Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions
by Robert Coover
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert CooverEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-03
ISBN: 0802136672
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions
Book Review: An under-the-radar masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
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