Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler, photo courtesy of The Star

Montreal writer Mordecai Richler (1931-2001) took it as his literary mission to portray a third solitude unnoticed by Hugh Maclennan. Richler wrote about the city's Jews with realism and biting humour, earned him disapprobation as well as many prizes. His honours include an Oscar nomination, a Screenwriter's Guild award, the Governor General's Award (twice), the Leacock Medal for Humour, and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

As Christoper McCreery reports, he declined the Order of Canada twice before accepting it in 2000, shortly before he died.

Sunday night at 8:00 Bravo! will air a documentary about this contrarian writer who was loved and hated, who lived in London while writing about Montreal, and frequently scandalized his fellow Montreal Jews by his tales of gritty realism. The film title is The Last of the Wild Jews.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, St. Urbain's Horsemen, and Barney's Version (film version 2010) are perhaps his most important novels. He was also a witty and incisive essayist and a writer of brilliant short stories. A great favourite of mine is the psychological tragedy "Benny, the war in Europe, and Myerson's daughter Bella."

His film and movie work also earned much praise. The short NFB film "Mortimer Griffin and Shalinsky," set in Montreal shortly after World War II, is a tragicomic portrait of a man who tries to deny his Jewish heritage. Observing the ordinary, flawed and utterly believable characters, the watcher laughs with rueful recognition and is left thinking about ethnic prejudice and the profound complexities of identity and self-definition.

I have few regrets in life, but one of them concerns Mordecai Richler. Many years ago I volunteered for the Vancouver Writers' Festival and missed a chance of picking him up at the airport. I can still imagine what a pleasure and privilege it would have been to have an hour in a car listening to this brilliant man talk.