''Barney's Version'' is a novel written by the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

author

Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (novel), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version (novel), Barney's Versi ...

, published by Knopf Canada in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Plot summary

The story is written as if it is an autobiography by Barney Panofsky recounting his life in varying detail. Barney's version of events may be viewed as that of two

unreliable narrator In literature, film, and other such arts, an unreliable narrator is a narrator who cannot be trusted, one whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in a wide range from children to mature characters. While unreliable narrators are al ...

s, in that his recollections are told from varying mental states and then posthumously edited by his son. Underlying the story of Barney's three marriages is the mysterious disappearance of his friend Boogie. Though there is no body, police suspect murder, and Barney himself is tried but acquitted of murder.

Characters

*Barney Panofsky – Main character, an English-speaking Jew from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, going from struggling friend of artists in Paris to rich TV producer back in Quebec. *Bernard "Boogie" Moscovitch – Barney's best friend, whom he was judged not guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

ing. *Terry McIver – Barney's friend turned sworn enemy. It is McIver's published memoirs that drive Barney to write his versions of events. *Miriam Greenberg – Barney's third wife, who leaves him for Blair. Barney always hopes that she will come back to him. *"The Second Mrs. Panofsky" – Barney's shallow and verbose second wife, whose name we do not learn, and who leaves Barney at the time of the disappearance of Boogie. She lives very well off Barney's money after their divorce. *Clara Charnofsky – Barney's beautiful but mentally ill first wife, whom he met in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and whose poetry from their time in Paris becomes best-selling

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

literature. *Leo Bishinsky – Barney's friend from Paris, who became a famed artist. *Cedric Richardson a.k.a. Ismail ben Yussf – Barney's rich friend from Paris. *Morty Herscovitch – Barney's doctor in Montreal. *Blair Hopper né Hauptman – A draft-dodging American who is taken in by the Panofskys and eventually becomes the partner of Barney's third wife, Miriam. *Hymie Mintzbaum – A movie producer friend of Barney's. *Sean O'Hearne – A ''

Sûreté du Québec The (SQ; , ) is the State police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. There is no official English name, though the agency's name is sometimes translated as Quebec Provincial Police ...

'' detective, certain Barney is guilty of Boogie's homicide. *Duddy Kravitz – A character who appeared originally in Richler's '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' and '' St. Urbain's Horseman'', now a wealthy man in his sixties.

External links

* {{Giller Prize Novels by Mordecai Richler 1997 Canadian novels Knopf Canada books Books about Alzheimer's disease Novels with unreliable narrators Giller Prize–winning works Canadian novels adapted into films Chatto & Windus books Fiction about memory

Plot summary

Characters

See also

Further reading

External links