Barney's Version [Import] [Paperback]

Mordecai Richler (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Random House of Canada, Limited; First Thus edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0676971741
• ISBN-13: 978-0676971743
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,712,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich, engaging read., December 7, 1999

By 

Will Rado (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barney's Version (Hardcover)

This book is an intelligent, tremendously entertaining read. Mr. Richler assumes the reader is well-read, and this is challenging for some (me). Barney deserves everything he gets in life, except perhaps the final cruelty imposed upon him, as it unfolds in relation to Boogie. Still, I finished this last night, and now find myself missing Barney's perverse dissertations. Damn, Damn, Damn . . . I'm off today to buy "St. Urbain's Horseman"!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real characters in a hyper-realistic story, March 17, 2002

By 

Paolo Tramannoni (Porto Recanati, MC Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barney's Version (Hardcover)

I just finished reading the (very good) Italian translation of Barney's Version. It was a long time, since I found a novel written so cleverly and with so strongly, all-round depicted characters (maybe from Bellow's Herzog?). You can't ignore Barney--you must love him, or hate him. No half-measures.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars something Joseph Heller fans will love..., April 27, 2002

By 

lazza (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barney's Version (Hardcover)

Barney's Version is really an incredible novel. While it reads like the memoirs of a cranky, elderly Jewish Canadian who seems to hate most everything (except his last wife and their three kids), it also serves as an interesting analysis of life in Montreal over the last fifty years for the English-speaking minority, especially the enclave of its (once harassed) Jewish residents.

While the characterizations of Barney and his friends/family are top notch it is Richler's flair for biting satire and sarcastic wit which leaves the most lasting impression of Barney's Version. Joseph (Catch-22) Heller wrote novels with similar style and humour. Yet Richler's Barney has a more worldly, français feel about him compared to Heller's Brooklyn-based characters.

Bottom line: Richler presents a character that is larger than life; it's hard to believe Barney doesn't really exist. Strongly recommended.