Hello Gentle Reader,
A sign of the times and the mark of times continued march forward, another one of the great American modernists, Robert Coover has died aged 92. In the company of Donald Barthelme, John Barth, and the older William H. Gass and Kurt Vonnegut, set the stage for a brand of American postmodernism that defined a generation, and continued with the likes of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, William T. Vollman, and David Foster Wallace. Robert Coover, had the honour of being described by the New York Times as being “probably the funniest and most malicious,” of these postmodern giants, with books called: “Spanking the Maid,” “The Public Burning,” “Pricksongs & Descants,” its not difficult to imagine why. Coover’s first novel “The Origins of the Brunists,” is often described as his most conventional novel, but already contained his signature playfulness and hyperbolic frontier, as it recounted the story of a miner who survived a disaster and goes on to find a cult. Critics praised the novel, but encouraged Robert Coover to abandon his exaggeration in favour of the more parred social realism employed by the then canonical writers: Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser. In complete rebellion or a sign of his disinterest, Coover would publish his short story collection: “Pricksongs & Descants,” which included the highly anthologized story “The Babysitter,” presenting an innocuous event of a babysitter coming to watch a couple of children, what followed is an explosion of varying possibilities from the mundane to the violent, in addition to fantasies from the babysitter’s boyfriend and the children’s father. Other stories showcased Coover’s interest in remixing and retelling fairytales, folktales, and myths. “The Public Burning,” took the historical and paired it with the fantastical, which both satirized and scandalized the American literary and political landscape at the burgeoning threat of nuclear annihilation and onset of the Cold War. It is for these reasons and subsequent books, with their infection and manipulation of language into states of prolapsed humour that Coover became famous for. Ever interested in literatures continued metamorphosis and evolution, Robert Coover was an adamant supporter of what has been described as “Electronic Literature,” and delighted in being an iconoclast seeking to bring down the novel in its cherished form, which he described as bourgeoise. His teachings and academic pursuits reflected this.
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
M. Mary
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