Preface
PART I: MUTTLE, MUTTY, MORDY
I. The Rebbe and the Shammas
II. The Simchat Torah
III. Richler Artificial Stone Works (No Success)
IV. 5257 St. Urbain Street
V. Battles
VI. Wars
VII. Comrades
VIII. Making Aliyah
IX. Room 41
X. Cut/Cutting Loose
PART II: APPRENTICE
I. The Right Age
II. C/O Bar Escandell, San Antonio, Ibiza, Spain
III. Girls, Girls, Girls
IV. Montreal, Dull and Anaesthetic
V. M, The Boy Writer
VI. Hampstead Parties
VII. General Progress Report
VIII. Canadian Club
IX. Roquebrune
PART III: HORSEMAN
I. I'll Show You the World
II. Montreal Meteor
III. This Year in the Salt Mines
IV. Tel Aviv, London, New York
V. For My Father
VI. Hillcrest, Kingston Hill, Surrey
VII. Like Herzog
VIII. Sitting Shiva
IX. Minority Man
X. Swiss Family Richler
XI. Rest, Rest, Perturbed Spirit
PART IV: LOOK AT ME NOW
I. An Affirming Flame
II. Return of the Prodigal . . . Again
III. Edgehill Road
IV. Filthy, Disgusting Fellow
V. An Old Jacket, Worn and Torn
VI. Dear Maw
VII. A Good House
VIII. Oh! Canada!
PART V: M.R. WAS HERE
I. A Very Complex Man
II. My Father's Life
III. One's Intentions Are Always Much Grander
IV. The Gursky Family Tree
PART VI: HANG IN OLD FRIEND
I. Back on the Map
II. Things Are Bad Enough without Nastiness from Mordecai
Richler
III. The Golem
IV. Richler Calls It
V. Keep Fighting. Don't Despair
PART VII: PHILEMON AND BAUCIS
I. Boyishly Proud
II. Two Alter Kockers
III. Overtime
Epilogue
Bibliographic Essays
Acknowledgements
Photo Credits
Permissions on Quoted Texts
Selected Index
CHARLES FORAN is the author of eight previous books, including the novels Carolan's Farewell and House on Fire, and the award-winning non-fiction work The Last House of Ulster. Born and raised in Toronto, he holds degrees from the University of Toronto and University College Dublin, and has taught at universities in China, Hong Kong and Canada. A former resident of Montreal, where he was a columnist for the Montreal Gazette and reported on Quebec for Saturday Night magazine, he currently resides with his family in Peterborough, Ontario. Of his most recent book, the essay collection Join the Revolution, Comrade, one critic wrote: "Foran takes seriously his role as a writer who's alert and engaged with the world" (Quill & Quire). He has made documentaries for CBC Radio and is a contributing reviewer for the Globe and Mail.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Globe and Mail Best Book
"A fine, intelligent, deeply historicized, compassionate,
insightful, fair-minded and above all loving book."
- Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon and Angels and
Ages
"It was a full, rich life, and it's a full, rich book. . . . We
judge a man by his life, a writer by his books. Charles Foran has
done a thorough and thoughtful job of the first. Time will do the
second."
- The Walrus
"A massive work that examines this master novelist, wit and public
curmudgeon in sympathetic but not uncritical style."
- The Globe and Mail
"A comprehensive, panoramic portrait that will stand as the
definitive Richler biography. . . . Foran is a master storyteller.
. . . Ultimately, in Mordecai, Foran reminds us of how
Richler managed to make Canadian culture relevant and sexy to the
world."
- The Gazette
"The great strength of Mordecai is in the much deeper
picture Foran gives of Richler's relationships. . . . Foran gives a
convincing and complex portrait of Richler."
- Winnipeg Free Press
"A massive and enthralling biography."
- National Post
"The definitive biography of Mordecai Richler. . . . So detailed,
so exhaustive, so astute and authoritative. . . . This is a
portrait of a dedicated artist who raged against the dying of the
light. As I finished the book, I found tears rolling down my
cheeks."
- Ken McGoogan, National Post
"Easily the most thorough accounting of Richler's life. .
. . An absorbing, sympathetic and often funny account of a
fundamentally decent man who worked like a demon at his craft, and
who brought the verve and engagement of an essayist to the
sometimes aesthetically and tonally narrow world of Canadian
literary fiction."
- Toronto Star
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