Press rewind and edit … Two novellas by Robert Coover

Briar Rose & Spanking the Maid by Robert Coover

Earlier this year, I discovered American author Robert Coover when I was sent his volume in the Pengiun Mini Modern Classics series to read and review (click here).  One of the three stories in that collection, a novella called The Babysitter, was a mini masterpiece; the other two were pretty good too.  I duly resolved to read more of this fascinating author, and soon got the opportunity, as Penguin have reissued three of his books in their new format; I got a freebie through the Amazon Vine programme.

From my Coover reading so far, it would seem that he has two main preoccupations – fairy tales and sex.

These come together in Briar Rose which is a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. Coover’s version though is nothing like you’ve read before. It’s dark and nasty, but totally unlike say how Angela Carter would treat it.  The familiar elements are there: a princess has pricked her finger on a spindle and lies asleep for a hundred years, and a prince arrives to battle through the briars and greet his true love with a kiss.  That is where the similarity ends. Coover imagines what might happen if the wrong prince turned up and raped the princess? What if the princess grew old while asleep? What happens to her bodily fluids? – Yes!  There are hundreds of possible outcomes and he leads us through them in a series of vignettes. We’re never sure whether the princess is dreaming them, or whether they happened and she is doomed to go through it all again until the right prince comes along.  Meanwhile,  between these iterations from sleeping beauty’s point of view, are a similar set of the prince. Wondering what she’ll look like. Will he be the first. Will he be the one?  He battles through the briars for ever it seems, and he begins to wonder if it was worth it…

Spanking the Maid has a similar structure.  Each day, a maid arrives to clean her master’s bedroom, but she always gets something wrong and has to be chastised for it.  She tries so hard, but can never reach perfection, and submits to her punishment, resolving to do better next time.  Her master, doesn’t want to administer it, but feels he has to, to teach her a lesson.  Coover describes the daily spanking in great detail and I was just wishing for it to end.

Coover employed the same stylistic tricks in The Babysitter, (which is in his collection Pricksongs and descants along with several more fairy tales). However in that story, the multiple viewpoints and retelling of events did creep towards a real climax and a thoroughly resolved ending.  Both of these novellas had a ‘There must be more to life than this’ feel for me, and finished on a whimper rather than a bang.  They were both thoroughly distasteful too, full of base emotions, not a whiff of fairy tale romance of real relief!

Although I did wish for both stories to end so I could be released from the vicious cycle of the recesses of his imagination, the writing was compelling. I do feel I would need more stamina to cope with a full length novel of this intensity though. (7.5/10)

For another view on this book, visit Just William’s Luck

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To explore further on Amazon UK, click below:
Briar Rose & Spanking the Maid (Penguin Modern Classics)
Pricksongs & Descants (Penguin Modern Classics)

2 thoughts on “Press rewind and edit … Two novellas by Robert Coover

  1. LizF says:

    Sorry Annabel. I don’t think I am going to be trying any of his work any time soon.
    It doesn’t make any difference to me how good the writing is – pervert-lit is not for me!

    • gaskella says:

      After the three short stories I read earlier, I didn’t expect these novellas to be quite so unsettling!

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