The center of the novel is a crisis point in the life of Jake Hersh, a film director of modest success and a man disgraced. A Canadian living in London going through a mid-life crunch triggered by an unfulfilled professional life and intimidated by his mortality. Jack fails to navigate successfully into middle age as he gets involved with the repellent Harry Stein, a petty criminal, and his cousin Joey, his alter ego, who Jake recreates in the image of his needs. Joey is the avenging horseman of Jake's impotent dreams.


In St. Urbain's Horseman we have a medley of paranoid Jewish Montrealers struggling in a gentile world. This novel is very rich and complex, teetering on being pretentious but salvaged by fine characterizations and hilarious prose. This story has a slow sometime confusing beginning that progresses into a clearer and more interesting ending. I am not a dedicated fan of this type of writing.