Robert Coover's Fable Land discussion

Coover's first novel is a more traditionally feeling kind of novel. Its sequel, The Brunist Day of Wrath, is scheduled to be published by Dzanc Books in 2014.

An outtake was published :: The Water Pourer. There is also a related short-story, "Blackdamp", published in The Review of Contemporary Fiction: Robert Coover Festschrift: Spring 2012.

Starting 'Origin' now so that I can run headlong into the sequel, which I just got in the mail. Interested to see how reading them in succession will be given that they were written 40-50 years apart. And if Origin is his most straight-forward novel, does the sequel ramp up the experimentation? I feel like this is a case of the less I know the better.

Mark wrote: " I feel like this is a case of the less I know the better. "

Understood!

The only tip I'd provide is to keep for yourself a running Cast of Characters.

I think it will be helpful to do so Mark. When I finally knew (after a year of waiting) that Coover's agent was going to send us the new manuscript, I read Origin and finished a day before starting Brunist Day of Wrath. It definitely helped me keep some of the characters in mind better than I think I would have had it been some time since I'd read the original. I don't necessarily believe he ramped up the experimentation so much as he ramped up his writing--longer, winding, sentences--maybe a slightly more gleeful vocabulary (which if you're reading Origin you realize is already pretty thorough).

George wrote: "Does anyone know if Coover did any research on mine disasters for Origin?."

Don't know that I've heard anything specific. Given too the recent Headline Grabbing mine disasters in recent years, I wonder too how much mine safety literature may have existed at the time ;; mine safety having looong been a major political issue, but the bosses of course long thinking it too expensive......

George wrote: "I would be interested to know if Coover has any verbal opinions out there discussing his views on the companies' thoughts about the expensive safety training. "

I think Vollmann at least will have a thing or two on this question in his Coal v. Nuclear book he's working on.