I thought it was alright. Not as good as Richler's other works. Same comedic themes mixed with coarseness and dark humor. ( )

I enjoyed Richler's portrayal of the character and ideas, and the context of Montreal and London - all evocative and relatively familiar. ( )

Although I got a good start on this novel by page 140 it was wearing thin. I decided to move on to a more entertaining read. ( )

Tralla-lì, tralla-lero. Si balla di nuovo, con queste vite sgangherate di ebrei canadesi, dove i dialoghi sono dialoghi e non giustapposizioni di frasi, dove le tappezzerie odorano di cibo, e sciami di scapestrate picoole canaglie fanno vite di strada invidiabili. Nota a pedale, la guerra aldilà dell'Oceano, la consapevolezza e l'alterigia della propria 'diversità', un sogno di vita ancora tutto da costruire. ( )

I'm giving this one four stars for its merits as a character-driven novel. Richler really buries us deep inside the head of Jake Hersh, an expat Canadian film director living in London, as he contemplates his life to date. When the story begins he is embroiled in a scandalous trial along with probably the scuzziest fellow I've read about in a while, and Jake looks back on everything that has happened to bring him to this point. A recurring figure in his thoughts is his cousin Joey, whom he dubs the "Horseman", avenging wrongs and living a life of derring-do, but whose exact whereabouts are unknown.

As I mentioned, the character of Jake is very well realized. He reminded me a bit of Barney Panofsky from Barney's Version, perhaps because both characters are prompted to take stock of their lives because of allegations made against them, and both have near-mythical figures haunting them from their pasts. Both novels also feature frank depictions of sex and aging (the sex depictions were a little *too* frank for me, personally, but that is what speed-reading is for). However, the humour in this one is not as overt as in Barney's Version. It's still there of course, but Jake is not as gleefully vindictive as Barney is.

Overall I would recommend this for people who like character-driven novels and those who have enjoyed previous works by Mordecai Richler, especially The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. (Duddy does make several appearances, at one point prompting me to wonder whether I'd picked up the wrong book.) ( )