Apprenticeship

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

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• published: 11 Mar 2013
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It's the post WWII era. Taxi driver Max Kravitz, who pimps on the side, lives with his two grown sons - early twenty-something medical student Lennie Kravitz, and late teen Duddy Kravitz, who has just graduated from high school - in the working class Jewish neighborhood of Montréal. Lennie receives all the positive attention from family and others of authority in the neighborhood, especially from Max's businessman brother, their Uncle Benjy, who is financing Lennie's medical school education, while Duddy is on the most part neglected. The only elder in the family and in the neighborhood who shows Duddy any respect is their zaida. As such, Duddy aspires to his zaida's assertion that land ownership is the way to make a name for oneself, especially after Duddy finds a lake, the entire property around which he would like to purchase. With only his ingenuity and chutzpah at hand, both of which he has plenty, Duddy embarks on one get rich scheme after another to make money to buy the land, usually following the belief that doing favors for those in power will yield financial favors in return. By Duddy's side through many of these schemes is his French-Canadian Catholic girlfriend Yvette, who loves Duddy but hates how he reduces his affections for her to economic terms. Yvette stays with Duddy despite the probability that there is no long term future for them due to their religious differences. The primary questions become whether Duddy's high risk ventures will ultimately result in his end goal of being able to buy all the land, whether this goal is worth it at any cost, whether he will garner respect from his family and the community, and whether he will find true happiness and ultimate fulfillment in achieving these.