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A review by juliapappo
Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
5.0
indeed, he was!
embroiling jewry into every major canadian historical event of the past 200 years (not to mention the international ones!) is pure chutzpah. it's this quality that makes mordecai richler so riotous and touching to me - in everything he wrote, he goes all in. the gurskys are larger than life, yet even in the final pages richler draws them back to montreal - to the family mansion in westmount, no less.
in the second grade, i was assigned to present to the class on any canadian province of my choosing. my dad is originally from montreal - my family left for toronto in the early 70s - so of course i had to pick quebec. for more than half my time in front of the class, all i could do was go on about mordecai richler. the jacob two-two tv show had recently taken over my life, and at home i would look up to find my dad's copy of barney's version on his bookshelf, listening as he would go on about how good the film adaptation of duddy kravitz was to me.
being jewish in toronto can at times feel like being a montreal jew, twice removed. the city looms large in the collective memory, both of my family and of canada itself - listening to stories of my dad growing up in snowdon, going to the cinema and the deli beside it, feels as definitive to me as reading richler's characters trudge up and down st. urbain. you know the exact spots to go, which bakeries have the best bagels, who attended which public school, and all the gossip of mcgill alumni, even if they are six hours away. the city has been idolized as a key originating point for so long that it feels intrinsic to canadian jewish identity, and seeing richler give the same treatment to the rest of the country and it's tales is an absolute delight.
gursky spans generations, and the points of genealogy can be hazy at best. but instead of seeming lackadaisical, it feels true to life. moses berger's unrelenting research to fill in the gaps of such an infuriating family is compounded by complications even further than the circumstances - rampant alcoholism, mysterious disappearances, and relationships so fragmented it's a wonder the whole mctavish enterprise can stay afloat. it's well deserving of its 540 pages - for all its cyclicity, revisionist history, and undeniable personality.
embroiling jewry into every major canadian historical event of the past 200 years (not to mention the international ones!) is pure chutzpah. it's this quality that makes mordecai richler so riotous and touching to me - in everything he wrote, he goes all in. the gurskys are larger than life, yet even in the final pages richler draws them back to montreal - to the family mansion in westmount, no less.
in the second grade, i was assigned to present to the class on any canadian province of my choosing. my dad is originally from montreal - my family left for toronto in the early 70s - so of course i had to pick quebec. for more than half my time in front of the class, all i could do was go on about mordecai richler. the jacob two-two tv show had recently taken over my life, and at home i would look up to find my dad's copy of barney's version on his bookshelf, listening as he would go on about how good the film adaptation of duddy kravitz was to me.
being jewish in toronto can at times feel like being a montreal jew, twice removed. the city looms large in the collective memory, both of my family and of canada itself - listening to stories of my dad growing up in snowdon, going to the cinema and the deli beside it, feels as definitive to me as reading richler's characters trudge up and down st. urbain. you know the exact spots to go, which bakeries have the best bagels, who attended which public school, and all the gossip of mcgill alumni, even if they are six hours away. the city has been idolized as a key originating point for so long that it feels intrinsic to canadian jewish identity, and seeing richler give the same treatment to the rest of the country and it's tales is an absolute delight.
gursky spans generations, and the points of genealogy can be hazy at best. but instead of seeming lackadaisical, it feels true to life. moses berger's unrelenting research to fill in the gaps of such an infuriating family is compounded by complications even further than the circumstances - rampant alcoholism, mysterious disappearances, and relationships so fragmented it's a wonder the whole mctavish enterprise can stay afloat. it's well deserving of its 540 pages - for all its cyclicity, revisionist history, and undeniable personality.