Mordecai Richler

the long version

"Novelist, essayist, satirist, and iconoclast, Mordecai Richler was one of Canada's most skilled and popular writers. Controversial too. His early novels outraged some in Montreal's Jewish community and his later non-fiction work outraged some Quebec nationalists. But from the beginning, his tremendous talent was indisputable and such literary triumphs as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and, later, Barney's Version cemented his reputation as a brilliant, gutsy writer both in Canada and internationally. His death in July 2001 prompted tributes from around the world that acknowledged his humour, intellect, and irrepressible curmudgeonliness." "In The Last Honest Man Michael Posner has deftly woven hundreds of personal, intimate memories of Richler into a rich biography of the writer's life. Through the words of his family and friends, colleagues and rivals, editors, writers, filmmakers, drinking pals, and others, a complex picture of the writer emerges, one that captures him in all his guises: the grumpy and the high-spirited man, the observer and the engaged, the generous and the distanced, the enthusiastic and the sardonic, the man as consummately at ease in the Ritz Hotel as in his favourite Montreal watering hole, Winnie's, but awkward in crowded social situations." "Drawing on 150 interviews conducted in London, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles - and on richler's own letters and writings - Michael Posner has composed an unconventional biography, one that delivers a wonderful and highly textured portrait of this multifaceted artist. Book jacket."--Jacket.