THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, August 10, 1984 35
BOOKS
Jewish author puts Canada's
future in line with its past
BY JOSEPH COHEN
"'FAKE TWO" VIDEO TAPING
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. Special to The Jewish News
Why is visiting the Cana- of eight left Lachine, has always been "street-
dian Exhibit at the New Or- Quebec, when his family smart"
in the sense that is
leans World's Fair and read- moved to Chicago. Other obviously
his Jewish up-
ing Mordecai Richter's new Canadian Jews who have bringing
that best ,informs
book Home Sweet Home: My been widely recognized are his writing.
As Philip Roth
Canadian Album (Alfred A. A.M. Klein, no longer alive,
has
repeatedly
returned to
Knopf) like peering into and Leonard Cohen. But Newark and Isaac
Bashevis
both ends of a telescope Richler is today the pre- Singer
to Lublin and War-
simultaneously? It is be- eminent Canadian Jewish saw, so Richler must con-
cause the Canadian goven- author. He is best known for tinually go home to
ment's exhibit over- two novels The Apprentice- Montreal and St. Urbain's
enlarges Canada while ship of Duddy Kravitz and Street. He is probably its
Richler under-enhances it. St. Urbain's Horseman. His most intrepid horseman.
The exhibit, consisting of most recent novel was
It comes, then, as no sur-
a slide presentation and a Joshua Then and Now. Less prise that he returns to it in
movie, the latter shown on a well known are some early Home Sweet Home. In the
three-story screen, cleverly novels of which the best is opening essay "Home Is
balances modern skyscrap- Son of a Smaller Hero. An- Where You Hang Yourself,"
ers against ancient moun- other work, Cocksure, he explains that he had to
tains and busy city streets achieved a good deal of come back, after two de-
against rustic waterways notoriety because of its cades in London as a suc-
where the canoe was once bawdiness. Some of Rich- cessful screen-writer and
king, pushing Canada's fu- ler's best writing, apart free-lancer, because he
ture out of the past. The from St. Urbain's Horse- needed to get back in touch
movie is a spectacular opti-
with his roots. Those roots
cal illusion: the viewer lit-
are explored in "My
erally tilts, weaves and "Home Sweet
Father's Life" and "St. Ur-
turns in the seat of a surg-
bain Street Then and Now."
ing, throbbing helicopter as Home: My
While he was living in
it follows the contours of
England, Richler was de-
Canadian
rivers and streams, swerv-
scribed as "twice-exiled,"
ing and swooping, its rotary Album" by
being Jewish and Cana-
blades visible only in per-
dian. It takes no great
Mordecai
ceptible swirling shadows
stretch of the imagination
cast along the top edge of Richler,
to recognize that Leopold
the huge screen.
Bloom was also "twice-
While the film subtly published by
exiled" in Joyce's Ulysses.
argues that all this beauty Alfred A. Knopf
For Jews in the Diaspora,
and braininess is the har-
real or fictional, being twice
binger of graspable great-
exiled is exceedingly useful
ness, about to be seized by
in developing binocular
the Canadian populace, man, to be found in The vision. Which brings us
Home Sweet Home ironi- Street, a collection of semi- back to telescopes and a
cally insists that decline autobiographical stories, concluding observation that
and failure are more likely, first published in 1968. The with binocular vision Rich-
as a result of Canada's con- "street," is St. Urbain, the ler has done for Canada
tinuing provincialism, its Hester Street of Montreal what Joyce did for Israel.
painful ambivalence and for many years the cen- That is no small accom-
towards the United States, ter of East European Jewish plishment.
and its Separatist problems. immigrant life in Canada.
About St. Urbain Richler Copyright 1984 Joseph Cohen
Richter's book closes on the
downbeat note that
"Canada has taken a rain-
check on the 20th Century,"
pulling its future back into
NEWS
the past.
Richter's talent as a
writer is superb. This collec-
tion of mainly journalistic
pieces, with interspersed
anecdotes and reminis-
cences, is filled with wit,
comedy, good sense, insight
and candor. There is a lot of
New York — American
candor. Frequently, the strategic interests in the that American long-term
call for encoruag-
book leaves the ephemeral Middle East would best be interests
ing
Iran
to
re-establish ties
boundaries of journalism to served by a policy of strict with the West
after the
cross the more permanent neutrality in the Iran-Iraq passing of the Khomeini
re-
borders of literature. Soar- war in place of the current
ing above what his distin- "tilt" toward Iraq, according gime.
The primary U.S. objec-
guished countrymen, the to a report by American tive
should be "to
literary critic Northrup Jewish Congress.
strengthen
those groups in
Frye, called the "garrison
Characterizing the four-
most likely to succeed
mentality of Canadian year-old conflict as "grue- Iran
the report de-
writers," Richler has been a some," the study, published the mullahs,"
noting that the most
self-appointed minister by the organization's Com- clares,
pro-Western groups
without portfolio to the mission on International likely
are the regular military
Canadian conscience, not to Affairs, says the war ap- forces
and the middle class.
everybody's pleasure. Cer- pears to be unwinnable by
"There are clear indica-
tainly, to ours. Somebody either side. It contends that tions
many members of
once called him Canada's to a large extent the United these that
groups would eagerly
"Jewish Diogenes."
States favors Iraq because restore Iran to the Western
Whether Richler is a of frustration and humilia- camp if the United States
modern-day Diogenes is de- tion over the 1979-1981 hos- were to make it possible for
batable; that he is Canada's tage crisis and last year's them to do so," contends the
best-known contemporary assault on the Marines' report, which is entitled,
Jewish writer is not, if we compound in Beirut.
"The, Iran-Iraq War: Op-
The tilt toward Iraq, says tons for the United States
except another native, son,
Sant l3ellow,,who at the, age, thQ report,, ignPreP the. fact and Israel."
"Michigan's Most Popular Video Team"
JERRY RUCKERT 559-4380
STEVE. SPITZ 557-6884
Coming Soon
Bruce M. Weiss
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Next To The Gold Place
in Mayfair Shops
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Formerly of Al-Kay Jewelers, Bruce M. Weiss
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LOOK FOR SEPTEMBER OPENING
,
U.S„ policy toward Iraq
criticized in AJC report
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Let us join together at the
historic Commemoration
dedicating the:
Holocaust
Memorial
Center
•
6602 West Maple Road
West Bloomfield, Michigan 48033
Paul Borman
General Dinner Chairman
Holocaust Memorial Center is the largest
teaching facility and library of its kind in North
America.. It stands as a continuing memorial to those
who perished in the Holocaust, and as a living
monument to European Jewish culture.
1 4
1
„
REMEMBER
Dinner
The Westin Hotel
Sunday, September 16, 1984
6:00 p.m.
•
For Reservations please call
(313) 661-0840