[13U]∎ Libro Pricksongs Descants Fictions Robert Coover 9780802136671 Books

Pricksongs Descants Fictions Robert Coover 9780802136671 Books

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Pricksongs Descants Fictions Robert Coover 9780802136671 Books

Pricksongs and Descants was like nothing I've every read before and I liked it a lot. The writing was wonderful and the stories deliciously creepy, bizarre, and often disturbing. These stories are most certainly not your traditional children's tales and they are for the mature reader. I normally dislike short stories but I enjoyed these ones. I like strange, bizarre, and seemingly absurd books (perhaps this is why I like Kafka so much).

Pricksongs and Descants is metafiction. It's a book about fiction, short stories, and mythology. Coover challenges what we know about genre and story telling. In this book, he takes pieces of biblical stories, fairytales, and popular myths and reworks them in a way that makes them almost unrecognizable. In the process he plays with both narrative structure and content. It's a book that is the exemplification of experimental literature. One story, "The Babysitter," is essentially 20 stories in one because Coover is constantly interrupting the narrative flow to present multiple possible versions of what happens. Is it a horror story or just an average and boring night? Coover challenges what we know, or what we think we know, at every twist and turn. In some cases we are simply along for the ride and in other cases we are the ones who decide how to interpret the story.

I loved the way that Coover's stories were so different in tone, style, perspective from one to the next. In several stories he pulls the reader in the narrative (the Leper), making us wonder how we are complicit in the story. I liked the experimental nature of the stories and how he deconstructed what we normally view as fiction or fairy tales. And the writing! Whoever wrote the Amazon synopsis wasn't wrong when they claimed that the book is "riotously word-drunk."' Here are some quotes that exemplify the style:

A moment of grace settles between them, but Karen turns her back on it clumsily.

It's a sad place," she says "and all too much like my own life." He nods. "You mean, the losing struggle against inscrutable blind forces, young dreams brought to ruin?" "Yes, something like that," she says. "And getting kicked in and gutted and shat upon."

Poverty and resignation weigh on the old man. His cloth jacket is patched and threadbare, unbleached white over the shoulders, worn through on the elbows. His feet do not lift, but shuffle through the dust. White hair. Parched skin. Secret forces of despair and guilt seem to pull him earthward.

The old man's gaze is straight ahead, but at what? Perhaps at nothing. Some invisible destination. Some irrecoverable point of departure. Once thing can be said about the eyes: they are tired. Whether they have seen too much or too little, they betray no will to see yet more.

Lamps pulse. Lovely Lady shyly reveals belly. Not crimson at all, but creamy with a blush of salmon pink. Shouts and whistles. Hoo-boys and zams. Salmon: semen. There we are again. Stickle: tickle. Belly: bag. Lovely one too.

Although I enjoyed the book, it is not one I would recommend to many readers. Some of the content is disturbing and it is most certainly not appropriate for young readers. The book has 18 short stores including: The door — The magic poker — Morris in chains — The gingerbread house — Seven exemplary fictions — The elevator — Romance of the thin man and the fat lady — Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl — The sentient lens — A pedestrian accident — The babysitter — The hat act. Some stories have some graphic violence and many have strong sexual content. Some stories are re-workings of biblical stories which may offend some readers.

I would recommend this book to people who like experimental literature and who are not easily offended or disturbed.


Tags : Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions [Robert Coover] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>Pricksongs & Descants, originally published in 1969, is a virtuoso performance that established its author - already a William Faulkner Award winner for his first novel - as a writer of enduring power and unquestionable brilliance,Robert Coover,Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions,Grove Press,0802136672,Short Stories (Single Author),Short stories,Short stories, American,Short stories.,Coover, Robert - Prose & Criticism,FICTION Literary,FICTION Short Stories (single author),Fiction,Fiction - General,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction

Pricksongs Descants Fictions Robert Coover 9780802136671 Books Reviews

To quote from Wikipedia, "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, which has influenced a new generation of writers".
Coover's name is typically mentioned alongside postmodern / metafiction masters like Barth, Barthelme, Borges and Calvino (one heck of a law firm, there), and Pricksongs & Descants is usually cited as his breakthrough book. While I agree that he's certainly exploring similar terrain, and that P&D definitely has some innovative, standout moments, I don't think Coover's work here is of quite the same caliber.

For one thing, it's often not a lot of fun to read. Most of the stories in this volume have at least some basis is fairytale, fable, myth or fantasy, which Coover then twists and extrudes through a sort of probability engine, revealing myriad possible outcomes. The sections of his nonlinear stories seem a bit like slices from a 'choose your own adventure' book, and combined with his penchant for dark, psychosexual drama, the result is occasionally intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying.

With Coover, there's a feeling that cleverness is paramount. As William H. Gass observed in a largely enthusiastic 1969 review, "this is a book of virtuoso exercises alert, self-conscious, instructional and show-off. Look at me, look at me, look at me now..." With its tricks and twists, the book practically fawns for admiration, though while controlled and technically accomplished, Coover's writing seems to lack a lot of genuine heart or generosity of spirit. This was a well that often drained me as a reader, rather than filling me up.

That being said, Coover's 'shuffled deck' technique reaches its apotheosis in "The Babysitter," a remarkable story that explodes the latent psychosexual tensions of suburban life with stunning ingenuity, what Gass called "a remarkable fugue -- the stock fears and wishes, desires and dangers of our time done into Bach." Though much of P&D failed to mean much for me, this story was a revelation. Whether you decide to go in for the whole book or not, read "The Babysitter." Twice.
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...........
This is one of the best short story collections ever. It is especially timely in 2018 in the United States and in a world committed to democratic values -- as we imagine and write new stories for a time we must call our own. I am Red Riding Hood closing the door.
Pricksongs and Descants was like nothing I've every read before and I liked it a lot. The writing was wonderful and the stories deliciously creepy, bizarre, and often disturbing. These stories are most certainly not your traditional children's tales and they are for the mature reader. I normally dislike short stories but I enjoyed these ones. I like strange, bizarre, and seemingly absurd books (perhaps this is why I like Kafka so much).

Pricksongs and Descants is metafiction. It's a book about fiction, short stories, and mythology. Coover challenges what we know about genre and story telling. In this book, he takes pieces of biblical stories, fairytales, and popular myths and reworks them in a way that makes them almost unrecognizable. In the process he plays with both narrative structure and content. It's a book that is the exemplification of experimental literature. One story, "The Babysitter," is essentially 20 stories in one because Coover is constantly interrupting the narrative flow to present multiple possible versions of what happens. Is it a horror story or just an average and boring night? Coover challenges what we know, or what we think we know, at every twist and turn. In some cases we are simply along for the ride and in other cases we are the ones who decide how to interpret the story.

I loved the way that Coover's stories were so different in tone, style, perspective from one to the next. In several stories he pulls the reader in the narrative (the Leper), making us wonder how we are complicit in the story. I liked the experimental nature of the stories and how he deconstructed what we normally view as fiction or fairy tales. And the writing! Whoever wrote the synopsis wasn't wrong when they claimed that the book is "riotously word-drunk."' Here are some quotes that exemplify the style

A moment of grace settles between them, but Karen turns her back on it clumsily.

It's a sad place," she says "and all too much like my own life." He nods. "You mean, the losing struggle against inscrutable blind forces, young dreams brought to ruin?" "Yes, something like that," she says. "And getting kicked in and gutted and shat upon."

Poverty and resignation weigh on the old man. His cloth jacket is patched and threadbare, unbleached white over the shoulders, worn through on the elbows. His feet do not lift, but shuffle through the dust. White hair. Parched skin. Secret forces of despair and guilt seem to pull him earthward.

The old man's gaze is straight ahead, but at what? Perhaps at nothing. Some invisible destination. Some irrecoverable point of departure. Once thing can be said about the eyes they are tired. Whether they have seen too much or too little, they betray no will to see yet more.

Lamps pulse. Lovely Lady shyly reveals belly. Not crimson at all, but creamy with a blush of salmon pink. Shouts and whistles. Hoo-boys and zams. Salmon semen. There we are again. Stickle tickle. Belly bag. Lovely one too.

Although I enjoyed the book, it is not one I would recommend to many readers. Some of the content is disturbing and it is most certainly not appropriate for young readers. The book has 18 short stores including The door — The magic poker — Morris in chains — The gingerbread house — Seven exemplary fictions — The elevator — Romance of the thin man and the fat lady — Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl — The sentient lens — A pedestrian accident — The babysitter — The hat act. Some stories have some graphic violence and many have strong sexual content. Some stories are re-workings of biblical stories which may offend some readers.

I would recommend this book to people who like experimental literature and who are not easily offended or disturbed.