Books: Dr. Johnson, Yes. Dr. Leary, No

ST. URBAIN'S HORSEMAN by Mordecai Richler. 467 pages. Knopf. $7.95.

The hero of this splendidly mordant, funny novel is Jake Hersh, a ghetto-liberated Jew from Montreal who, at 37, revels in the expatriate life of London, earns considerable wealth and fame as a TV and film director, still loves his shiksa wife of ten years, but has a bothersome question: "Why am I being allowed to enjoy myself?"

Enjoy? How can he? Jake is a liberal. The higher his stock rises, the more guilt-edged it becomes. Like the author, a Canadian Jew now living in...

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