Solomon Gursky Was Here

Markham, Ontario, Canada: Viking, 1989. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Gerard Gauci (Jacket illustration), and Nigel Dick. [14], 557, [5] pages. DJ has several small chips to edges. Signed by the author, Mordecai Richler, on the page opposite the title page. From a family of famous bootleggers turned legitimate, Solomon Gursky chose a path very different from that of his two brothers, Bernard the rambunctious businessman, and Morrie, the weak-willed mediator. Kidnapped by his enigmatic grandfather and taken to the Polar Sea when he was a youth, Solomon learns survival and a peculiar mysticism in the North--a mysticism that surrounds him all his life. Moses Berger, son of the failed poet L.B. Berger, was very young when he first heard the name that would become both quest and curse to him...Solomon Gursky. Shattering the facade of lies the Gursky family has built around themselves, Moses becomes obsessed with discovering the secrets of Solomon's startling, almost mythical, life. Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 - July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959) and Barney's Version (1997). His 1970 novel St. Urbain's Horseman and 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He is also well known for the Jacob Two-Two children's fantasy series. In addition to his fiction, Richler wrote numerous essays about the Jewish community in Canada, and about Canadian and Quebec nationalism. Richler's Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! (1992), a collection of essays about nationalism and anti-Semitism, generated considerable controversy. Exploring the boundaries of imagination with a new and daring scope, Mordecai Richler mesmerizes us with his creation of an unconventional Arctic, Jewish, financial and alcoholic history; peopled with the funniest and most endearing rogues, heroes and heroines we are ever likely to meet. Ranging from the underworld of 19th century London, through the Franklin Expedition to the Arctic, to Prohibition years on the prairies and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Solomon Gursky Was Here is a grand, uncommonly rich tale told by a first-rate storyteller. The novel tells of several generations of the fictional Gursky family, who are connected to several disparate events in the history of Canada, including the Franklin Expedition and rum-running. Some fans and critics have cited this as Mordecai Richler's best book, and in terms of scope and style it is unmatched by his other works. The parallels between the Gursky family and the Bronfmans are such that the novel "may be seen as a thinly disguised account of the [Bronfman] family". While Richler himself denied any similarities, "one longtime Bronfman associate put it, 'I don't know why Mordecai bothered to change the names.'" The tale centers on Moses Berger, an alcoholic failed writer who is obsessed with Solomon Gursky, the brother of Bernard and Morrie and absent from the family empire after a fatal plane crash. It is implied that it is disappointment with his own father, the failed poet L. B. Berger, with whom Moses has a deeply dysfunctional relationship that put him on the trail of Solomon, a character as strong-willed as he was mysterious. Solomon Gursky is told in a nonlinear fashion, jumping around in both Moses' personal timeline as well as through four generations of the legendary Gursky family. Though much of the story is told from Moses' perspective, parts are also told from the perspectives of different members of the family and the people attached to them, creating a much more ambiguous picture of the Gurskys. Derived from a Kirkus review: Richler's novels are exuberant, stew-like affairs, and this one is no exception, with especial tang. An alcoholic Montreal writer named Moses Berger is writing a book about the Gursky family, founders and owners of the McTavish Distillers. Actually, the book tries to get a fix on the most shadowy of the original three Gursky brothers--Solomon, who seems to have been both the imp and the hero of the family. And what a family! Clever, greedy, funny, and in the oddest way very shtetl-like, totally interwoven into the Montreal Jewish community with its muttering provincialism and emotional generosity. Berger traces the family back to the patriarch, Ephraim, a crook thrown out of England and landing in the Arctic, where he assumed a Messianic position among the local Eskimos, who became crypto-Jews. This is funny stuff, but funnier still is the acid portraiture of the social waves that the latter-day Gurskys give off. No one can do a Jewish social function better than Richler, and there's a testimonial dinner here that's priceless--as well as an affectionate but Hogarth-like look at amateur synagogue literary pretensions. The comedy remains constant and effortless. A lot of fun.