683. The Public Burning

The Public Burning
Robert Coover
1977

Around 545 pages

I had successfully blocked out Pricksongs and Descants from my memory, so I went into this thinking that this was my first Robert Coover. Then I felt a familiar unease with his style, and it all came flooding back to me. 

The novel is focused on the Rosenberg trial, but it's a very messy and experimental retelling. After all, you can't get a more unreliable narrator than Richard Nixon. This will be a tough read for non Americans readers, as it is heavily rooted in American culture and makes many obscure era-specific references. It was a tough read for me as well, for different reasons.

This is a very ugly version of America, which is not entirely inaccurate, but still makes for an unpleasant read. I feel like name dropping to this degree is only enjoyable if you are deeply invested in the era, but I don't share that feeling for the McCarthy era, maybe because I find the entire thing too depressing. 

I should be used to the abrupt changes in format by this point in post-modernism, but dammit I still hate it. It just feels so gimmicky to me, and I think it is much more admirable to sustain a novel in a consistent voice, rather than constantly switching the style from play format, to newspaper headlines, to the ravings of a mad politician. American politics are weird, I get that, but Coover set out to be ten times stranger, and that was hard to get through.

Thankfully, we are done with Coover, and his unfortunately Ulysses-esque tendencies.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Having published the novel, once it became a bestseller, Viking immediately abandoned all support, and withdrew copies without explanation. Coover's editor, Richard Seaver, speculated to Coover that Viking management believed success would attract lawsuits.

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