Morley Torgov Classics

Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humor, this memoir captures life in a small northern town of Torgov’s youth in the heady era of the 20th C from the Depression to WWII. Here Jewish merchants, English lawyers, Scots bankers, Ukrainian domestics and a few Chinese struggle to make a living in a remote outpost. And it is here that a young man, yearning for a larger life, turns his comic gaze.

A classic is back! Max Glick, a small-town teenager with doting grandparents and helicopter parents, dreams of a career as a concert pianist. But his elders favor sensible professions like medicine, law or science. Help comes from his music teacher and a rabbi with ambitions to be a stand-up comic. Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humor, a Torgi Award, adapted for TV and an award winning film.

Ben Marshall, 13, faces a summer of unpalatable choices: He can shuffle between his newly divorced parents, too distracted to notice him; or he can visit his grandfather Ira, a cranky, small-town lawyer, who is a stickler for rules. When Ira's wealthy client, Mrs. O'Hearn dies, instructing him in her will to "put down" her beloved dog, Ira rebels. With Ben as his accomplice, they go on the run.