- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing; Reprint edition (23 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0802137431
- ISBN-13: 978-0802137432
- Product Dimensions: 20.7 x 13.9 x 3.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,193,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Originally published in 1969, Robert Coover's first novel instantly established his mastery. A coal-mine explosion in a small mid-American town claims ninety-seven lives. The only survivor, a peculiar man subject to religious visions, is adopted as a prophet and quickly gains a following. Rapidly disseminated through the magic of media exposure, the cult spreads across America, and as its members gather on the Mount of Redemption to await the apocalypse, Robert Coover lays bare the madness of religious frenzy and the sometimes greater madness of "normal" citizens. The Origin of the Brunists is vintage Coover -- comic, fearless, incisive, and brilliantly executed.
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First Sentence
Clouds have massed, doming in the small world of West Condon. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Clouds have massed, doming in the small world of West Condon. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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3 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant
29 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
Having read Coover's later books, I was rather skeptical if his earlier ones would be as good - and was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I would rate Coover's first novel as his best work: taut, earthy and powerful, it chronicles the rise and fall of a cult group called the Brunist (following the name of the so-called founder of the group, Giovanni Bruno) and how even a small, seemingly harmless and insignificant group of people can become potentially threatening to the larger community. But what I truly admire about this novel is the slow, subtle building of the narrative terror and hysteria. Coover is indeed a master of suspense and anti-climaxes, building up very tensed episodes to end them in slick, sometimes frustrating, bathos. But this only makes the novel more rewarding as the reader is never on solid ground. The prose continuously shifts and distabilises the reader's suppositions, making it almost impossible to stop reading (this is not an exaggeration). I highly recommend this electrifying novel and hope that it will reach a very wide audience.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Origin of the Brunists - B-grade people meet religion
4 Nov 1997
Format:Hardcover
Robert Coover's first novel, Origin of the Brunists, shows how he won so many awards for his poetry and short fiction. This is a book you won't forget. The book throws a strange group of definitely substandard people together, adds a set of bizarre events, shakes, and comes up with the most bizarre - but plausible - religion you have ever seen. Metaphysics, virtual Forteanism, downright stoicism, you name it, it gets thrown in and sort of works. The book is a study of the individuals, not the religion, but the religion serves to hold the people together. I haven't read this book in 15 years, and I'm aching to get another copy. If you like this book, try Coover's Universal Baseball Association - J. Henry Waugh, Prop., or a collection of his poetry and shortstuff, Pricksongs and Other Delights. At least one of these is in print.
Brilliant and Insightful
1 Feb 2012
Format:Paperback
This book is at once brilliant, insightful, and extremely well written. The story provides a wicked parody of religion as it examines the birth and growth of a cult in a small town.
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