Briar Rose [Hardcover]

Robert Coover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

Briar Rose tells of a prince trapped in the briars, a sleeping beauty who cannot awaken and who dreams of a succession of kissing princes, as the old spell-casting fairy who inhabits the princess's dreams regales her with legends of other sleeping beauties and trying to imagine the nature of human desire.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Coover has a power over the language matched by few authors and a curiosity about the nature of stories and narratives that keeps his work intellectually charged, if sometimes difficult to follow. Students of postmodernism and fans of metafiction will be interested to read Briar Rose, Coover's funny deconstruction and retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.

From Publishers Weekly

Long a favorite of modern poets from Paul Valery to Randall Jarrell, the tale of Sleeping Beauty has given rise to some of the century's deepest meditations on the act of writing and the workings of inspiration and desire. Coover (John's Wife, etc.) has always drawn inspiration from classical narratives (he brilliantly reworked Hansel and Gretel in his short-story collection Pricksongs and Descants), so it will hardly surprise his readers that he has devoted an entire, albeit slim, novel to the princess. Briar Rose returns him to what may be his most fruitful obsession, the absurd and inescapable demands that Romance makes on our lives. "Desire," the fairy godmother asks herself, "what is that?" That's the question at the heart of this remarkable thicket of a novel, where plot and point of view intertwine according to the logic of fable, dream and parody. Coover's allegorical retelling of Sleeping Beauty-hard to put down and impossible to paraphrase-is one of his best, bitterest jokes to date. It is also one of his most accessible works, confirming him as simply wittier, sadder, more precise and more inventive than most novelists writing today.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 86 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1st edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802115918
• ISBN-13: 978-0802115911
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars POOR LITTLE PRINCE IN A BRIAR PATCH WITH NO PADDLE, March 13, 2002

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Briar Rose (Coover, Robert) (Paperback)

Robert Coover is one of the pioneering post-modernists that started working in the 60's and shows no signs of stopping...The three main characters of the piece are the princess, known as Rose, the rescuing prince, and the wicked fairy who cast the spell on her.

Instead of an innocent princess, we have one who dreams of being violated sexually by her prince before he gives her a kiss to wake her. She is aroused by this. The only world she inhabits is that of her dreams. In her moments of existentialist thought she questions why she has to be the princess. Why is she made to suffer? What did she do wrong to be enchanted into an eternal sleep?

The prince at first appears to be the stereotype we all know. He is handsome, brave, and whose sole reason for living is to do good. He is flawed, though, by his own over-confidence. Most of the book he is cutting through briars. Even he is not really interested in Rose. He is simply fulfilling his mythic job. Namely, rescuing virgin maidens. He has a problem with his fate too. He lives for the quest and recognizes that once the quest is over the aftermath becomes too mundane. If he rescues the princess, he will have to marry her and settle down. There is no mystery or wonder in day to day life and so he almost dreads getting to the castle to wake her.

As with most post-modern thought the fairy exhibits both good and evil sides, almost a two-face type character. She feels on one side a joy in the princess' suffering but on the other hand she feels she rescued her from an otherwise humdrum existence. At least while she is enchanted she will not know death or pain. Unfortunately, the fairy has to supply the dreams of Rose and most of them are about horrible tales that happened to sleeping princesses.

I liked this book a lot. You feel as though all the characters are fighting against their archetypal nature. They are all struggling against their fate and this is heroic. It is more than a questioning of existence. This book is about the QUEST for existence. What does it mean to fulfill your destiny? Is there anything after that? Are your dreams stronger than reality? I would recommend this book to first-time Coover readers because it is short and more accessible than some of his other work. Besides, the language is beautiful.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance of word craft, June 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Briar Rose (Hardcover)

When I first studied creative writing in college, my professor named three men he thought had defined the novel to that point, John Gardner, Robert Coover, John Barth (I would add others, but that's what he said). Coover's genius lies in his word craft. He drifts between reality, the dream, the dream of reality, and the reality of the dream (those really are 4 different things) effortlessly. To call his writing surreal doesn't begin to do it justice. He writes fiction that reads like your own thoughts, as if you were thinking each word as it appeared before your eyes. His novels live in a twilight zone squeezed in between dimensions, and although often populated by familiar names and faces (such as in this book and The Public Burning) he delves into the motivations that make the characters what they are. What makes a prince forge through brambles? What does a princess think and dream about while magically asleep for 100 years? Coover's speculations are hilarious, thought-provoking, mysterious, and compelling. A beautifully constructed story that we all already know, turned in on itself, and dissected to reveal level upon level of consciousness. Fine work from a true master of literature.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Existential Sleeping Beauty, September 20, 2004

By 

Nescio "I don't know" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Briar Rose (Hardcover)

While reading Coover's book, you might find yourself confused. This is only appropriate, as Coover wrote an existential masterpiece. The prince's efforts to penetrate the briar hedge lead him nowhere. Beauty dreams of a series of princes waking her, each worse than the last. They seek eachother because they seek the only concept they know will not melt away.

If you consider the phrase "someday my prince will come" sacrosanct, this is probably not a good one to read.

If you need a traditional narrative, this is probalby not a good one to read.

If you're looking for a read aloud for your children...perhaps try a different book.

Otherwise, enjoy.