St. Urbain's Horseman
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 15, 2017 2:18 PM | Last Updated: March 16, 2017
Mordecai Richler
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. 37-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 McClelland & Stewart)
St. Urbain's Horseman won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 1971.
From the book
Sometimes Jake wondered if the Doktor, given his declining years, slept with his mouth open, slack, or was it (more characteristically, perhaps) always clamped shut? Doesn't matter. In any event, the Horseman would extract the gold fillings from the triangular cleft between his front teeth with pliers. Slowly, Jake thought, coming abruptly awake in a sweat. "He's come," Jake proclaimed aloud.
Beside him, Nancy stirred.
"It's nothing," Jake said softly. "Just the dream again. Go back to sleep."
From St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler ©1966. Published by McClelland & Stewart.