The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
SynopsisPlot
Duddy -- the third generation of a Jewish immigrant family in Montreal -- is combative, amoral, scheming, a liar, and totally hilarious. From his street days tormenting teachers at the Jewish academy to his time hustling four jobs at once in a grand plan to "be somebody," Duddy learns about living -- and the lesson is an outrageous roller-coaster ride through the human comedy. As Richler turns his blistering commentary on love, money, and politics, The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz becomes a lesson for us all...in laughter and in life.
Story
About this book
Duddy Kravitz grows up in a working-class Jewish household in Montreal, the third generation of an immigrant family. Restless and sharp-tongued, he is set on becoming somebody. The novel follows him from school days at a Jewish academy, where he already schemes and torments teachers, into a frantic adult life of overlapping jobs and deals across the city.
His rise is short and dubious, fueled by charm, cunning and a willingness to cut corners. Along the way he watches a series of older figures who act as informal mentors, observing how they live and borrowing whatever suits his own plans. His relationships with family, friends and business contacts shift as his ambitions grow bolder and more expensive.
Mordecai Richler places the story against wider pressures of money, class and antisemitism, and against the demands that arrive with adulthood. Duddy is written as combative, amoral and often very funny, a character whose energy carries the comedy while the cost of his methods keeps surfacing in the people around him. The satire takes in love, money and politics as much as one young man's plans.
