Following from an earlier American tradition of The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan, The Education of Hyman Kaplan by Leo Rosten and The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz chronicles the emergence, here in a comic vein, of its young hero from Montreal's Jewish ghetto. Born on the wrong side of the tracks with a rusty spoon in his mouth and the spark of rebellion about him, …showed first 75 words of 790 total…

…showed last 75 words of 790 total…to a guy like me except when it's got a knife in it. You think I should be running after something else besides money? Good. Tell me what. Tell me, you bastard. I want some land, Uncle Benjy. I'm going to own a place one day. King of the castle, that's me. And there won't be any superior drecks there to laugh at me or run me off. That's just about the size of it."