Mordecai Richler Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Margot Northey

Critical Essay by Margot Northey

Mordecai Richler's novel, Cocksure, illustrates [a] satiric double focus on grotesque fantasy and morality. In attempting analysis, one can usefully distinguish between the two levels of satire in the novel—the first a gentle, humorous level dealing with the foibles of man, and the second a more biting, shocking level which attacks gross evils. These two levels in turn involve two different types of the grotesque.

The first level of satire involves the people and activities which touch Mortimer Griffin in his daily life as husband and father and in his part-time position as public lecturer. Griffin himself fits into the common role of ingénue evident in many satirical works from Swift to Evelyn Waugh…. Mortimer Griffin [drifts] through life, but if his educated brain allows him some superior moments of perception, his neurotic personality makes something of a grotesque of him. Griffin worries constantly about himself and about the impression...
(read more)