Book Description
Ed is punchy, unemployed, and on the wrong side of thirty. After his exasperated wife, Victoria, leaves him, Ed finds consolation where he has always found it, in his own rich and eccentric imagination. Pursued by the demons of his own obsession, Ed embarks on a quixotic quest to find Victoria. As he prowls the city’s parking garages and motel strips, Ed begins a journey back into his past and is forced – most reluctantly – to confront the web of lies and self-deceptions he has woven to keep reality at bay – until even his fantasies start to turn against him. Keenly observant, humane, and darkly comic, My Present Age is an irresistible story about what happens when an Everyman becomes a casualty of modern life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a novel about losing your way in life
This book takes the characters and themes of the last two stories in Man Descending (a collection of short stories by Vanderhaeghe) and expands them into a full length novel. As his protagonist pursues an obsessive and hopeless quest to reunite with his ex wife, Vanderhaeghe explores the themes of disquiet, losing your way in modern society and a life that peaks too early. The uniqueness of My Present Age is that it features a character who should, by all means, be a very successful member of society and yet is living a life that is slowly deteriorating out of control. It is an often overlooked character type, unknown to those who assume that intelligence engenders success. Vanderhaeghe uses a straightforward, yet elegent, writing style to show that it is easy to lose your way in the modern world if you have never truly learned how to live in it. A good balance is struck between examining where individuals fail and where the sometimes ludicrously absurd nature of our society fails.

My Present Age Review
This multiple award winning, unforgettable, Canadian novel is a fictional story about one man's downward sloped life. Ed, a unwealthy yet educated school teacher in his late 30's, had hopes of persuing a virtuous lifeliving with his wife Victoria while seeking employment in the writingbusiness. However, after a short marriage, the wedded couple separated.This seems to a milestone in Ed's life as he now spends countless hourstrying to track down his ex-wife, whom is bearing his only child.

Heresides directly above an elderly and irritating individual named Mr.McMurtry that seems to devote his entire retired life to pestering Ed. Itappears that he will not halt until Ed has lost all mental health fromlistening to numberless hours of his poor choice in music or has beenkicked out of the apartment complex all together. Nevertheless, Edcontinues his search for Victoria. Risking his flourishing profession,friends, and both mental and physical health to re-unite himself with whathe feels is his only achievement in life, Victoria.

This novel is asurprising dark, yet amusing drama written in first person. The use of acomplex mixture of both brief and elaborate sentances strongly describesthe setting and mood of every scene. The use of setting well defines Ed'strue living style and previous life experiences as the author explains inextreme detail everything from room odors, to what Ed is wearing on hisfeet. This truly helps to define each environment that Ed is placed in, andonly adds detail that helps us be transposed into Ed's environment.

A development of a theme is well exemplified when Ed is in perusal ofVictoria. He starts out by calling all close relatives in hopes that theymay lead him in the direction of his dreams. However, due to previousmishaps, nobody wants to assist him, and keep all information from him.This only adds to Ed's slowly declining downfall. He is then found roamingthe streets in his damaged, loud, out of style, yellow, Italian vehicle.This development of theme only increases thorough the novel. The authoruses the same techniques in many points in the book as we learn about thelife of Ed.

There are few situations where neither humor nor ironyis greatly used in the novel. In some most instances, the novel takes on aserious tone, as Ed goes from one crisis to another. However, in someinstances the author incorporates humor, such as when Ed seeks help fromhis intelligent friend Benny. Ed rudely interrupt's a business meeting andpretends to mishear Benny when asked to leave, as an invitation to sitdown. Ed continues the escapade for several minutes until Benny can take nomore nonsense and escorts Ed to the door with no more that a few words ofwisdom.

I feel that a notably strong point in this novel is it'sremarkable description in detail. The author soundly sets the scenes withnumberless amounts of fine points. This however does not seem to bore thetone of the novel, as each itemized account is required for trueunderstanding, and interruption of the novel. Despite all this detail,it only applies to scenery. I felt that character development was poor, asonly Ed, the main character, can truly be analyzed due to lack of detail insub characters. For example, we hear little about Victoria, Benny, Max, norMr. McMurtry, as more focus is on Ed himself. Despite this however, I feelMy Present Age was an excellent novel, a great story, and something I hopeto remember. ... Read more

Book Description
The ten stories gathered together in The Tomorrow-Tamer are Margaret Laurence’s first published fiction. Set in raucous and often terrifying Ghana, where shiny Jaguars and modern jazz jostle for eminence against fetish figures, tribal rites, and the unchanging beat of jungle drums, the stories tell of individuals, European and African, trying to come to terms with the frightening world brought about by the country’s new freedom.

With the same compassion and understanding she would bring to her later fiction set in Canada, Laurence succeeds brilliantly in capturing the atmosphere of a continent and of individual men and women struggling for survival under the impact of the wind of change.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Book Description
St. Urbain’s Horseman is a complex, moving, and wonderfully comic evocation of a generation consumed with guilt – guilt at not joining every battle, at not healing every wound. Thirty-seven-year-old Jake Hersh is a film director of modest success, a faithful husband, and a man in disgrace. His alter ego is his cousin Joey, a legend in their childhood neighbourhood in Montreal. Nazi-hunter, adventurer, and hero of the Spanish Civil War, Joey is the avenging horseman of Jake’s impotent dreams. When Jake becomes embroiled in a scandalous trial in London, England, he puts his own unadventurous life on trial as well, finding it desperately wanting as he steadfastly longs for the Horseman’s glorious return. Irreverent, deeply felt, as scathing in its critique of social mores as it is uproariously funny, St. Urbain’s Horseman confirms Mordecai Richler’s reputation as a pre-eminent observer of the hypocrisies and absurdities of modern life.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

The Intensity Builds as We Read
As a point of reference, I have read all of Richler's major works and a few of his early novellas. This was written after Richler's sexual obsession in his British phase and he tells an interesting story about a young film director from Montreal who has moved to Britain The novel follows from his wildly creative novel Cocksure which as story immersed in sexual obsession. This is a far tamer novel and it is longer and more substantial but less creative. Overall, it is among his best efforts.

Following on from the very liberated Cocksure, we see a much more conventional and down to earth Richler who has attempted to integrate British making with biographical elements from his own youth.

Modecai Richler (1931 to 2001) grew up in Montreal and that city is the setting for many of his stories - but not all. Many of his novels are about Jews living in Canada and Britain post WWII.

He is best known for his tales of life in and around St. Urbain Street. That is an area of three story buildings or walk up row houses located just east of the mountain in Montreal, and north of the commercial center of the city. At one time this was the center of Jewish immigrant life. Many Jews coming to Montreal started there but then moved on to Outrement, Hamstead, and other districts. His father was a scrap dealer and he graduated from a heavily Jewish high school, Baron Byng High School, which has other famous alumni including William Shatner of Star Trek fame. Some of the local establishments such as Schwartz's Deli on St. Laurent are still in business. He uses much of those biographical experiences in the book.

His break out novel is the present novel Duddy Kravitz which is still a great read whether you have seen the movie or not. Also, I like his last book, Barney's Vision, which is probably his most balanced and best written piece of work. That novel lacks the edge and drama of Duddy Kravitz. Along the way, he experimented with different themes and the use of sex in the plots, and usually he did that with a lot of humor as in Cocksure.

This book is among his best works and there must be a few parallels with Richter's own life. It is about a young and poorly educated Jewish boy (Richler never finished university himself and moved to Britain) who struggles in the Canadian TV business starting off as a stage hand and then eventually becoming a London based movie director. The protagonist, Jacob Hersh, is from the St. Urbain area of Montreal, and he has an unusual relation with his cousin Joey - who is the "horseman." Joey appears only once in the book when he visits Montreal, and spends most of his time traveling the world doing all sort of glamorous things from being a soldier, to actor, to baseball player. In reality, Joey is a bit of a con man but he is held in awe by Jacob.

This is an interesting story that gets better as we reach the end of the book.

Many of his critics claim that he re-cycles his characters and deals only with one topic, but in general his books are far from the predictable and this book is another example. That being said, Duddy Kravitz and even his father max appear in the novel, and Duddy more than once.

This is a good read which leaves the reader satisfied.

standard Mordecai Richler material = fascinating read
Mordecai Richler's novels are always a wild ride.In St. Urbain's Horseman we have the usual Richler pastiche of paranoid Jewish Montrealers struggling in a gentile world.As with his other novels, I sense that '..Horseman' has many biographical elements to it.Although teetering on being pretentious, '..Horseman' is easily salvaged by its fine characterizations and often hilarious prose.

'..Horseman' is a very rich, complex novel.It chronicles a young man who escapes squalor of Montreal and finds himself as a successful family man in swinging London, circa 1965.Unfortunately he finds himself tormented by the legend of his mysterious cousin (the "horseman") who seems to be larger than life (..a Nazi hunter in Paraguay?), and those with whom the cousin comes in contact with.It's all rather chaotic and often unbelievable.But thankfully the likes of Mordecai Richler pulls it all together somehow.


Bottom line: suspend your disbelief and enjoy this book.

Outstanding
A remarkable book, clever, interesting, and so well written that I often stopped just to marvel at how entertained I was.You'll be glad you got it.

I love Mordecai Richler
People of my parent's generation will always remember where they were when JFK was assasinated. Likewise, I'll always remember the day when I learned that Mordecai Richler had died. I was standing in the kitchen, making dinner, when it was announced on the CBC. I fell apart, and it's the only time I have ever cried over someone I didn't even know.
When people tell me that they've never heard of, or read, Mordecai Richler, I want to rail at the universe. He's simply the best there is - a novelist who was intelligent, comical, introspective, cynical, perceptive, heartfelt, brutally honest, and ultimately, unforgettable. Reading St.Urbain's Horseman saved me from a dismal semester in university. I was taking existentialist philosophy and sinking into gloom when I escaped into a story that was impossible to put down. I laughed out loud - so hard that I couldn't read. I could go on all day. Just read this book - I guarantee that you'll read it again. And then you'll have to read everything else Mordecai Richler wrote.
I wish there were more stories to look forward to.

Another Mordicai Richler Gem
The underappreciatednovelist Modicai Richler was every bit the master of Jewish comedic fiction as Phillip Roth.When it came to describing the emerging Canadian middle class in the 1950 and 60s Richler got it just right and left one roaring with laughter to boot. ... Read more