The first time Joshua Shapiro [of Joshua Then and Now] and his prospective father-in-law, Senator Stephen Andrew Hornby, meet, neither wastes time on preliminaries. (p. 30)

In this contentious encounter between Joshua and the senator you have the book's major themes in miniature: Jewish cheek pitted against Anglo-Canadian snobbery; the special asperity that passes between two cultures that recognize and fear in each other the stubbornness and drive that they cherish in themselves; and the refusal of the modern Jew, who is no longer deterred by pogroms and legal disabilities, to knuckle under. (pp. 30-1)

What is not yet apparent in this fierce testing of wills is that it is the first step toward the eventual reconciliation of both men on grounds entirely congenial to both. Joshua's marriage to Pauline Hornby fulfills not only St. Urbain Street's dream of the mansions of Outremont, but also Anglo Canada's dream of...