Customer Reviews

Pricksongs and Descants: Short Stories

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_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

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.