Pricksongs and Descants: Short Stories

Somehow, over the years, Robert Coover has been denied the status he deserves as one of America's most original and celebrated satirists of all things red white & blue. Although almost 40 years old now, this collection of short stories still displays Coover's protean talents at their most kaleidoscopic, despite the fact these works came early in his long career. In each of his stories, Coover takes iconic items of 20th Century American culture and holds them up to fun-house mirrors. Sometimes the Coover-modified images reveal a dark underbelly to myth, sometimes they are manically funny and sometimes they're simply warped -- but at all times, they move at breakneck speed and the wordcraft is nonpareil. While one by no means has to be a student of American iconography to appreciate these stories, the greater one's understanding of suburban mythology he or she brings to the party, the more he or she will take away. Coover's complex, yet extremely approachable writing gives readers the choice at what level they wish to read his work. They can be read as biting commentary on America's social mores or -- even better -- as a dazzling, runaway roller coaster ride taken for no other reason than the unadulterated joy of it. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........

Coover is a master, and this is his masterpiece of short story writing. these reworkings and absurdist tales are so well written and funny that i've been obsessed with this book for over ten years (i may have some problems!). read it.

_Pricksongs and Descants_ (P & D) is the book which seems to have inspired Robert Coover's current book _The Awakening_ (please refer to http://search.nytimes.com/books/97/02/16/reviews/970216.gorra.html for a NY times review.) In P & D the reader will find one of the best examples of metafiction ever created. Metafiction can loosely be characterized as those fictional works that force the reader to reevaluate the role of the story they are reading, the role of themselves as the reader, as well as the role or function of the storyline and the characters themselves. It allows the reader examine a story in terms of how it relates to it's genre and the elements associated with that literary classification. Metafiction enables the reader to contextualize (and decontextualize) the roles of a particular story and it's necessary elements. Coover examines classic tales such as Sleeping Beauty, The Babysitter, and Jonah & the Whale, reinterpreting them into new forms. What are the possible tales within each tale? With each possibility, what becomes of the original tale? The reader is left to interpret and reinterpret, considering new relationships within or between the stories. Further, the reader his/herself may well question their role in reading each of these well crafted tales. Questions arise such as, "why do we keep retelling these stories?, what makes these stories good? ...why do I find my self compelled to keep reading this?" In the metafictional tradition (as much as one might argue anything like a tradition might exist here) of Marquez, Calvino, Borges, Pynchon, Barth and Bartheleme, Coover has staked out his own territory. P & D is a wonderful read, and a great introduction to metafiction for those who haven't read anything like this before. It's probably safe to say most people haven't read anything like this before. Which is one half the reason this book is so appealing: It's (probably) unlike anything you've ever read. The other appealing half of P & D is the effect reading it will have on you: it's exhilarating, thought provoking and inspiring. I give P & D a 10 and highly recommend this collection of metafiction for both newcomers to this "new tradition" and those familiar with it as well. --Pete Wendel