patient Richler sharpening the observations, research, and interests that will pepper his hilarious, biting novels. "Writing for the Mags," for example, includes autobiographical and anecdotal confessions about the writing life in London that resurface in Joshua Then and Now, while the biographical sketch of Sam Seagram ("Mr. Sam") resembles a hand-drawn map to Richler's Solomon Gursky Was Here. A miscellany of this sort does, however, invite a skim-and-delve kind of reading. Some may find the term "sports writing" oxymoronic, and, sadly, political essays, even Richler's, never outlive the weekly magazines in which they appear. What we're left with is a good collection that begs the great one that could be made by selecting the irreplaceable and the lasting from the five books of essays that Richler completed before his death. --Darryl Whetter
Review
"Ought to be shoved into a time capsule so future generations can laugh their heads off.... This is prime Richler, clear-eyed, intolerant of lies and deception, disrespectful of sacred cows." - The Ottawa Citizen
"If Richler had had the good fortune to share chronological space with the great Southern humourist [Mark Twain], I have no doubt the two men (smoking stogies, popping corks, swapping yarns) would have gotten along just fine." - The Vancouver Sun
"A fabulous collection--as politically incorrect as firing up an Export 'A' in the health food store. But you can't keep a good satirist down." - Chatelaine
"Everything in this book is worth reading. Richler manages to irritate some of the people all of the time." - The Halifax Daily News
"If Richler had had the good fortune to share chronological space with the great Southern humourist [Mark Twain], I have no doubt the two men (smoking stogies, popping corks, swapping yarns) would have gotten along just fine." - The Vancouver Sun
"A fabulous collection--as politically incorrect as firing up an Export 'A' in the health food store. But you can't keep a good satirist down." - Chatelaine
"Everything in this book is worth reading. Richler manages to irritate some of the people all of the time." - The Halifax Daily News
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Filled with delightful sarcasm,
By Eric Zboya (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Belling the Cat: Essays, Reports & Opinions (Hardcover)
When I was in high school I was pretty well forced to read Mordecai Richler's "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" (at the time the only book I've ever read by him) and I couldn't care less about about it (I was a kid, what do you expect). But now that I'm older, Richler's works are delightful to read; as they are very "fresh" and stick out from the cliched garbage that now infest the stands at your local bookshop.Belling the Cat, to me, is one of Richler's finest. Here we begin to understand what kind of man Richler was . . . a man full of humility and humor, though very sarcastic (though many of you would already point that out after reading "Barney's Version"), and never taking life too seriously. But nevertheless, he was a man with thoughts and ideas and was not afraid to give the world a little taste. Belling the Cat was, is, a book composed primarily of essays and thoughts in "The World According to Richler". He touches upon subjects such as Sexual Harassment, his travels, including Germany, South Africa, and Egypt (properly entitled Egypt's Eleventh Plague, which, according to Richler, is tourism), sports, Canadian politics, and Woody Allen, to name a few. He even gives the reader a taste of his own "unpopular" success as an author in the introductory chapter entitled, "Writing for the mags", going from one book signing to the next with no turn out. It's true that Mordecai Richler never succeeded to stardom like so many of the trashy authors that are out today, but regardless, isn't that what true authors and true literature is about? Once you get into Richler's mind-frame and see the world he saw through his own eyes, Belling the Cat will bring you to laughter many times over.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Filled with delightful sarcasm,
By Eric Zboya - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Belling the Cat: Essays, Reports & Opinions (Hardcover)
When I was in high school I was pretty well forced to read Mordecai Richler's "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" (at the time the only book I've ever read by him) and I couldn't care less about about it (I was a kid, what do you expect). But now that I'm older, Richler's works are delightful to read; as they are very "fresh" and stick out from the cliched garbage that now infest the stands at your local bookshop.Belling the Cat, to me, is one of Richler's finest. Here we begin to understand what kind of man Richler was . . . a man full of humility and humor, though very sarcastic (though many of you would already point that out after reading "Barney's Version"), and never taking life too seriously. But nevertheless, he was a man with thoughts and ideas and was not afraid to give the world a little taste. Belling the Cat was, is, a book composed primarily of essays and thoughts in "The World According to Richler". He touches upon subjects such as Sexual Harassment, his travels, including Germany, South Africa, and Egypt (properly entitled Egypt's Eleventh Plague, which, according to Richler, is tourism), sports, Canadian politics, and Woody Allen, to name a few. He even gives the reader a taste of his own "unpopular" success as an author in the introductory chapter entitled, "Writing for the mags", going from one book signing to the next with no turn out. It's true that Mordecai Richler never succeeded to stardom like so many of the trashy authors that are out today, but regardless, isn't that what true authors and true literature is about? Once you get into Richler's mind-frame and see the world he saw through his own eyes, Belling the Cat will bring you to laughter many times over. |
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