Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler – this is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List - 8 out of 10

 

Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler – this is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List

 

8 out of 10

 

I am tempted to try a stupid joke, and conclusion to the experience of trying to read this rather long novel – Solomon Gursky Was Here and so what, it did not have an impact on yours truly, which does not mean much, if anything

 

‘Mordecai Richler, an anglophone in Quebec, a Jew in Canada, a Canadian throughout the world…Like Gustave Mahler, 'I am thrice homeless, native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans…’ sounds interesting

Alas, there is a fear that with over five hundred pages, this book would prove too much to handle, and once the page three hundred threshold is reached, I find myself asking why on earth did I lose this much time with this Gursky?

 

In its favor, Solomon Gursky Was Here seems to have everything, even an incident in this town, where I live, a flight attendant is presumably assaulted, or claims to have been, and then the incident is settled with a lawyer

‘Dense, intricately plotted, it takes exuberant, nose-thumbing joy in traditional storytelling with all its nervy cliffhangers and narrative hooks, its windfall legacies, stolen portraits, murders and revenges, its clues that drop on the story line with a satisfying thud"…this is one look, and an expert one at the opus, which sits in the Comedy section

 

We have a painting, in which one eye is black and the other a different, I think it was brown, and it was more a question of revenge, than the modernist trend, as in Picasso putting one feature where it could be, and the other somewhere random

We have the Marilyn Monroe autopsy discussed, at the age of 34, Al Pacino, Charles Boyer and many, many others are mentioned, discussed, and it is all rather humorous, if you get the drift, and have a sense of humor

 

I mentioned before, some of these books are a challenge and a litmus test, they show me – and surely some others – if I am a repressed sadist, Taliban, with time, it will also be a test of accuracy, to see if dementia is setting in

What was I saying – let me tell you the Mitza joke- two women come to see the third, and they are all mature (a euphemism for aged) and the host makes one coffee, then says I need to make some coffee, and so on

 

What kind of a host am I, to forget making a coffee, and after all these cups, the visitors leave, and out in the street one asks the other, dear, have you seen how decrepit Mitza is, she kept talking about coffee, and never offered one, while the other is:

Who is Mitza?

 

Which explains why I am jumping form one subject to the other, forgetting who Mitza, the subject, what everything is…Solomon Gursky and other books need to check some boxes, one being if they offer me joy, bliss

And Gursky might have Been Here, but without much in terms of enchantment, so this one is an offside, then there is the quote at the bottom of this note, from To The Hermitage by Malcolm Bradbury, which is essential

 

Malcolm Bradbury speaks in awe of characters in (good) books, which are so much more interesting, admirable and their acts more fascinating than what we get in real life, except we have to Analyze This, and see if it happens here

Alas, it does not, or it may work for other readers, it was not happening for me, and furthermore, I want Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html not some neutral experience

 

The Godfather infamous horse in bed scene is analyzed in this novel, and it is a correct assessment -in real life the producer from the movie would have woken when they placed the head on the bed, this is countered…

Maybe they have put it when he was out, but then he would have noticed the bump at foot of the bed… then, among the many stories, we have the prostitutes sent to America by the king of France to marry and settle

 

They would have twenty-five children before they are forty, and nowadays French-Canadian pull the teeth of teenagers, becoming adults, to replace them with false ones, which are presumably better, or do they?

There is always the question of whether this is true, exaggerated, or maybe totally made up, as artistic license, albeit we see documentaries where the most impossible, outrageous acts, are performed, and then there is the cultural difference

What seems preposterous to me, and maybe you, is the norm in various places of the world, I find voting for the Orange Jesus absurd, demeaning, stupid, and we could go on for a long time, but for over seventy million folks, it is the absolute right thing to do

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”