The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

The bookseller Owlsbooks professionally addressed and corrected a concern I had about the quality of the book sent to me. They took my concern seriously and promptly resolved it. Thank you Owlsbooks. I will not hesitate to show with you again.

I enjoyed the book. I acquired it as part of a book club. Kravitz was in many ways an 'everyman' who faced tragedies, albeit almost all minor, growing up in a semi-dysfunctional family. We can all pull out some behaviors NOT to follow and some life lessons learned.The physical book spine was not the best with several loose pages, but that did not interfere with my read.

This book touched on two very important nostalgic points for me: the landscape of Montreal life and the struggle of the "American" dream (in Canada).Duddy is a ruthless character and the hardships of his life are the only master of his apprenticeship. The book made me question which relationships we can trust and which relationships are in fact business-deals, meant to achieve some sort of aim beyond just companionship. Duddy is an optimist, a swindler, a cast-away and a whole lot like my cheap ex-boyfriend. I don't know if every reader will resonate with the story, but I would read the book again and others by Richler.I particularly enjoyed the dialogue and use of colloquialisms from the time during which the story takes place (40s?).

One of our resident geniuses in book group chose this book for no discernable reason that I can ascertain. I was a little excited having grown up becoming acquainted with Richard Dreyfus through this role in the 70s. The book may be a "Canadian Icon" but it is beyond annoying. The characters are stereotypical and only the lead character is approached with any depth. You will not be happy with the depth. The kindest thing I can say about Duddy is that he is diligent. But the obnoxiousness of he and the other characters, does not portray Jewish culture in a flattering way. Perhaps this is what Mordecai Richler experienced. If so, I certainly do not envy him. This is simply a terrible book.

I fell upon this one through one of my English classes. Honestly it's a great book. The protagonist, Duddy, seems as vile as any other villainous character, but one must try to see why he is the way he is. By doing that, the reader can gain an understanding of the major themes within the book; greed & wealth, education, family connections, immigration, and the book particularly is centered around a Jewish community. It's a great piece to sit down and read from cover to cover.

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is the best known novel by one of Canada's preeminent authors. In Duddy, Mordecai Richler has created an unforgettable character. Duddy is an ambitious, driven young man from Montreal's St Urbain's district who will do anything to get ahead, but at what cost?

Duddy Kravitz is a story very very close to Budd Schulberg's earlier work, What Makes Sammy Run? The main difference is that Shulberg went on to tell much better stories (the films On the Waterfront, and A Face in the Crowd).

Well-told tale about a boy who focuses all his efforts on one goal... It really made me think. Bravo!

Few novels about North America have entranced me like this one, throughout the sparse,intelligent dialogue and wry,ironic prose canadian author Mordecai Richler captures his subject matter well.The subject is forties Montreal,deep in French Canada,where the events in the lives of the jewish hero Duddy and his family are central. Bittersweet and sometimes tragic, the actions moves between the greatest canadian metropolis "the largest inland port in the world" and the Laurentians mountains where Duddy hopes to buy some land.One invaluable history lesson from this novel was to discover the strong and vibrant jewish communites that exist in Montreal and Toronto.One of the finest Canadian novels I have read. This novel was written in 1959

perfect

Wine of the great comic novels.

This my second (or perhaps third) time exploring the world as it exists for a teenage Duddy Kravitz. There has been a considerable gap in time between these, but I must say I found this latest experience more revealing in terms of story nuances, That, of course, may simply be because I am older and have acquired a better understanding of what ambition can do to some people.Duddy Kravitz is not a nice person, and although there are occasional glimmers of hope that he might change, greed constantly overpowers any decency he may possess and leads to destruction of countless relationships, even those that he had always deeply cherished.Although I did not find DK very likeable (I wouldn't want him anywhere near my sister), he certainly provides an interesting study of those things that compose the essentials of human existence.

I didn't;t know what to expect from the book, as I've watched the film many, many times. What I found, was that the book ran faster than the film; it kept you in suspense as to how 19 year old kid would "pull it off". It was interesting to lead up to each incident in the book, already knowing the plot line. Details in the book were dealt with more concisely. This is the 4th Mordecai Richler book that I've read this month, and this is the easiest to follow.