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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629. Pricksongs and Descants

Pricksongs and Descants
Robert Coover
1969
Around 260 pages

I feel like one out of every three authors during this period was writing for Oh! Calcutta, or at least, pretending they were. Each story in this collection felt like a risque cabaret performance: controversial but shallow.

Robert Coover gives us his take on traditional bedtime stories, parodying children's stories such as Hansel and Gretel and, you know, the Bible. As is the case with any compilation that doesn't come from Ms. Taylor Swift, there were some weaker entries here. I thought "The Babysitter" in particular was just male fantasy unleashed, and naturally, that's the one that has a movie adaptation.

By now, metafiction seems to be the norm, which must have really irritated all the metafiction writers. I didn't find Coover very charming. Not exactly a must read, when we have so many better postmodernist picks to choose from.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

"The Babysitter" was adapted into a film in 1995, starring Alicia Silverstone. 

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