SON OF A SMALLER HERO Mordecai Richler. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart, 1989. 207pp., paper, $5.95. ISBN 0-7710-9970-3. CIP. Subject Heading: Jews-Quebec (Province)-Montréal-Fiction. Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 and up Reviewed by Clare A. Darby. Volume 18 Number 2 1990 March As the first of a series of novels set in the Jewish ghetto of Montréal, Son of a Smaller Hero examines the tensions of growing up in a Jewish milieux in the early 1950s. Noah Alder's struggle to escape family and cultural ties has universal implications. Rejecting his grandfather's traditional ways, his father's self-delusions, his mother's not-so-subtle attempts to hold on to him, Noah tries unsuccessfully to enter the larger, non-Jewish world. Son of a Smaller Hero is an interesting, if not suspenseful, narrative, peopled with a cast of realistic and cardboard characters. It should be part of any high school collection but perhaps not in this edition. This edition has very small print and such narrow margins that I had to break the binding to see the words in the centre. Recommended with the above reservations. Clare A. Darby, Three Oaks Senior High School, Summerside, PEI.