Be Specific About Of Books The Public Burning
| Title | : | The Public Burning |
| Author | : | Robert Coover |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 544 pages |
| Published | : | April 2nd 1998 by Grove Press (first published 1977) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Novels |
Robert Coover
Paperback | Pages: 544 pages Rating: 4.02 | 1150 Users | 109 Reviews
Relation To Books The Public Burning
A controversial best-seller in 1977, The Public Burning has since emerged as one of the most influential novels of our time. The first major work of contemporary fiction ever to use living historical figures as characters, the novel reimagines the three fateful days in 1953 that culminated with the execution of alleged atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Vice-President Richard Nixon - the voraciously ambitious bad boy of the Eisenhower regime - is the dominant narrator in an enormous cast that includes Betty Crocker, Joe McCarthy, the Marx Brothers, Walter Winchell, Uncle Sam, his adversary The Phantom, and Time magazine incarnated as the National Poet Laureate. All of these and thousands more converge in Times Square for the carnivalesque auto-da-fe at which the Rosenbergs are put to death. And not a person present escapes implication in Cold War America's ruthless "public burning."
Describe Books As The Public Burning
| Original Title: | The Public Burning |
| ISBN: | 0802135277 (ISBN13: 9780802135278) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Richard M. Nixon |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1978) |
Rating Of Books The Public Burning
Ratings: 4.02 From 1150 Users | 109 ReviewsCriticism Of Books The Public Burning
This book, The Public Burning by Robert Coover, is but a month and 19 days younger than myself (that is, if we determine the life of a book to begin on its publication date, and not the day it is conceived, which, if we were to do, would complicate things greatly and unnecessarily). So we have lived our Earth's time basically concurrently, this book and I. We are coevals. Mr. Coover's baby may have grown up to be a man much similar to myself. I just purchased a 1st edition VG+ copy of The PublicThis is an extraordinary novel, and contains some of the most sustained, inventive, furious satire I have ever read. So why only 4 stars? Well, while there are sections that would fully deserve the full-fathom-five, it was just too much rage to be sustained over a 500 page, tiny-type, novel. Writing in fury is hard, it has a tendency to take over the prose, and it can become a little baggy and unfocused as a result. Some judicious editing might have made this work better for me, though I cannot
A full-toothed pell-mell assault on the American political class rendered in scimitar-sharp prose, rammed into the intestines of the Establishment with merciless force. Split between a rumbustious third-person satirical voice, making full use of Coovers insane linguistic skill in the phonetic bile of Uncle Sama monstrous American Devil pulling the puppet stringsand a section narrated by Dick Nixon (who has his intestines removed and served up on a plate of steaming poop four times per para), The
For those with an interest in the Rosenberg trials, Richard Nixon, McCarthyism, and the entire 1953 milieu, The Public Burning provides a wild and entertaining view of what might otherwise be a dry subject. Coovers fictional Nixon is fascinating with Nixons reflections on himself as the pragmatic political workman misunderstood by an aloof Eisenhower who both uses and looks askance at him. Some knowledge of this period is required to get the most from the book. Every celebrity and well-known
This review says: Burn me down, Amazon, burn me down!
The Public Burning is a curious mix of fact and fiction whose characters include: Betty Crocker, Jack Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, the Marx Brothers, Mamie and Ike Eisenhower, Billy Graham, and starring Dick Nixon, Uncle Sam, The Phantom and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The story of Americas extreme fear of communism during the 50s and the execution of the Rosenbergs (the only American civilians to be put to death for espionage) is told primarily through Vice President Nixon, (who is depicted to be
This Is a Job for Uncle Sam!A very exciting way to write history, at least political history, which is simultaneously personal and public, psychological and strategic, irrationally rational and therefore so dense with meaning it defies conventional narrative. As Richard Nixon says in The Public Burning, ... just as a nation has neither friends nor enemies, only interests, so there are no enduring loyalties in politics except where they are tied up in personal interests. And personal interests
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