Reviews

Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler

gracklefan's review

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

laharder's review

3.5

Moses Berger is obsessed with the life of Solomon Gursky, one of three grandsons of Ephraim Gursky. Tracks the lives of all. I enjoyed the book, but the ending seemed a bit dull. Not sure how it could’ve been otherwise

nharkins's review against another edition

5.0

recommended by nina. loved it.
proof that i don't trash everything she likes? :)

velocitygirl14's review against another edition

3.0

This was a re-read and I was interested by the fact that Richler mentions the Franklin Expedition as the start of the Gursky family entering the periphery of Canadian life and then becoming a major player.
Solomon Gursky is the elusive figure in all of this and despite being unpleasant, had charm unlike his other two brothers.
Sadly, this book is very dated and occasionally vulgar with no real reason to be. Again, a portrait of a Canada long gone.

jooniperd's review

5.0

this was a re-read for me... but i last read it when it was published (1989) and have a crap memory. so all i retained was the barest of strings, and the sense of just loving this story.

i have to say that i get so much enjoyment out of reading richler (and, as with carol shields, i get bummed fairly frequently over the fact they are no longer here to share new work with us). if the word 'romp' were ever well used in reviewing a book, it would be for this novel. it's a total romp. (can't believe i'm using that word!) it's epic and grand, fun and sharp, and for all its literariness, there is also an interesting mystery.

in her review for the NY Times, [a:Francine Prose|12180|Francine Prose|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1249678588p2/12180.jpg] says this of the book:

"In this, his ninth and most complex novel, Mr. Richler, a Canadian, is after something ambitious and risky, something slightly Dickensian, magical realist: ''Two Hundred Years of Jewish-Canadian Solitude.'' Richler fans will find the scenes one expects in his work -funny, biting, snide-sympathetic takes on Montreal Jewish life - incorporated into a fanciful superstructure of history, geography, myth... 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."

and i think the cool thing prose hit on in her review was the aspect of fun -- as i was reading i kept hoping richer had as much fun writing this as i was having reading it. there seems to be a whole lot of mischievous joy seeping from the pages, and that was a great experience!

(here's the link to prose's review, if you are interested, written 08 april 1990: https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/21/home/richler-gursky.html )