The Incomparable Atuk (New Canadian Library)

This is a gift for an admirer of this author. Looks to be just fine.

Mordecai Richler's characteristic wit pleases once again with his fifth novel, THE INCOMPARABLE ATUK. ATUK is delightfully funny and intelligently satiric. The book satirizes Canadian cultural "super-nationalism," but it the more widespread themes of identity, corruption, and reverse discrimination are also explored. ATUK is the novel immediately preceding COCKSURE, and it shows: In ATUK Richler satirizes political correctness and reverse discrimination almost as much as he does in COCKSURE. For that reason you don't have to be Canadian to enjoy this book. Also, if you know that Canadians don't all live in igloos and eat "reindeer knuckle," it's hilarious to read a work by a Canadian author who plays with such misconceptions. ATUK may be Richler's most overtly Canadian novel, but I think it's a book everone would be able to enjoy.

As political satire goes, this book is hard to beat. It paints a vivid picture of Canada in the 60s (it was published in 1963) yet manages to ring even truer today. Hilariously brilliant.

Atuk is a Baffin Island artist, or sort of. He gets an invite to Toronto to read his poetry, which is awful, but which intellectuals applaud in an attempt at inclusion, or, in Canada speak, cultural nationalism. Atuk seems unsophisticated (favourite cocktail: vodka and carrot juice) and naïve in the extreme and some wish to take advantage, but he’s shrewder than most “southerners” realize and soon he’s got his relatives back home slaving in sweat shop to produce crummy sculptures that the left-wing decedents of European colonizers can buy to mitigate guilt. This is one of Richler’s funnier novels. It was published in 1963, but one wonders if it were published today if it’d be slammed by the discrimination police, but if everyone is equal then anybody can be – like Atuk is – corrupt. Five stars.Troy Parfitt is the author of War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada

What a fabulous short novella! As a point of reference, I have read all of Richler's major works and a few of his early novellas. This was written near the beginning of his career and it is a masterful and brilliant satire on modern urban life. Atuk, a native or Eskimo as described in the book, is used as a metaphor for life in the materialistic urban world. Atuk takes advantage of his native culture to develop a commercial career exploiting the gullible. What has changed in four decades since Richler wrote this devastatingly funny book?I like Richler's work, but from my reading of his novels it is clear that Richler went through a number of writing phases. If anything his middle books have too much sex or are even obsessed with sex, while some of his later books such as Solomon Gursky are a bit too ambitious or overly complicated. The present work is from the early years and does not have his St. Urbain theme.Modecai Richler (1931 to 2001) grew up in Montreal and that city is the setting for many of his stories - but not all. Many of his novels are about Jews living in Canada and Britain post WWII. He is best known for his tales of life in and around St. Urbain Street. That is an area of three story buildings or walk up row houses located just east of the mountain in Montreal, and north of the commercial center of the city. At one time this was the center of Jewish immigrant life in Montreal.His break out novel wa Duddy Kravitz which is still a great read whether you have seen the movie or not. Still, I like his last book, Barney's Vision, which is his best written piece of work. The novel lacks the edge and drama of Duddy Kravitz but has things that make it better. This present short novel was written early in his career and it is brilliant.Without giving away the plot, it is about a native living on Baffin Island near the Artic who learns English, writes poems, and then is "discovered" and moves to Toronto, the financial and media center of Canada. Richler liked to attack Quebec "nationalism" and other pet topics of Canadians. Here he takes on "the Canadian identity" which he lampoons very successfully using Atuk and his fictional story. Underneath it all is a very universal story that applies to modern life on the planet.This is a great book.

Biting satire and black humour characterize this short novella about an Inuit poet who leaves his remote community for a visit to the big city, Toronto. Having been discovered by a fur trader, his poem had reached such popularity among the city folks that they wanted to see the "Eskimo" from Baffin Bay in person. Atuk, however, finds urban life so rich, in many different ways, that he decides to stay. Initially he may come across as an innocent fool, easily exploited and controlled by his "benefactors", but he is a fast learner and soon joins the games and schemes successfully to his own advantage. Until...Published in 1963 when Richler was living in England, having left Canada in the 1950s, the story benefits from the author's physical and intellectual distance from his country. It thrives on the caricature of a set of Canadians and their machinations. There are, among others, the Uber-Canadian tycoon, the undercover police officer searching for a American colonel who disappeared on Baffin Island while spying, and the investigative journalist who discovers truths mainly about herself. The powerful TV chat show host meddles in controversy and the nice professor has his own secrets. The storyline cannot be revealed without giving too much away. Suffice to say, that it is deliberately farcical and outlandish, yet fast moving and at times confusing enough to keep the reader intrigued.With Atuk Richler brings out the different political and social stereotypes of the day and, above all, takes Canadians to task over their self image and their national identity, their latent or conspicuous racism and bigotry, their consumerism, greed and tendency to admire all that is American. While written more than 40 years ago, his book has meaning beyond the historical. In addition is a fun read! [Friederike Knabe][

I think I've over-rated the production of this book at 1 star. It has been very poorly produced and the publishing company should be ashamed of the standard at which it has allowed the book to be released. Good author let down by shaby product.

I read this book a long time ago and loved it so much that I purchased a copy recently for a relative who is working in the summer before heading back to his university education this Fall.The late Mordecai Richler is one of our great Canadian writers who could create a complex and clever plot laced with satire and hilarious developments while exposing the seamier side of society.Very clever and funny stuff! Vintage Richler!