Son of a Smaller Hero: Penguin Modern Classics Edition (New Canadian Library)

Seul défaut c est sa tendance à sauter du coq a l âneDur à suivre vraiment moins bon que Barneys vision

Mordecai Richler's tale is a compassionate hard-hitting account of life's strugglesin the Jewish ghetto of Montreal where everyone is an immigrant making a new lifefor themselves and for generations to come. It is personnel but alsoan essential part of the dynamics of identity for Canada and Canadian literature. Understandably the Jewishcommunity has brought strong religious tradition with it - in this story, many from Poland.But the second great war has recently happened and they are fortunately no longer living inPoland. A young Noah Adler evinces the struggle for new identity in a new land by initiallyrejecting his family's religion and other cultural/social aspects of his Jewish heritage in particulardefiance to his heavy-handed grandfather, Melech Adler. Such heavy paternal control (no doubt with goodintentions) has clearly played a major role shaping Noah's defiant attitude.New immigrants can endure a struggle in which new places and new ways can threatenthe old ways that they can desperately try to preserve as their 'on-arrival' identity. But with aworld war in the background there is a new country in the making where cultural/religious stresses are the spawning ground. Noah is in the middle of this and his struggle is amicrocosm for pioneers in a new land. Here families can become fragmented, even if temporarily.Let's call Noah a young, impulsive, defiant Montreal Jewish Canadian. His struggle to be free ofMelech Adler and his overbearing Jewish traditions takes him away from his immediate andextended families. He meets Miriam (a gentile - goyim) where part of his identity quest plays out.Like birth, life's other end point, death is a defining moment for us; especially if not our own passing. So, withthe recent passing of his father in a set fire he eventually comes to terms with his Jewish heritageand his grandfather's stubborn ways not in anger but with a kind of new compassionate understanding.With a magnanimous tone he accepts his father's unique brand of practical wisdom and his own rootsyet with a nonnegotiable resolve to move on regardless to new uncharted territory. To some extent thisnew information about his father and even his surviving grandfather settles his mind. The reader can feel hisanger dissipate as he begins to know a little more about his grandfather's personal past involving a gentile woman.Perhaps Noah also sees that, so far, his own life has some similarities. As a young Canadian, he seeks purposeand associated self identity where there can be some rejection as wellas heightened understanding or appreciation. It is personally epiphanous and microcosmic in terms of Canadian development.On the grander scale we see Canada in the making and the pain of such new birth at the single family level. We seefamily immigration and subsequent individual exploration. Enduring transitions that embracenew beginnings can compassionately come to terms with origins and old ways in a manner that strengthens the quest. Noah hastaken a critical step in the direction called maturity. I would welcome learning more about Noah's next steps as a tantalizing prelude toa sequel novel - hence the loss of one star in my rating. The Melech Adlers of this world will pass away unaltered but with their purposenonetheless fulfilled. They will have driven new rage and new energy into new directions. Yes, Noah needed Melech.Like Noah, Richler too is defiant. ambitious and energetic in relating a tale that further defines/identifies Canadian literaturein a confrontational yet compassionate style. This is appropriately an early Richler novel, as there was so much more to be written.