A satirical work, the novel centres on Mortimer Griffin, a middle-class Anglican from Caribou, Ontario who has built a successful career as a publisher and editor in 1960s London, England. When a Hollywood mogul buys Griffin's publishing house, Griffin is suddenly forced to confront the potential impact that not being Jewish may have on his career and his sex life.
In Ninety-nine Novels, Anthony Burgess named Cocksure one of his personal selections for the best novels of the previous four decades. The novel was also selected for competition in the 2006 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by comedian Scott Thompson.
The book caused a sensation when it was declared by some as obscene and was banned by WHSmith in Britain as well as by stores in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa.[1]
The novels of Harold Robbins inform the conversations on sex at the Eight Bells pub.
Mortimer Griffin tries to understand why he thinks about Gordie Howe while making love to his wife.
Mortimer Griffin, contemplating the ugliness of his own ethnicity, compares the graceful black American boxer Cassius Clay with the uninspiring white English boxer Henry Cooper.
