he was always a brace of honest raw
provocative he got made people very
angry Mordecai Richler is one of the
most famous and polarizing figures ever
in Canadian literature hi I’m Rebecca
Braden and welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’re speaking with richler
biographer charles foreign about the man
and to learn more about the surprising
things he found out while he was writing
Mordecai the life and times let’s start
by having you explained to us who
exactly more diverse oh it was great
Montreal novelist provocator social
commentator critic born in 1931 died in
2001 and in his day was certainly the
leading and most admired Canadian
novelist until his death which was a bit
premature he was 7 years old when he
died what was his impact as an author he
wrote out of his own experience he wrote
out of his own worldview and also rooted
and I think in his identity is a Jewish
montrealer and in the sense himself as
part of a larger tradition of Jewish
diasporic Jewish writing comedic writing
same looks similar to Saul Bellow Philip
Roth people who aren’t really as much
known or read by Canadians so even
though he’s central to Canadian
literature he’s also kind of off there
on his own tell us about some of his
most notable works richest two greatest
books are Salman Gurkhas here and his
final novel barney’s version barney’s
version is probably the people’s choice
right now and there’s a movie coming out
as well made from it it’s his warmest
most humane it’s about mortality it’s
about an old man fighting Alzheimer’s
while maintaining his very fierce
identity it’s lovely and it is a good
place to start with Mordecai Richler if
you don’t know his work for me Salman
Girsky is the greater novel on his
greatest novel you know it’s more
convoluted and complex as nine plots
over 200 years and it’s a big
challenging exciting funny novel that
really inverts Canadian history I read
that he made Canada cool can you explain
the sentiment Canada for a long time and
maybe even today in some places like
it’s a New York it’s considered a bit
sleepy if it stayed a bit conservative
Canadians are nice Mordecai Richler was
not necessarily nice what he was was
always interesting he was always
combative he spoke his mind what goes on
very little excitement in Canada
and it’s a small country and if you’re
an English speaking canadian there’s
certainly no capital the cultural
capitals are either New York or London
you loved her you hated what Mordecai
Richler said sometimes you loved his
novels and you didn’t like his
journalists and sometimes you loved his
journalism you didn’t like his novels
you always had an opinion what would you
say is the most surprising thing you
learned about Richler it was it was
about the private man it was about the
fact that it for his friends for his
children for his wife he was a gentle
and decent man who’s a mensch he was
even called sweet by women who knew him
these are not words I associate with
mark pirates before I began this book
because I knew that public guy who was
abrasive was intimidating who could be a
little abrupt but even rude and was
unapologetic so to learn that this other
man that was held so dearly by those
close to him that was the great
revelation and I had to UM I did in a
sense reconcile the two and i ended up
simply what about what i think is just a
portrait of a complex personality
unresolved full of conflict comfortable
with the contradictions and that of
course is terrific biographical material
thank you very much you’re very welcome
provocative he got made people very
angry Mordecai Richler is one of the
most famous and polarizing figures ever
in Canadian literature hi I’m Rebecca
Braden and welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we’re speaking with richler
biographer charles foreign about the man
and to learn more about the surprising
things he found out while he was writing
Mordecai the life and times let’s start
by having you explained to us who
exactly more diverse oh it was great
Montreal novelist provocator social
commentator critic born in 1931 died in
2001 and in his day was certainly the
leading and most admired Canadian
novelist until his death which was a bit
premature he was 7 years old when he
died what was his impact as an author he
wrote out of his own experience he wrote
out of his own worldview and also rooted
and I think in his identity is a Jewish
montrealer and in the sense himself as
part of a larger tradition of Jewish
diasporic Jewish writing comedic writing
same looks similar to Saul Bellow Philip
Roth people who aren’t really as much
known or read by Canadians so even
though he’s central to Canadian
literature he’s also kind of off there
on his own tell us about some of his
most notable works richest two greatest
books are Salman Gurkhas here and his
final novel barney’s version barney’s
version is probably the people’s choice
right now and there’s a movie coming out
as well made from it it’s his warmest
most humane it’s about mortality it’s
about an old man fighting Alzheimer’s
while maintaining his very fierce
identity it’s lovely and it is a good
place to start with Mordecai Richler if
you don’t know his work for me Salman
Girsky is the greater novel on his
greatest novel you know it’s more
convoluted and complex as nine plots
over 200 years and it’s a big
challenging exciting funny novel that
really inverts Canadian history I read
that he made Canada cool can you explain
the sentiment Canada for a long time and
maybe even today in some places like
it’s a New York it’s considered a bit
sleepy if it stayed a bit conservative
Canadians are nice Mordecai Richler was
not necessarily nice what he was was
always interesting he was always
combative he spoke his mind what goes on
very little excitement in Canada
and it’s a small country and if you’re
an English speaking canadian there’s
certainly no capital the cultural
capitals are either New York or London
you loved her you hated what Mordecai
Richler said sometimes you loved his
novels and you didn’t like his
journalists and sometimes you loved his
journalism you didn’t like his novels
you always had an opinion what would you
say is the most surprising thing you
learned about Richler it was it was
about the private man it was about the
fact that it for his friends for his
children for his wife he was a gentle
and decent man who’s a mensch he was
even called sweet by women who knew him
these are not words I associate with
mark pirates before I began this book
because I knew that public guy who was
abrasive was intimidating who could be a
little abrupt but even rude and was
unapologetic so to learn that this other
man that was held so dearly by those
close to him that was the great
revelation and I had to UM I did in a
sense reconcile the two and i ended up
simply what about what i think is just a
portrait of a complex personality
unresolved full of conflict comfortable
with the contradictions and that of
course is terrific biographical material
thank you very much you’re very welcome
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