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The Public Burning (Hardcover)

by Robert Coover (Author) "I was with the President at his news conference that Wednesday morning when the maverick Supreme Court Justice William Douglas dropped his bombshell in the..." (more)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 534 pages
Publisher: Viking Press (Aug 1977)
ISBN-10: 067058200X
ISBN-13: 978-0670582006
Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 4.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 448,765 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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From the Publisher

Back in print with William H. Gass introduction
William H. Gass has written a wonderful introduction to this controversial book, outlining the history of legal problems suurounding the intital hardcover publication. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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I was with the President at his news conference that Wednesday morning when the maverick Supreme Court Justice William Douglas dropped his bombshell in the Rosenberg case. Read the first page

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5 Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathless!, 25 Sep 2000

By	Andy Millward (Broxbourne, Herts, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Public Burning (Paperback)

This is book like few others. Dense, wordy, packed with minutely researched detail of real characters and events, punctuated with bizarre and fantastic interludes, then shaken in the pot with fervent abandon, the Public Burning is the product of a cynical and zany imagination.

The vivid imagery masks a serious intent at dissecting the brooding mood of post-war America through the eyes of "Tricky Dick" Nixon. Equally, you could apply the analysis of Uncle Sam's role on the world stage right up to the present.

It isn't an easy read, but you certainly can't ignore it (and anyone who claims to be offended by the book ought to look long and hard at their own part in the American dream...)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tricky Dick's Comeuppance, 23 Jun 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Public Burning (Paperback)

The brilliance of The Public Burning can be seen on many levels. Artistically, it's a fascinating novel, structured in Coover's inimitable surreality, he finds the strange gray area between reality, history, and fantasy and constructs a convincing, working world out of it. His transition from known historical record (quoting court records, Time magazine, which he hilariously personifies as the US poet laureatte) to ribald fantasia (the Incarnation of Uncle Sam catching Nixon jacking off while fantasizing about Ethel Rosenberg) is astonishingly smooth. Hell, I firmly believe Nixon did this, just because Coover's representation of it is so believable! On a political level this book gives America's ultimate hypocrite his just deserts, and the funny thing is that as Coover so brazenly points out in the book's amazingly funny final 50 pages, Nixon was always his own worst enemy. Ultimately, Coover makes a very interesting statement about what it means to be in power in this country, and contrary to what conservatives might think, he doesn't leave the democrats out of his criticism. This book isn't about communism at all, but about 1950s America's perception of communism and our government's response to the general perception, or creation of it, to manipulate and control our citizens (isn't that the final goal of government these days, anyway?) As far as religious offense, I find nothing more offensive to me than religion, so I delight in any author willing to have the cojones to criticize it (although criticizing religion is often akin to taking a 12-guage to a pickle barrel full of catfish). Coover stands as an icon of postmodernism, along with Barth, Pynchon, Roth, et al, reinventing the novel form as he writes. This novel should stand the test of time as a beautifully funny reminder of how whacky things sometimes got during the 20th Century, despite all the technological advances.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astounding classic, 8 April 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Public Burning (Paperback)

This book should be required reading for all students of the novel as form and/or of recent American history. Far more compelling than the other books by Coover I've read (John's Wife, Pinocchio in Venice, Ghost Town), but with the same quirkiness & sense of dramatic scene. Excellent.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Repugnant But Fascinating
This is one of the most stylistically impressive novels of the post-war era. It's almost an encyclopedia of American popular culture during the first half of the century, plus... Read more

Published on 10 Jun 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars possibly the best novel written about the cold war
this is truly one of the great works of post-war american fiction. chapters alternate between a first-person account of the trial and execution of ethel and julius rosenberg... Read more

Published on 29 Aug 1998

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