The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Richler, Mordecai. Published by Little, Brown and Company, An Atlantic Monthly Press Book, Boston, 1959. First Edition. 8vo up to 9½” tall., 377pp. Black boards with white spine titles. Tiny inked name to free endpaper and tiny bookseller’s label to rear pastedown, light toning. Unclipped jacket with price of $4.50. Residue tape marks to inside of jacket from removed old sleeve protector. In very good condition.
“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is the novel that established Mordecai Richler as one of the world’s best comic writers. Growing up in the heart of Montreal’s Jewish ghetto, Duddy Kravitz is obsessed with his grandfather’s saying, “A man without land is nothing.” In his relentless pursuit of property and his drive to become a somebody, he will wheel and deal, he will swindle and forge, he will even try making movies. And in spite of the setbacks he suffers, the sacrifices he must make along the way, Duddy never loses faith that his dream is worth the price he must pay. This blistering satire traces the eventful coming-of-age of a cynical dreamer. Amoral, inventive, ruthless, and scheming, Duddy Kravitz is one of the most magnetic anti-heroes in literature, a man who learns the hard way that dreams are never exactly what they seem, even when they do come true.” Made into a 1974 film under the same title and starring Richard Dreyfuss as Duddy.
