The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Part 2 Chapter 8

 In this excerpt, Duddy begins his search for his missing brother, Lennie. In his search Duddy goes to the Calder house in Westmont and to a bar on the McGill Campus but has no success. Throughout the chapter worries of suicide plague Duddy’s thoughts. There are three key changes from the manuscript to the published version of the text. On page 171 of the manuscript, Duddy gets into an altercation with Steve in the bar. However, Duddy’s outburst of violence is omitted from the published text. Richler softens Duddy’s character by removing a scene depicting Duddy’s volcanic temperament. The second differentiation between the manuscript and the published text is the removal of Duddy’s concerns that Leonard committed suicide. Richler omits four instances where death or suicide is explicitly mentioned on pages 170, 171 (twice), and 173. By purposefully omitting references to death in the published version, Richler alludes to Duddy’s worry of Leonard’s suicide in a more nuanced and poignant way. Lastly, Richler leaves evidence of his creative process through holographic markings on the top of page 175 and the back of page 174. Richler’s hand-written notes later become the opening paragraph of chapter 9.