Romance of the Thin Man and the Fat Lady

by Robert Coover

This book contains: "Romance of the Thin Man and the Fat Lady", "The Babysitter", and "A Pedestrian Accident" taken from Pricksongs and Descants .

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Modern Classics

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Lowell Coover was an American novelist, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. He became a proponent of electronic literature and was a founder of the Electronic Literature Organization.

Reviews

[Jeroen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For this to be my introduction to Coover might not be a fortuitous circumstance. It could just be his style, but I get a serious oh-by-the-by vibe from these stories. These are in-betweens, stylistic exercises, the half-ideas that you throw away as writer which proceed to come back to write themselves for you (haunt you, colloquial speech would allow). One day you come to your desk and the story is there, in overly wordy sentences. But then that might just be me.

Coover obviously likes to fuck with convention, perspective and chronology, but here goes on to fuck too obviously with convention, perspective and chronology. It's not a good thing when upon reading a story you can hear the writer smirk knowingly in the background, when the word WITTY is scribbled in pretentious capitals (there is such a thing!) along the margins.

And yet if pressed I would have to say.. Yes! the endless cul-de-sacs - ambiguous cul-de-sacs at that - of the babysitter story are clever and Yes! the deadpan humor of the speechless Paul under the truck, a farce developing within and without him and Yes! the analysis of the circus tragedies, written with a smile instead of a tear as it is supposed to go in the circus, it's all (pretty) goooood.

My favorite passage is when Paul, dying beneath a truck, is hit not just by the heavy vehicle but by the importance of that which never matters:

As he lay there among the curious, several odd questions plagued Paul's mind. He knew there was no point to them, but he couldn't rid himself of them. The book, for example: did he have a book? And if he did, what book, and what had happened to it? And what about the stoplight, that lost increment of what men call history, why had no one brought up the matter of the stoplight? And pure carbon he could understand, but as for light: what could its purity consist of? KI. 14. That impression that it had happened before. Yes, these were mysteries, all right. His head ached from them.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three pretty fucked up stories but fascinating in their construction. The Babysitter was both the hardest to read thematically and one of the most impressively crafted stories I’ve read in a long time. The narrator roves between characters, a different perspective every paragraph almost, yet it works and the result is very compelling. I’ll be thinking about these stories for a while.

[Mark J Easton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's no obvious way to review a collection of Robert Coover's short stories, no conspicuous handle with which to hold the text, no praise likely to escape being labelled sycophancy, and no criticism that wouldn't rightly be mocked as bitter jealously. Reviewing Coover is painful, and not because of any pretensions it gives one to write like him, but rather because of the pretensions it instills to read him without being intimidated.

Whether its the romantic irony of the collection's eponymous story, the fetid titillation of "The Babysitter", or the frivolous mundanity of "A Pedestrian Accident", each story reads like you're smacking yourself in the head with a flail; each leaves an admixture of blood and synovial fluid pouring from your ears; each feels sucking on the metallic teats of a shotgun's barrels.

So if you're happy to have your mind wrung out and twisted by a short collection of words, then I recommend you need look no further; if you prefer to keep your sense and thoughts well ordered, then why not go look for something off a best seller list.

[Todd Charlton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody talks about Robert Coover. This tiny book of 3 short stories is probably the best introduction to his work. These stories are terrific. First we have Romance of the Thin Man and Fat Lady, it's not the EC Comics version, but it's very cool. Then the classic, The Babysitter. This is a story that has to be read.... it can't be described. The last story, mundanely titled, Pedestrian Accident, is the most original, out of left field, hilarious, memorable story I've read in years!
This little 100 page book cost me $2. The best $2 I ever spent!

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Babysitter has to be one of the most mind-bending short stories I have ever read. Great collection.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very odd stories but thoroughly enjoyable. Make me want to read more of his.

[Nicola Strangis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sono finito per caso su questa brevissima ma interessante raccolta di racconti di Robert Coover. Si tratta di storie impegnative sotto tutti gli aspetti, ma che allo stesso tempo ti impediscono di staccare la testa dal libro, anche se per l’assurdità di alcune situazioni è necessario tornare su alcuni passi. Coover spinge di continuo la mente di chi legge a generare domande su argomenti slegati dal primo livello di lettura, ed a filtrare le risposte attraverso i concetti che via via si esprimono su carta: sicuramente questo genere di autore merita più tempo di una semplice lettura serale, e più analisi di quella che si può fare in un commento da due soldi come questo. Forse vorrò approfondirlo in futuro.

[Anupma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of three short stories has wrung my mind, twisted it, and hung it out to dry. Extremely compelling structure and style, each different from the next. Finding hilarity in brutal and cruel situations is an art, of course. However, making the reader feel it too is quite something.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

crazy weird