Robert Coover Books

Set in a lavish penthouse high above Manhattan, a diverse mix of guests and uninvited attendees converge, creating a tense atmosphere where the affluent and the desperate intertwine. As a complex con unfolds, those with ulterior motives become entangled in a web of deception, realizing too late the true nature of their gathering. The occasion remains ambiguous, leaving readers to ponder whether it’s a celebration, a spiritual meeting, or a real estate showcase, all while the stakes escalate dramatically.

Fifty years after the original release of Coover's satire, this rollicking fable of the grotesque, unhinged Cat in the Hat (and the stuffed shirts who bet on his success) makes for a bitterly funny indictment of politics-as-usual in 2017.

A satirical fable with a rootless and helpless accountant as the protagonist. Alone in his apartment, he spends all his nights and weekends playing an intricate baseball game of his own invention. The author has won the William Faulkner Award and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award.

Exploring the boundaries of reality and fantasy, this collection of short stories features whimsical and darkly humorous narratives that twist traditional fairy tales and bedtime stories. Characters embark on peculiar journeys, such as two children led into the woods by an old man, a husband confronting the surreal aftermath of his wife's death, and a babysitter caught in a web of erotic dreams. Coover's inventive storytelling showcases his unique voice and establishes him as a significant figure in American literature.

Set against the backdrop of the impending Civil War, the story explores Huck's journey after Tom Sawyer chooses to embrace civilization instead of escaping it. Left feeling "dreadful lonely," Huck navigates a treacherous landscape filled with bandits and war parties. As he embarks on his Western adventures, he reconnects with old friends and confronts difficult truths and choices, highlighting themes of friendship, isolation, and the struggle between civilization and freedom.

Robert Coover's wicked and surreally comic novel takes place at a chilling, ribald, and absolutely fascinating party. Amid the drunken guests, a woman turns up murdered on the living room floor. Around the corpse, one of several the evening produces, Gerald's party goes on - a chatter of voices, names, faces, overheard gags, rounds of storytelling, and a mounting curve of desire. What Coover has in store for his guests (besides an evening gone mad) is part murder mystery, part British parlor drama, and part sly and dazzling meditation on time, theater, and love.

A recreation of the tale of "Sleeping Beauty" tells of a prince tangled in the briars, a sleeping princess who dreams of a succession of kissing princes, and a grizzled fairy who inhabits the princess' dreams, inflaming her desires

Provocative and experimental, this collection showcases Robert Coover's incisive and inventive storytelling that has defined his career. Known for pushing the boundaries of avant-garde literature, Coover's work combines dark satire with a keen critique of modernity, making it both relevant and irreverent. With decades of experience, he continues to engage readers through his unique style and sharp wit. This fourth collection reflects his mastery of metafiction and his influence on generations of postmodern writers.

Robert Coover's imagination blisteringly combines the sinister and the hilarious - in writing both wildly energetic and cruelly vaudevillian. In these three short stories, he conjures macabre scenes of a troubled circus romance, of a brutally comic traffic accident, and of a single night of babysitting where every hope or threat of violence or sex is done and undone.

Here are 70 of the very best short-short stories of recent years, including contributions from such contemporary writers as Raymond Carver, Leonard Michaels and John Updike; a few modern masters such as Hemingway and Cheever; and an assortment of talented new young writers. Sudden Fiction brilliantly captures the tremendous popularity of this new and distinctly American form.