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62+ verk 5,036 medlemmar 98 recensioner 18 favoritmärkta

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Robert Coover is a midwesterner who has earned a reputation as one of the most innovative of contemporary writers of fiction. Coover likes to experiment with an abundance of differing styles. The Origin of the Brunists (1966), his first novel, is a religious parable heavily loaded with symbolism visa mer and mythical parallels. It deals with the rise following an Appalachian coal-mine disaster of a sect of worshipers made up of fundamentalists and theosophists whose leader, Giovanni Bruno, is less a preacher than a silent enigma. The principal analogue is apparently meant to be the founding of the Christian religion, but Coover's extensive irony requires that he reverse many of the traditional features of the Christian legend. The Universal Baseball Association (1968), Coover's most accessible novel to date, is also dominated by religious symbolism. Over the years, J. Henry Waugh, a middle-aged bachelor and accountant, has developed an elaborately structured game, which he plays with dice. His game is based on the mathematical probabilities of baseball. Every evening Henry plays his game and maintains his extensive record books. J. Henry Waugh is a surrogate for God, and the participants in his imaginary baseball league seem almost to come to life, raising as they do age-old questions about fate and free will, success and failure, games and religions. Coover's Pricksongs and Descants (1969) is a collection of 20 short pieces and a theoretical "Prologo" in which the author states his belief that contemporary fiction should be based on familiar historical or mythical forms. Most of the stories in this volume, which was well received by critics, are based on biblical episodes or classical fairy tales retold in startling new ways. The Public Burning (1977) is based on the controversial trial of the Rosenbergs. With the exception of a novel, A Night at the Movies (1992), Coover's publications in recent years have consisted mainly of shorter works, written at various stages of his career, published in limited editions to appeal to collectors. Coover is one of the founders of the Electronic Literature Organization. In 1987 he was chosen as the winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Coover is indeed one of the foremost short story writers of the postmodern period, as exemplified by the "Seven Exemplary Fictions" contained in his 1969 book Pricksongs and Descants. (Bowker Author Biography) visa färre

Inkluderar namnen: Ro Coover, Robert Coover

Serier

Verk av Robert Coover

The Public Burning (1977) 671 exemplar
Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions (1969) 650 exemplar
The Origin of the Brunists (1966) 293 exemplar
Pinocchio in Venice (1991) 265 exemplar
Att smiska hembiträdet (1982) 217 exemplar
Noir (2010) 213 exemplar
Gerald's Party (1986) 211 exemplar
Briar Rose (1996) 204 exemplar
Ghost Town (1998) 165 exemplar
John's Wife (1996) 151 exemplar
Huck Out West: A Novel (2017) 135 exemplar
A Child Again (2005) 128 exemplar
Stepmother (2004) 105 exemplar
The Brunist Day of Wrath (2014) 78 exemplar
Briar Rose & Spanking the Maid (2011) 35 exemplar
A Political Fable (1980) 23 exemplar
A Theological Position (1972) 12 exemplar
La babysitter (2014) 9 exemplar
The Enchanted Prince (2018) 7 exemplar
Street Cop (2021) 6 exemplar
Aesop's Forest (1986) 5 exemplar
Open House (2023) 5 exemplar
Aesop's Forest / Plot of the Mice (1986) — Bidragsgivare — 4 exemplar
Charlie in the house of rue (1979) — Författare — 3 exemplar
Vampire 3 exemplar
After Lazarus: A Filmscript (1980) 3 exemplar
Zarzarrosa (1998) 3 exemplar
The Waitress 3 exemplar
Fiction International 16.1 (1985) — Bidragsgivare — 2 exemplar
Matinée 2 exemplar
Fiction International 15.2 (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 2 exemplar
The End of Books 1 exemplar
Last One 1 exemplar
Grandmother's Nose 1 exemplar
The Convention (1982) 1 exemplar

Associerade verk

Heroes and Villains (1969) — Inledning, vissa utgåvor671 exemplar
The Future Dictionary of America (2004) — Bidragsgivare — 627 exemplar
The Best American Short Stories 2006 (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 548 exemplar
American Gothic Tales (1996) — Bidragsgivare — 457 exemplar
McSweeney's Issue 16 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) (2005) — Bidragsgivare — 444 exemplar
The Granta Book of the American Short Story (1992) — Bidragsgivare — 368 exemplar
Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories (1984) — Bidragsgivare — 362 exemplar
The New Media Reader (2003) — Bidragsgivare — 297 exemplar
Happily Ever After (2011) — Bidragsgivare — 295 exemplar
Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology (1997) — Bidragsgivare — 277 exemplar
The New Gothic: A Collection of Contemporary Gothic Fiction (1991) — Bidragsgivare — 256 exemplar
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2006) — Bidragsgivare — 236 exemplar
The Best American Short Stories of the 80s (1990) — Bidragsgivare — 160 exemplar
The Gates of Paradise (1993) — Bidragsgivare — 113 exemplar
After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology (1995) — Bidragsgivare — 66 exemplar
Best SF: 1970 (1971) — Bidragsgivare — 62 exemplar
Granta 140: State of Mind (2017) — Bidragsgivare — 58 exemplar
The Mammoth Book of Short Erotic Novels (2000) — Bidragsgivare — 56 exemplar
Extreme Fiction: Fabulists and Formalists (2003) — Bidragsgivare — 51 exemplar
Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales (2007) — Bidragsgivare — 51 exemplar
Watchlist: 32 Stories by Persons of Interest (2015) — Bidragsgivare — 49 exemplar
Superfiction, or The American Story Transformed: An Anthology (1975) — Bidragsgivare — 44 exemplar
Granta 2: George Steiner, The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. (1980) — Bidragsgivare — 36 exemplar
The Best American Short Stories 1981 (1981) — Bidragsgivare — 35 exemplar
Ghost Writing: Haunted Tales by Contemporary Writers (2000) — Bidragsgivare — 32 exemplar
The Best American Short Stories 1970 (1970) — Bidragsgivare — 23 exemplar
Studies in Fiction (1965) — Bidragsgivare — 22 exemplar
Wonders: Writings and Drawings for the Child in Us All (1980) — Bidragsgivare — 18 exemplar
Fiction International 22: Pornography & Censorship (1992) — Bidragsgivare — 16 exemplar
New American Review #4 (1968) — Bidragsgivare — 14 exemplar
Story to Anti-Story (1979) — Bidragsgivare — 13 exemplar
American Review 22: The Magazine of New Writing (1975) — Bidragsgivare — 11 exemplar
Conjunctions: 30, Paper Airplane (1998) — Bidragsgivare — 11 exemplar
The Playboy Book of Short Stories (1995) — Bidragsgivare — 11 exemplar
American Review 25 (1976) — Bidragsgivare — 5 exemplar

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Phew! this took some reading, but I didn't give up and struggled through till the end. Somewhere in an American city a rich guy throws a party. It is probably in a city where movie people hang out; perhaps Hollywood. These are party regulars and Gerald and his wife are on the party circuit. Nothing phases Gerald who narrates the events in painstaking detail:

None of us noticed the body at first. Not until Roger came through asking if we'd seen Ros.

It is Ros who is laying on the floor still bleeding from a knife sticking out of her chest. Somebody calls the cops, but the party goes on; everybody is out on their feet. It seems that all the men at the party have had sex with Ros at some time and tales are told. Inspector Pardew arrives looking like something out of a 1930's movie and starts his investigation and it is only when he removes the knife and hands it round for the partygoers to look at, that I realised this was going to be a blacker than black comedy. Roger hopelessly infatuated with Ros stumbles back into the room and throws himself on top of Ros: he has to be dragged off the body. The investigation goes on, more cops arrive Ros's clothes are removed pictures are taken and someone wants to re-create the crime scene, meanwhile Gerald has the hots for Allison and is searching the house to find her, while his wife is calmly preparing more food or clearing up the mess.

Gerald is constantly interrupted; either in his search for Allison or dealing with other issues. People are arriving, blocking doorways, having sex in various rooms, Geralds young son is wandering around and a teenage girl is desperately wanting to have sex with Gerald, the upstairs toilette is blocked and one of the women can't stop poohing, people are trying to clean her up. There are more murders and something is going on in the basement, but Gerald can't get down there. He lurches from one crisis to another never managing to see anything through. His house is wrecked, people are stealing things and he hardly bats an eye and one of the cops hands him a gun to finish off one of the guests who has been shot, but is taking too long to die.

The party seems to go on forever; 330 pages of forever and I found it an exhausting read. There are graphic descriptions of bodily functions and different types of sexual intercourse, police brutality of course and extreme drunk behaviour. I get the black comedy and the irony of rich people behaving very badly and in many ways it is a brave and technically impressive novel which sometimes lurches into social commentary, but just not for me and so 3 stars.
… (mer)
1 rösta
Flaggad
baswood | 2 andra recensioner | Feb 7, 2024 |
An enduring classic for anyone who has every spent hours rolling the APBA dice (or Strat-O-Matic, etc.) Accountant J. Henry Waugh has become so immersed in the baseball simulation he has created that then when the unthinkable--an extremely rare play--occurs, well...let's just say it gets weird from that point. Truly brilliant and unique. I suppose this could be about any obsession, but there's really no obsession like a baseball simulation, is there? :-)
 
Flaggad
datrappert | 15 andra recensioner | Jul 30, 2022 |
1st UK edition, added mylar jacket wrapper. Purchased after Kevin Goldstein mentioned it in a fangraphs chat, and it sounded vaguely familiar.

I am certain I read this during my 'living at the library' stage - maybe 10 to 15 years old? There is some mush in the middle at an imaginary wake, and the concluding chapter is very weird as in the future the simulation seems to take over the novel.

That said, a fun, fast read.
½
 
Flaggad
kcshankd | 15 andra recensioner | Nov 21, 2021 |
This neat little novella of surrealistic noir by Coover illustrated with appropriately grotesque illustrations by Spiegelman is an entertaining piece of fiction with a subtext of cultural criticism. It’s an expertly executed tale of law and disorder.
 
Flaggad
MaowangVater | Oct 24, 2021 |

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Verk
62
Även av
43
Medlemmar
5,036
Popularitet
#4,965
Betyg
½ 3.6
Recensioner
98
ISBN
198
Språk
11
Favoritmärkt
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