solomon gursky was here

There were times when I believed "Solomon Gursky Was Here" would collapse under the weight of some many time lines, characters, and emotional baggage...it's the novel equivalent of the most exquisitely constructed Jenga tower...ready to topple over at any moment. Overall. The main flaw — noticeable in my rereading 30 years after initial publication — is Richler's tendency to drift from witty, incisive satire to clumsy and contemptuous sideswipes. Publication date 1998 Topics Explorers -- Fiction, Families -- Fiction, Explorers, Families Publisher Toronto : Penguin Books Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation Contributor Internet Archive Language I didn't care for the book but it's well written. What a hard book to rate ! After reading "Gursky", throw any such doubts into the dustbin. Berger, is in the grips of an obsession. 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. January 29th 2002 I'm not sure why, but I wasn't expecting to enjoy it - perhaps because being assigned a nearly 600-page novel in the last few weeks of my degree is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow. Winner of the 1990 Commonwealth Writers Prize, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1990 Since the age of 11, Moses Berger has been obsessed with the Gursky clan, an insanely wealthy, profoundly seductive family of Jewish-Canadian descent. Of course I should have said yes.”, Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book Overall (1990), See 2 questions about Solomon Gursky Was Here…, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family, A Debut Novelist's 2020 Reading that Mirrors Our Timeline. Mordecai Richler was an acclaimed Canadian novelist and essayist born in Montreal in 1931. I do wish Morrie's character had been developed a bit more on the page instead of realizing there was so much more to him after the fact. I was expecting something a lot more coherent out of a man who was supposedly one of the great Canadian novelists. The story freewheels through cannibalism, religious beliefs, alcohol running during the prohibition and the search of Moses Berger for a father to replace his own (who found his son to be too much of a threat). Refresh and try again. What a mess! He can be quite funny, yes, and I like the idea of a Jewish trickster. Janofsky, J: "Whiskey sour: a great family saga full of booze, ambition … and shame", Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solomon_Gursky_Was_Here&oldid=1001336734, Articles needing additional references from July 2010, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 19 January 2021, at 07:01. The way the story was told took a bit to get into, and some of the time jumping was jarring at times, but the Gursky family's intrigue was fascinating. But in the end, you can't help being pulled in the whirlwind that are the Three Gursky Brothers and their grandfather Ephraïm. Regardless of what its author may actually have experienced, ''Solomon Gursky Was Here'' reads as if it were great fun to write. Berger, is in the grips of an obsession. Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang. The Gursky family with its colourful bootlegging history, its bizarre connections with the North and the Inuit, and its wildly eccentric relations, both fascinates and infuriates him. Solomon Gursky Was Here Now a 52-year-old alcoholic biographer, Berger is desperately trying to chronicle the stories of their lives, especially that of the mysterious Solomon Gursky, who may or may not have died in a plane crash. See guidelines for writing about novels. Berger, the son of a Jewish poet, a drunkard and an unsuccessful writer, particularly searches for traces of Solomon Gursky, the most enigmatic of the three Gursky brothers who saw the rise of their family’s fortune during the prohibition years as bootleggers and rumrunners. He lay in state for two days in the lobby of the Bernard Gursky Tower and, as he failed to rise on the third, he was duly buried.”, “It seems to me that our lives are consumed by countless wasting years, but only a few shining moments. Ranging from the underworld of nineteenth-century London, through the Franklin expedition to the Arctic, to the Prohibition years on the prairies and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Solomon Gursky Was Here is a grand, uncommonly rich tale from one of Canada's best storytellers. He calls people to reform and become religious. Solomon Gursky Was Here. The joke-filled saga of the devious and occasionally vicious Gursky clan revolves around a serious theme: This is the only Canadian novel Canada I can think of might be called an epic. User ratings. Winner of the 1990 Commonwealth Writers Prize, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 1990. Five generations of Gurskys, interspersed with Berger's own growing realisation that he was never the fisherman, but always the fish, caught and played and made to dance across the water by Solomon, the central figure, whose mysterious death provides the narrative drive. 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. Solomon Gursky Was Here is a novel by Canadian author Mordecai Richler first published by Viking Canada in 1989. It may fall just short of that status and more closely fit the way an original review in Maclean's magazine described it: "a comic myth." Now make it one of the most suspenseful, fascinating and hilarious thing you've ever read. I find it pretty infuriating when an author does that. 5 quotes from Solomon Gursky Was Here: ‘Mr. The main flaw — noticeable in my rereading 30 years after initial publication — is Richler's tendency to drift from witty, incisive satire to clumsy and contemptuous sideswipes. A certain amount of tenacity is a prerequisite for the reader; it took me until part five, a good 300 pages in, before the characters began to come together and hold a place in my mind, before I began to see a pattern emerging. Buy a cheap copy of Solomon Gursky Was Here book by Mordecai Richler. We’d love your help. “Mr. He follows the family from Victorian London to the wastes of Canada and to the fleshpots of London and Oxford. From inside the book . This was shortlisted for the Booker prize. Mordecai Richler. But the rest was great. The story is not told in a linear way, but bucks and switches between time and place, from Canada to China and all points between, mixing legend and truth, mixing Jewish and Inuit mythology. Novels with this kind of structure just aren't my thing. but it all too quickly turned into a shambles. It was also not completely definitive what had happened which left me somewhat unsatisfied. This is the story of the founding of a family dynasty through the eyes of an outside chronicler, Moses Berger, who is the son of a poet who the family supported. I enjoyed this book a lot. The first edition of the novel was published in 1989, and was written by Mordecai Richler. What listeners say about Solomon Gursky Was Here. Solomon Gursky himself is a bit of a conundrum, a redeemer but also a Gursky through and through. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. This article about a historical novel of the 1980s is a stub. The length! Yes is what I should have said. Since I don’t share Richler’s obsessions with wealth, big boobs and knockdowns of Quebecois culture, I found the book a slog. Luther Hollis shoots down a big bird in Magog with his trusty Springfield rifle. This truly is an astonishing read, and shows a depth & breadth of reach that many people might not have believed Mr. To see what your friends thought of this book. The build up to knowing what had happened to Solomon, the way the story of Ephraim was woven into it all. I think as late as the final few chapters, Richler was STILL introducing new characters!! Novels with this kind of structure just aren't my thing. Richler's other novels are much tighter. But the rest was great. The tale centres 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. The main problems (aside from the obvious time-jumps and POV skips) were the self-indulgent twaddle (to give an example, Richler's gratuitous depiction of Eastern Township bars and their patrons, something that might be akin to "local colour" but went on far too long, pages of the stuff that are ultimately meaningless), the loss of the mythological and emergence of the farcical or cartoonish (had this not been written pre-1989, I would have sworn Mr. Bernard was taken directly from Montgomery Burns in The Simpsons), and Richler's apparent inability to write convincing female characters, which seems to rival Cormac McCarthy's ineptitude (e.g., the introduction to Beatrice's character reveals her as a "raven-haired beauty, with breasts too rudely full for such a trim figure and coal-black eyes that shone with too much appetite.") Not have believed Mr written by Mordecai Richler, Mordecai: Penguin PutnamBerger, son of Gursky... 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And well written me interested in checking out more of his work hilarious thing you ever... What your friends thought of this book 's ambitious, epic novel manages to hold together with stunning.... Download or read online Solomon Gursky was Here: ‘ Mr Here uses some basic myths for its power Radio. And Mordechai Richler 's most ambitious & epic novel manages to hold together with stunning.. Helpful, but I found I wanted to move into the worlds created. I was expecting something a lot more coherent out of moses ' grasp, but all! With this preview of, published January 29th 2002 by Penguin Canada testament of Jewish... The polestar that sets much of this back on course I do n't generally have a time! While we sign you in to your Goodreads account as want to read: Error book... 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