Review: St. Urbain's Horseman

St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall I would say that this is a book about heroes and how they do and do not help a person deal with their life. It took me a while to figure out what was going on in this book, it seemed to just wander for quite a while but, as with Barney's Version, once I adjusted to the lack of linear plot and just went with it things got better. I thought the generational position of the characters, they are a bit older than the baby boomers, was very similar to Gen-X in being ahead of a huge cohort. Jake provided a good perspective on the world around him as he was between a lot of different cultural groups (British and Canadian, 2 generations, the film world and his old neighborhood, Jews and Gentiles, etc.). Once again Duddy Kravitz is a character--I really need to read his story.

This book counts toward the Canadian Book Challenge and is 10/13 with less than a month to go.