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 he creates on others. This exaggerated self-concern is ridiculous in itself, as when he agonizes over the racist implications of picking up or not picking up the glove of the coloured girl standing ahead of him in line. Gradually his fears and anxieties become obsessive, a condition which we have seen to be typical of much grotesque fiction. The culmination of neurotic worry about his sexual adequacy is his sexual impotence.
This is a free excerpt of 220 words. There are 1,045 words (approx.
3 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Richler, Mordecai 1931–: Critical Essay by Margot Northey Access Pass.
