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St. Urbain's Horseman
Long considered one of Mordecai Richler’s most beloved and acclaimed novels, St. Urbain’s Horseman has now been adapted into a high-profile two-part CBC drama. The attention this star-studded and heavily promoted mini-series will receive will renew interest in the book among Richler fans and introduce many new readers to this modern classic, now available in this attractive tie-in edition.
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.
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.
504 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
39 people are currently reading
1194 people want to read
About the author
Mordecai Richler
87 books370 followersWorking-class Jewish background based novels, which include
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
(1959) and
Saint Urbain's Horseman
(1971), of Canadian writer Mordecai Richler.
People best know Barney's Version (1997) among works of this author, screenwriter, and essayist; people shortlisted his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-two stories of children.
A scrap yard dealer reared this son on street in the mile end area of Montréal. He learned Yiddish and English and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped before completing his degree.
Years later, Leah Rosenberg, mother of Richler, published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses birth and upbringing of Mordecai and the sometime difficult relationship.
Richler, intent on following in the footsteps of many of a previous "lost generation" of literary exiles of the 1920s from the United States, moved to Paris at age of 19 years in 1950.
Richler returned to Montréal in 1952, worked briefly at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then moved to London in 1954. He, living in London meanwhile, published seven of his ten novels as well as considerable journalism.
Worrying "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent", Richler returned to Montréal in 1972. He wrote repeatedly about the Jewish community of Montréal and especially portraying his former neighborhood in multiple novels.
In England in 1954, Richler married Catherine Boudreau, a French-Canadian divorcée nine years his senior. On the eve of their wedding, he met Florence Wood Mann, a young married woman, who smited him.
Some years later, Richler and Mann divorced and married each other. He adopted Daniel Mann, her son. The couple had five children together: Daniel, Jacob, Noah, Martha and Emma. These events inspired his novel Barney's Version.
Richler died of cancer.
People best know Barney's Version (1997) among works of this author, screenwriter, and essayist; people shortlisted his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) for the Man Booker Prize in 1990. He was also well known for the Jacob Two-two stories of children.
A scrap yard dealer reared this son on street in the mile end area of Montréal. He learned Yiddish and English and graduated from Baron Byng High School. Richler enrolled in Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University) to study English but dropped before completing his degree.
Years later, Leah Rosenberg, mother of Richler, published an autobiography, The Errand Runner: Memoirs of a Rabbi's Daughter (1981), which discusses birth and upbringing of Mordecai and the sometime difficult relationship.
Richler, intent on following in the footsteps of many of a previous "lost generation" of literary exiles of the 1920s from the United States, moved to Paris at age of 19 years in 1950.
Richler returned to Montréal in 1952, worked briefly at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then moved to London in 1954. He, living in London meanwhile, published seven of his ten novels as well as considerable journalism.
Worrying "about being so long away from the roots of my discontent", Richler returned to Montréal in 1972. He wrote repeatedly about the Jewish community of Montréal and especially portraying his former neighborhood in multiple novels.
In England in 1954, Richler married Catherine Boudreau, a French-Canadian divorcée nine years his senior. On the eve of their wedding, he met Florence Wood Mann, a young married woman, who smited him.
Some years later, Richler and Mann divorced and married each other. He adopted Daniel Mann, her son. The couple had five children together: Daniel, Jacob, Noah, Martha and Emma. These events inspired his novel Barney's Version.
Richler died of cancer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
March 18, 2025
Back in 1976, embroiled in the process of rediscovering myself, I pounced upon the emotional car wreck of Jake Hersh’s life - here, and quickly after in the sequel - Joshua, Then and Now.
Jake was my idol back then. Capable both of deep feeling and razor-sharp insight, he’s EMBEDDED in his life. I thought I was on a voyage of self-discovery by reading this book.
I was wrong. It was a false dawn - as Mallarme says, it was the mere shadow of reality - an inner knee-jerk reaction to the real.
The real must, however, of course take precedence in our lives. Jake’s a real reprobate, though. And he’s Jewish - and woke to boot - like his fantasy idol, the Horseman.
But reality, especially nowadays as it is used as a tool of media conditioning or literary entertainment, can be jagged and abrasive. It can lead to depression, especially once we are led to believe that the brutal facts are all there is.
As Richler thought.
They are not.
For the Middle Way can mitigate their sharpness painlessly.
***
Now, the Middle Way is a truth shared by both Buddhism and Christian thought. Remember the Little Way of St Therese? It isn’t proud. It doesn’t puff itself up. It’s simply trying, not to ram home a point, but to humbly go one’s own simple way in a world gone mad with conflict.
Peaceably.
We all have to recognize that, by ourselves, we’re nothing to write home about. We don’t have to OVERACHIEVE, like Jake. And by going this little, middle way, we avoid Jake’s endless mind weeds and stymied, desperate ambition.
Let it be.
It took me many years to see this: we are not called to be superstars; we are only called to be quiet voices for Peace.
***
Such was, and is, my sheltered view of Jake’s quandary. But, rereading this novel, I had to laugh.
A lot.
For Jake’s a reprobate - yes -
But what a royal send-up of the British aristocracy! What a bow shot at sexual double standards! What a self-deprecating parody of the Literary Establishment and its critics!
Jake's life is a dog's breakfast, like his ugly behaviour -
But he may be the most Hilarious Darned Reprobate in Canadian Literature!
For, while his sin may be ugly, his endless, digressing, flea-bitten excuses are soulfully and all-too-humanly endearing.
Four stars.
Jake was my idol back then. Capable both of deep feeling and razor-sharp insight, he’s EMBEDDED in his life. I thought I was on a voyage of self-discovery by reading this book.
I was wrong. It was a false dawn - as Mallarme says, it was the mere shadow of reality - an inner knee-jerk reaction to the real.
The real must, however, of course take precedence in our lives. Jake’s a real reprobate, though. And he’s Jewish - and woke to boot - like his fantasy idol, the Horseman.
But reality, especially nowadays as it is used as a tool of media conditioning or literary entertainment, can be jagged and abrasive. It can lead to depression, especially once we are led to believe that the brutal facts are all there is.
As Richler thought.
They are not.
For the Middle Way can mitigate their sharpness painlessly.
***
Now, the Middle Way is a truth shared by both Buddhism and Christian thought. Remember the Little Way of St Therese? It isn’t proud. It doesn’t puff itself up. It’s simply trying, not to ram home a point, but to humbly go one’s own simple way in a world gone mad with conflict.
Peaceably.
We all have to recognize that, by ourselves, we’re nothing to write home about. We don’t have to OVERACHIEVE, like Jake. And by going this little, middle way, we avoid Jake’s endless mind weeds and stymied, desperate ambition.
Let it be.
It took me many years to see this: we are not called to be superstars; we are only called to be quiet voices for Peace.
***
Such was, and is, my sheltered view of Jake’s quandary. But, rereading this novel, I had to laugh.
A lot.
For Jake’s a reprobate - yes -
But what a royal send-up of the British aristocracy! What a bow shot at sexual double standards! What a self-deprecating parody of the Literary Establishment and its critics!
Jake's life is a dog's breakfast, like his ugly behaviour -
But he may be the most Hilarious Darned Reprobate in Canadian Literature!
For, while his sin may be ugly, his endless, digressing, flea-bitten excuses are soulfully and all-too-humanly endearing.
Four stars.
October 6, 2025
An amusing, entertaining novel about Jake Herschel, a Jewish Canadian television and film director living in London and married to Nancy. They have three children. Jake idolizes Joel Herschel, his cousin of twelve years seniority. Joel is a legendary figure from their Montreal childhood neighbourhood. Joel became a Nazi hunter and Spanish Civil War hero. As the novel progresses we learn that Jake’s idolizing of Joel is has poor foundations. Jake has the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Harry Stein, a con artist, who ends up hounding Jake and forcing his way into Jake’s life which ends up with Harry and Jake being prosecuted by the State for rape. The story is mainly set in 1967.
Jake is a successful film director struggling with his own perceived failures and issues of Jewish culture and the impact of the Holocaust. Jake loves his wife. He is a moral man and enjoys that security of wife and family. However he is envious of the lifestyle of a few of his friends who are involved in the sex, drugs and rock and roll scene.
There are number of flashbacks to when Jake was growing up in lower class Montreal with his Jewish buddies.
A novel that explores the search for identity, the nature of heroism, and the complexities of Jewish culture and guilt.
This book was shortlisted for the 1971 Booker Prize.
Jake is a successful film director struggling with his own perceived failures and issues of Jewish culture and the impact of the Holocaust. Jake loves his wife. He is a moral man and enjoys that security of wife and family. However he is envious of the lifestyle of a few of his friends who are involved in the sex, drugs and rock and roll scene.
There are number of flashbacks to when Jake was growing up in lower class Montreal with his Jewish buddies.
A novel that explores the search for identity, the nature of heroism, and the complexities of Jewish culture and guilt.
This book was shortlisted for the 1971 Booker Prize.
October 8, 2018
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.
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.
December 1, 2014
So I just recently watched the film version of Richler's "Barney's Version", and having finished "Horseman" I feel that it would be equally ill-advised to translate this work to the screen. There's just too much going on. On the one hand you have funny dialogue - I'm sure Dustin Hoffman, having wrapped his tongue around "briskets and blowjobs", could do Issy Hersh as well as he did Izzy Panofsky. But then there's all the other stuff - the Montreal nostalgia, the political/cultural satire, the mystical/metaphysical (who is the Horseman really??)...The writing is at times over the top, but the whole work has a depth and sensitivity that reminds me why Richler is a writer of international stature. People will continue to read him after lesser Canadian authors have been forgotten (hello D. Coupland, you putz).
January 7, 2024
Richler definitely deserves his place in the list of great Canadian writers. The man had his own style - a Montreal backstreets style, in which every character is flawed. A smart ass style. Unsentimental and comical.
In Horseman, Richler shines a light on one of Duddy Kravitz's buddies: Jake Hersh. Jake is rather like Duddy Lite. He wants to be with girls and wants to make big money. He wants to be found not guilty in a criminal trial. Most of all, Jake wants to find his Uncle Joey, who, in Jake's childhood interpretation, is a local James Dean/John Wayne - a dashing war hero and ladies' man...and Nazi hunter.
I enjoy how Richler reveals characters' thoughts and fantasies. I enjoy the Cold War setting of this one. I love how Richler always includes hockey and Montreal culture in his works.
What I think is a big drawback, however, is the man's need to be lewd. Every single male in the book has an adolescent preoccupation with women's menstrual cycles and sex acts and crude jokes. Every other page is too much if you want readers to take the story seriously.
In Horseman, Richler shines a light on one of Duddy Kravitz's buddies: Jake Hersh. Jake is rather like Duddy Lite. He wants to be with girls and wants to make big money. He wants to be found not guilty in a criminal trial. Most of all, Jake wants to find his Uncle Joey, who, in Jake's childhood interpretation, is a local James Dean/John Wayne - a dashing war hero and ladies' man...and Nazi hunter.
I enjoy how Richler reveals characters' thoughts and fantasies. I enjoy the Cold War setting of this one. I love how Richler always includes hockey and Montreal culture in his works.
What I think is a big drawback, however, is the man's need to be lewd. Every single male in the book has an adolescent preoccupation with women's menstrual cycles and sex acts and crude jokes. Every other page is too much if you want readers to take the story seriously.
March 11, 2023
A brilliantly dark comedy about class and Jewishness in the years after the Holocaust. It follows the trials and tribulations of Jake, wonderfully constructed character painted with much light and shade, a moderately successful film director approaching middle age and beginning to feel much of his hope fall away from him. The novel moves back and forth in time, returning to several anchor points in Jake's life, particularly a sordid sex trial that he is embroiled in.
Two dangerous and disturbing characters counterpoint Jake: his Nazi-hunter cousin Joey, who Jake fantasises about constantly; and Harry, a seedy cockney Jew who drags Jake into the gutter. At times, it feels these two brilliant drawn characters are almost alter-egos for Jake, or two pole between which he is being pulled. The brilliant, violent, and heroic Joey on the one hand, and the perverse, psychotic, chip-on-the-shoulder Harry on the other. Harry in particular is genuinely quite terrifying in his anger and hatred of everyone, particularly women.
The exploration of Jewish identity is intelligent and fascinating throughout. The guilt, frustration, persecution of Jake explored quite brilliantly. His Jewishness offers him an identity and yet he cannot quite conscience the hypocrisy he finds in it. In particular, he is perpetually frustrated by how his Jewish and socialist beliefs seem to be in conflict.
There is much great story in this novel and it seems to be trying to say a lot about the condition of being Jewish at a certain time and place - or maybe simply in general - but I found the novel more compelling in its strands of story than in the overall shape of it. Taken as a whole, it is very interesting and intelligent, decidedly worth reading, but not always compelling in its broader structure. It may have benefited with some trimming, a bit less of the back story here and there. The end, however, is satisfying and concludes in a nice way, bringing Jake's big battles with himself to a denouement.
Four stars may be a little lower than this deserves, and I suspect it may mean more to someone who is Jewish, particularly if they grew up in Canada just after the Holocaust. It may be of great interest to anyone keen to understand the conditions of Canadian identity more generally, which Richler has much intelligent to say about. Overall, a strong recommendation for St. Urbain's Horseman.
Two dangerous and disturbing characters counterpoint Jake: his Nazi-hunter cousin Joey, who Jake fantasises about constantly; and Harry, a seedy cockney Jew who drags Jake into the gutter. At times, it feels these two brilliant drawn characters are almost alter-egos for Jake, or two pole between which he is being pulled. The brilliant, violent, and heroic Joey on the one hand, and the perverse, psychotic, chip-on-the-shoulder Harry on the other. Harry in particular is genuinely quite terrifying in his anger and hatred of everyone, particularly women.
The exploration of Jewish identity is intelligent and fascinating throughout. The guilt, frustration, persecution of Jake explored quite brilliantly. His Jewishness offers him an identity and yet he cannot quite conscience the hypocrisy he finds in it. In particular, he is perpetually frustrated by how his Jewish and socialist beliefs seem to be in conflict.
There is much great story in this novel and it seems to be trying to say a lot about the condition of being Jewish at a certain time and place - or maybe simply in general - but I found the novel more compelling in its strands of story than in the overall shape of it. Taken as a whole, it is very interesting and intelligent, decidedly worth reading, but not always compelling in its broader structure. It may have benefited with some trimming, a bit less of the back story here and there. The end, however, is satisfying and concludes in a nice way, bringing Jake's big battles with himself to a denouement.
Four stars may be a little lower than this deserves, and I suspect it may mean more to someone who is Jewish, particularly if they grew up in Canada just after the Holocaust. It may be of great interest to anyone keen to understand the conditions of Canadian identity more generally, which Richler has much intelligent to say about. Overall, a strong recommendation for St. Urbain's Horseman.
November 19, 2024
I thought it interesting to read what was a contemporary book of it's time period. Richler hadn't quite reached his stride as an author yet and the book suffers as less coherent in comparison to Barney's Version or Solomon Gursky. As many reviewers have comented, Richler often writes great, comic vignettes but sometimes has trouble bringing them all together and some of the scenes and characters are so black comic as to be out of place in the structure of the novel or character. That said, there is a great deal of beautiful writing here. The scene where the narrator describes his inability to feel true joy even when doing something so pure as playing in the park with his children and family, is heartbreakingly rendered. The book depicts a unique generational mashup of yiddish speaking, one step from the shtetl and newly assimilated and secular American Jews of the 20th Century that has faded slowly from the world, which to me made it particularly poignant.
February 12, 2025
This was Richler’s seventh novel, published in 1971. Set during the sixties, it introduces readers to Jake Hersh, thirty-seven and married with three children. A moderately successful film director, he is now living an upper middle-class life in London after first growing up in in a poorer section of Montreal, Jake has just found himself caught in a sordid sex scandal, the result of a friendship with a man named Harry Stein. In the midst of this shameful court case, he falls into an existential crisis, examining his life and realizing it has not measured up to his expectations. At this point he is forced to accept he will never create the masterpiece he had dreamed of and falls into a depression.
Jake is solidly a man of his generation, a moral man in love with his wife and children. Yet he longs to partake in the life of the new generation now emerging, watching as his buddies experiment with drugs and newfound sexual freedoms, but finds himself held back by the traditional ways that marked his childhood.
As he reminisces, he believes he is not only missing the heady sixties, but was too young to experience first-hand the last great generation, the men and women who survived the Depression, fought in the Spanish Civil War, World War II and Korea. These were the greats, those brave souls who lived through the horror of the Holocaust and Hiroshima. Now he fears being left out of this next phase of great generational change, too old to be a cool hipster and experiment with the different music, the wide array of experiences with drugs and the guilt free sex openly available. His childhood buddies appear to be reveling in this new life and he yearns to join them.
The narrative switches back and forth between Jake’s musings in London and his early childhood growing up in and around the area of St. Urbain Street, a poorer lower-class section of Montreal largely populated by immigrants. He remembers his childhood cousin Joey from that time, the local neighborhood hero he worshipped who had a reputation for living a life of adventure, hunting down Nazis and protecting the Jews from their enemies, a champion of so many battles. When Jake compares his life to Joey’s, he feels left out, his own drab existence so unexciting. Yet in reality, much of Jake’s memories of Joey exist only in Jake’s imagination. In fact, Joey was deeply flawed, a man who was a thief, a con man and a two-bit actor.
Jake emerges from the court case with a fine and at the same time learns of Joey’s death. This sends him further down the road of his lengthy musings. He dreams he too will become a “horseman of Saint Urbain Street”, a champion of liberal causes, but in fact knows that as a conservative hanging on to traditional values, he will ultimately abandon this heady, unrealistic dream.
Richler’s narrative is filled with the many elements that mark his signature style. He includes his traditional angst over everything Jewish: overbearing mothers, religious family rituals and the consuming guilt that he, along with those of his generation, have never suffered like so many other Jews. He condemns the hustlers in the business world, criticizes present day social norms and protests the many absurdities of modern life. Yet his narrative, full of Richler’s distinctive dialogue and the local street slang of the “hood” is filled with humor, rich characters, satire and irreverent critiques of everything and everybody. These flashbacks to his childhood and his buddies growing up around the shops and in the alleyways of Saint Urbain Street are especially well done, the best part of the novel.
This was a fun and entertaining read that won the Governor General’s Award in 1971, one I enjoyed and highly recommend.
Jake is solidly a man of his generation, a moral man in love with his wife and children. Yet he longs to partake in the life of the new generation now emerging, watching as his buddies experiment with drugs and newfound sexual freedoms, but finds himself held back by the traditional ways that marked his childhood.
As he reminisces, he believes he is not only missing the heady sixties, but was too young to experience first-hand the last great generation, the men and women who survived the Depression, fought in the Spanish Civil War, World War II and Korea. These were the greats, those brave souls who lived through the horror of the Holocaust and Hiroshima. Now he fears being left out of this next phase of great generational change, too old to be a cool hipster and experiment with the different music, the wide array of experiences with drugs and the guilt free sex openly available. His childhood buddies appear to be reveling in this new life and he yearns to join them.
The narrative switches back and forth between Jake’s musings in London and his early childhood growing up in and around the area of St. Urbain Street, a poorer lower-class section of Montreal largely populated by immigrants. He remembers his childhood cousin Joey from that time, the local neighborhood hero he worshipped who had a reputation for living a life of adventure, hunting down Nazis and protecting the Jews from their enemies, a champion of so many battles. When Jake compares his life to Joey’s, he feels left out, his own drab existence so unexciting. Yet in reality, much of Jake’s memories of Joey exist only in Jake’s imagination. In fact, Joey was deeply flawed, a man who was a thief, a con man and a two-bit actor.
Jake emerges from the court case with a fine and at the same time learns of Joey’s death. This sends him further down the road of his lengthy musings. He dreams he too will become a “horseman of Saint Urbain Street”, a champion of liberal causes, but in fact knows that as a conservative hanging on to traditional values, he will ultimately abandon this heady, unrealistic dream.
Richler’s narrative is filled with the many elements that mark his signature style. He includes his traditional angst over everything Jewish: overbearing mothers, religious family rituals and the consuming guilt that he, along with those of his generation, have never suffered like so many other Jews. He condemns the hustlers in the business world, criticizes present day social norms and protests the many absurdities of modern life. Yet his narrative, full of Richler’s distinctive dialogue and the local street slang of the “hood” is filled with humor, rich characters, satire and irreverent critiques of everything and everybody. These flashbacks to his childhood and his buddies growing up around the shops and in the alleyways of Saint Urbain Street are especially well done, the best part of the novel.
This was a fun and entertaining read that won the Governor General’s Award in 1971, one I enjoyed and highly recommend.
November 22, 2009
Sublime satire of a film director who longs for the return of his heroic alter-ego.
April 30, 2025
Best Richler ever!
January 21, 2016
This is the fifth Richler novel I have read and although he was a brilliant writer, sometimes I find his books a bit too brilliant; too intellectual for a simpleton like myself. As I wrote before, sometimes I wonder if you're not Jewish and from Montreal (like Richler) why you'd read one of his books: it just feels like all this references are inside jokes for such a small segment of the population.
February 9, 2019
.L?? 80s: i read this too long ago to say i remember it well- but it was good. when later i lived in the city, i walked around the plateau and st urbain's etc. but this is too much a 'local neighbourhood book' to get the feel in passing...
December 28, 2016
A hilarious that suffers from the fact that it's not funny, leaving you with just a book that's a bit crap. Maybe if I'd read Duddy beforehand it may have meant more, or even not have read Gursky and felt the mundane similarities.
July 31, 2018
Ну, вот даже не знаю. Одна половина бобра говорит, что роман хороший и писатель отличный. Другая половина бобра считает, что человек, не считающий женщин людьми, не может быть хорошим писателем и роман его провальный по определению. И вот как жить?
July 12, 2024
Really really super good. If you like Jewish books like Roth or something it’s a must read
July 30, 2021
It's in the Blue Bin. I got to Page 76.
February 7, 2012
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.)
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.)
April 27, 2013
This book is a black satire, and study of characters far more interesting than they initially appear.
Jake Hersh's life has become unravelled. His relationships with his family, his troubles with the law, the questions about his work - everything seems to be coming apart. The early chapters of this book reflect that, as everything in his world is thrown at you, all at once. But slowly, the book starts to build a complete character out of all these fragments, coming together as you see the gears in motion which took Jake to his current situation.
In some ways, this is a perfect way to introduce a protagonist this book - Mordecai Richler's sense of humour works best when his characters are unlikeable. The confusing opening keeps you from getting too attached to Jake until you see some of the uglier sides of his personality. By the time you get a chance to like Jake, you understand him, which lets the book come to a nicely satisfying conclusion.
This is a book which is ideal to read as part of a book club - not only because a bit of extra motivation might be needed to plow through the first few chapters, but also because it will generate some excellent discussions afterward, I'm sure.
Jake Hersh's life has become unravelled. His relationships with his family, his troubles with the law, the questions about his work - everything seems to be coming apart. The early chapters of this book reflect that, as everything in his world is thrown at you, all at once. But slowly, the book starts to build a complete character out of all these fragments, coming together as you see the gears in motion which took Jake to his current situation.
In some ways, this is a perfect way to introduce a protagonist this book - Mordecai Richler's sense of humour works best when his characters are unlikeable. The confusing opening keeps you from getting too attached to Jake until you see some of the uglier sides of his personality. By the time you get a chance to like Jake, you understand him, which lets the book come to a nicely satisfying conclusion.
This is a book which is ideal to read as part of a book club - not only because a bit of extra motivation might be needed to plow through the first few chapters, but also because it will generate some excellent discussions afterward, I'm sure.
June 8, 2017
One of Mordecai Richler's longer novels, coming in at just short of 500 pages, this is a sprawling, non-linear narrative that, as is customary of Richler's work, draws heavily on his own life experience, from his childhood in the Anglophone Jewish community in Montreal to his time in London (it's often overlooked that he wrote many of his most famous novels, including the iconic The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, in the period from 1954 to 1972 when he resided in England). Richler's biting, caustic humour pervades the book, which is rarely less than amusing on an episodic level, but I don't think the novel ever builds much in the way of narrative momentum. The novel is at its most interesting in its portrayal of the particular communal tensions inherent in Montreal's Jewish community at the time, and in particular the tenuous peace between them and the Francophone population. One must also note that it's a rare novel that begins with its protagonist on trial for indecent assault (a charge only gradually revealed) that culminates in showing that he was actually guilty of the charge, and proceeds to lie at trial (though his accuser is also lying about his conduct, so...I guess Richler is pretty pessimistic about human conduct).
October 4, 2018
First: this has convinced me that some books suffer for being read aloud. It would have been better had I tackled St. Urbain's Horseman via the text alone, I think. Not that the reader did a poor job in the audio version, but aspects of his characterization, word emphasis, speed, etc. shade the book with his view or interpretation (as is inevitable) and deprives readers of doing that themselves. Plus, audio prohibits the listener from lingering over what is clearly a meticulous work, which distracts and detracts from the author's effect. If you can, friends, read this one, don't listen.
Second: Rating St. Urbain's Horseman is a conundrum. I didn't like it. BUT! I thoroughly appreciated it. The characters are fully drawn, and well. The story plods, but closely examines the life of a niche community in important ways and is full of insight. The satire is sharp - enough to draw blood - and deflates things that need deflating. The conclusion is assured and fulfilled, and great. Worthy.
But I'm not left with a desire to return, to these people, or this community, or this human atmosphere. Nor am I left with a lingering satisfaction. Neither a reflective unease.
It is a great work. And I didn't like it.
Second: Rating St. Urbain's Horseman is a conundrum. I didn't like it. BUT! I thoroughly appreciated it. The characters are fully drawn, and well. The story plods, but closely examines the life of a niche community in important ways and is full of insight. The satire is sharp - enough to draw blood - and deflates things that need deflating. The conclusion is assured and fulfilled, and great. Worthy.
But I'm not left with a desire to return, to these people, or this community, or this human atmosphere. Nor am I left with a lingering satisfaction. Neither a reflective unease.
It is a great work. And I didn't like it.
August 28, 2018
Witty, gross, a cast of clever, scheming Jews, an obsession with an absent relation (the Horseman) supposedly a champion of humanity but up to no good. I recognised themes from Solomon Gursky and a post-apprenticeship uber-vulgar Duddy Kravitz, and indeed the latter obtrudes at times and briefly sequesters the plot.
As if structured like one of the films made by the central character Jacob Hersch, a run-of-the-mill director, the story sometimes jump-cuts between scenes without so much as a line break. There's also an extended scene of a baseball game in a London park, peopled by otherwise irrelevant characters, whose function is to be around for the author's ridicule.
It's hard to like any of the male characters - although Jacob seems to achieve greater awareness and equilibrium by the end - as Richler hammers out an often merciless satire equally on the tradional and those liberal but rather rootless Jews away from home but unable to reconcile themselves to the new homeland.
Does the author despise his characters, or is there an element of self-loathing? Or was it admiration? It kept me wondering, even as I admired the technique. Maybe a bit of chutzpah all round.
As if structured like one of the films made by the central character Jacob Hersch, a run-of-the-mill director, the story sometimes jump-cuts between scenes without so much as a line break. There's also an extended scene of a baseball game in a London park, peopled by otherwise irrelevant characters, whose function is to be around for the author's ridicule.
It's hard to like any of the male characters - although Jacob seems to achieve greater awareness and equilibrium by the end - as Richler hammers out an often merciless satire equally on the tradional and those liberal but rather rootless Jews away from home but unable to reconcile themselves to the new homeland.
Does the author despise his characters, or is there an element of self-loathing? Or was it admiration? It kept me wondering, even as I admired the technique. Maybe a bit of chutzpah all round.
July 27, 2015
St. Urbain’s Horseman says a lot about a troubled race. As a Jew, one’s story is not simple even when period and geography keeps you away from holocaust. If your race is despised should you escape from it or should you preserve it’s values to show you don’t deserve the despise. You have to be racial to guard your own race from racism and show bravery. If you were trampled as a race you should hate to show that you are not a chicken. With all this, like anybody else, you have your own dreams to achieve, relationships to handle and ego to manage. It is very complex.
It helps if you have a role model, somebody to follow and revere, so that you can convince yourself it is possible to become such a personality. If you don’t have one, you could give your imaginary personality to someone, to somebody of your own caliber. Somebody less known about and mysterious so that the imaginary personality will not clash with actual. Jake’s selection is Joey, the other J. Hersh.
The story is expertly built up gradually revealing past and constructing characters to arrive at the focal scene.
It helps if you have a role model, somebody to follow and revere, so that you can convince yourself it is possible to become such a personality. If you don’t have one, you could give your imaginary personality to someone, to somebody of your own caliber. Somebody less known about and mysterious so that the imaginary personality will not clash with actual. Jake’s selection is Joey, the other J. Hersh.
The story is expertly built up gradually revealing past and constructing characters to arrive at the focal scene.
January 14, 2024
Just finished St Urbain’s Horseman a second time and I must confess walking along St Urbain Street, or should I say rue St Urbain, to Beauty’s Diner now feels very different. There’s a tingling excitement about I don’t know what about walking along that trashy inner city, somewhat derelict strip.
Rough book to read. GG Award winner so it was time to plough through it. Duddy Kravitz a recurring character. Explicit sex from a straight, married father’s POV.
No museum to Richler on St Urbain yet. PQ still the same, still worth it to leave and move to London UK, but London is one of the most expensive cities in the world so probably could not survive there myself. An obsession with nazi-hunting and the reasons for it. Not new stuff but prefer not to delve into it for my own mental health.
UPDATE 2021: UNFATHOMABLY, BEAUTY’S DELI /DINER merely renovated; BUILDING had been demolished, TORN DOWN FOR REDEVELOPMENT; PLANNED OR UNPLANNED, WHO KNOWS? BUT THEN, NO COLLEGE KIDS were IN TOWN ANYWAY FOR ANY OF THE UNIVERSITIES AT ALL BECAUSE OF the COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
Rough book to read. GG Award winner so it was time to plough through it. Duddy Kravitz a recurring character. Explicit sex from a straight, married father’s POV.
No museum to Richler on St Urbain yet. PQ still the same, still worth it to leave and move to London UK, but London is one of the most expensive cities in the world so probably could not survive there myself. An obsession with nazi-hunting and the reasons for it. Not new stuff but prefer not to delve into it for my own mental health.
UPDATE 2021: UNFATHOMABLY, BEAUTY’S DELI /DINER merely renovated; BUILDING had been demolished, TORN DOWN FOR REDEVELOPMENT; PLANNED OR UNPLANNED, WHO KNOWS? BUT THEN, NO COLLEGE KIDS were IN TOWN ANYWAY FOR ANY OF THE UNIVERSITIES AT ALL BECAUSE OF the COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
February 8, 2009
The center of the novel is a crisis point in the life of Jake Hersh, a film director of modest success and a man disgraced. A Canadian living in London going through a mid-life crunch triggered by an unfulfilled professional life and intimidated by his mortality. Jack fails to navigate successfully into middle age as he gets involved with the repellent Harry Stein, a petty criminal, and his cousin Joey, his alter ego, who Jake recreates in the image of his needs. Joey is the avenging horseman of Jake's impotent dreams.
In St. Urbain's Horseman we have a medley of paranoid Jewish Montrealers struggling in a gentile world. This novel is very rich and complex, teetering on being pretentious but salvaged by fine characterizations and hilarious prose. This story has a slow sometime confusing beginning that progresses into a clearer and more interesting ending. I am not a dedicated fan of this type of writing.
In St. Urbain's Horseman we have a medley of paranoid Jewish Montrealers struggling in a gentile world. This novel is very rich and complex, teetering on being pretentious but salvaged by fine characterizations and hilarious prose. This story has a slow sometime confusing beginning that progresses into a clearer and more interesting ending. I am not a dedicated fan of this type of writing.
April 12, 2018
I don't see that much of anything happened in this book. Jake begins as Jake and ends as Jake. And we get to read a huge number of pages of gruesome details. As a writer I was fascinated to find out how the book was to be pulled together. it isn't. all kinds of bits and dregs are thrown into the pot - fairly adroitly - to really not add up to much. I rated it a 2 instead of a 1 for the rollicking humour, the rebirth of Duddy, and the insight into Jewishness but as a story what have we? Clearly an alcoholic - a condition much loved and promoted in lit and movies- Jake has a cardboard cutout for a wife. What is the story with her? He does give her a few good scenes but really there is no understanding offered why she does what she does. the ending - I won't spoil it, should you get there - Jake is the same Jake as page one. Richler writes well but I think he had a publishers deadline on this one.
June 25, 2015
wow, what a fancy (and actually rather cheap-looking) modern looking cover for a book that feels more historic.
The book jumps right in with some esoteric stuff, and he doesn't do us the courtesy of explaining anything – until – – when? I don't have the patience. Will this be 100 pages of piecing things together, forming some kind of idea from a broken mirror?
It seems like a good mind getting at something, but I never got to where I could grab onto something. I kind of pieced together what other reviewers here have said, but how long will I have to wait till I can be involved?
The "nonlinear-ness" definitely got on my nerves; the writing seems self-indulgent: I need to read on and read on (past where I stopped) to figure out what's going on – I wonder where I will ever "get it"?
The book jumps right in with some esoteric stuff, and he doesn't do us the courtesy of explaining anything – until – – when? I don't have the patience. Will this be 100 pages of piecing things together, forming some kind of idea from a broken mirror?
It seems like a good mind getting at something, but I never got to where I could grab onto something. I kind of pieced together what other reviewers here have said, but how long will I have to wait till I can be involved?
The "nonlinear-ness" definitely got on my nerves; the writing seems self-indulgent: I need to read on and read on (past where I stopped) to figure out what's going on – I wonder where I will ever "get it"?
June 2, 2017
I remember reading Richler many years ago and was excited by his humor and directness. He fit comfortably with the burst of Jewish writers of stature, intelligence and accomplishment in the second half of the last century. He wrote with daring and plunged into the most outrageous human and sexual behaviors with wit and originality.
However, on second reading, he fails to fascinate. The Jewish self-analysis and caricatured behaviors become tiresome and exaggerated. He spins out the tale expertly, teasing you about why the protagonist is on trial for a variety of sexual offenses. But you become tired of the characters and wish that they would just get over some of their obsessions.
The book is still highly regarded, but this is another instance for me that a rereading of an admired book is often a disappointment.
However, on second reading, he fails to fascinate. The Jewish self-analysis and caricatured behaviors become tiresome and exaggerated. He spins out the tale expertly, teasing you about why the protagonist is on trial for a variety of sexual offenses. But you become tired of the characters and wish that they would just get over some of their obsessions.
The book is still highly regarded, but this is another instance for me that a rereading of an admired book is often a disappointment.
June 4, 2015
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.
August 23, 2010
Richler proves that he has the mettle to deal with a bunch of issues in each book he writes and this one is no exception. Nazis, interracial marriage, the sexual revolution, Duddy Kravitz, bigotry, stolid English characteristics, infidelity and several varieties of angst. At times this book reads a bit like a broken record, especially if it's read with a bunch of other Richler novels - Uncle Abe's diatribe near the end reminded me of another diatribe in Solomon Gursky Was Here; ultimately, however, both diatribes are good enough that my objection is useless. Hail to the King and all that...
August 31, 2017
Jacob Hersh escapes Jewish Montreal to direct TV and film in hip, redemptive London, only to find he's left one unmoored world for another. An attempt to extricate himself from a career-threatening sex scandal prompts an audit of his sexual coming-of-age, his eccentric friends and family members, and, most Richlerian, his Jewish-Canadian identity. This exploratory but swift-moving comic epic asks if there's still room for a decent man in a morally loosened (circa 1971) universe. The answer, delivered on delectable wry, is yes, but just.
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