Robert Coover's wicked and surreally comic novel takes place at a chilling, ribald, and absolutely fascinating party. Amid the drunken guests, a... read full description
reviews
Aug 04, 2011
mark
rated it: 
gosh it is hard to believe that postmodernism used to be where it was at in literature. the writing here is dark and sardonic. some rare moments of realistic emotion occasionally intrude upon the constantly surreal tableau. i might have had a problem with what appears to be consistent misogyny...but there's plenty of misandry to go around too, so i suppose one could say that the author is even-handed in doling out the various moments of criminal shallowness, tunnel-vision, and all-around nastine
More...
4 comments
like
(13 people liked it)
Dec 15, 2011
David
rated it: 
This book gets designated the second I've read within about six weeks to include a sex scene in a cave atop a pile of human bones. (It is times like these that really force a person to question their own taste.) There's a lot to recommend here. The Bosch comparison is right on, and if you're interested in The Garden of Earthly Delights, I'd give this a try, which is another way of saying it has got a lot of graphic sex, graphic violence, and people eating some really nasty food, all taking plac
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 17, 2009
John
rated it: 
Coover takes a minimally interesting premise--a cocktail party right out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting as the setting for a send up of the classic Agatha Christie "closed room" mystery--and beats it to death. I guess the meta-joke is that just as the hellish party is inescapable and goes on forever, the book is inescapable and goes on forever. Fortunately, however, the book is escapable-- you have only to stop reading.
Certainly Coover deserves some style points for verbal More...
Certainly Coover deserves some style points for verbal More...
Feb 03, 2008
Zack
rated it: 
For some reason I've never got around to reading as much Coover as I feel I should have. SPANKING THE MAID when I was in high school, other shorter bits and pieces . . . Finally got around the GERALD'S PARTY and I'm kicking myself for not getting into his novels sooner. This is such an utterly brilliant piece of multi-layered work words (other than the exact ones the book itself is composed of) will not do it justice. "Sublime" is as close as I can come. This isn't one of those ne
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 26, 2011
Caroline
rated it: 
Couldn't get past the first 30 pages. Too slow and seemingly pointless in its painstaking detail to keep my interest. I get that that the excruciating detail is the point in the experiment of this novel, but it just too excruciating for me.
Dec 16, 2009
Scott
rated it:
A Po-Mo murder mystery. Gerald is having a big party with many friends and people he doesn't know, when a body of a very "well known" entertainer is found dead on the floor. Craziness occurs in a very relaxed non-chalant manner. It is a very tough read, i mean very tough. Coover never states who says what piece of dialogue, with fifty or so characters in the book, and many around at each situation that is occuring, it takes a lot of effort to decipher who is saying the line. It
More...
Jan 30, 2012
Roberto
rated it:
An entire novel set in a party! Whee! Coover manages to pull off, though it did kind of test my endurance to the limits, which is probably intentional. Relentless, confusing, slapstick, disjointed (lots of conversations going on at once) and claustrophobic, in other words reading it felt like either being too drunk or the onset of a panic attack, oh and tons of guests getting murdered...It is a novel full of ideas, on art, theatre (the function of the intermission - interesting, considering how
More...
Dec 04, 2011
I started reading this book on the train to work this morning, but abandoned it when Gerald went back into the bathroom to continue cleaning Naomi's bottom, as I just couldn't face any more of it.
Aug 01, 2011
dragynlady
rated it:
This was a gri and depressing story, though well written. Drunken irresponsible behavior by adults.
Sep 15, 2008
Arvid
rated it:
absolutely bizzare, carnal, erotic, at the same time gross, ridiculous and absorbing and it puts you right THERE. Made a piece of music based on some excepts of this book a few years ago after reading it in a class taught by Alvin Lucier - one of the greats of 20th century experimental sound art.
Dec 19, 2009
Melanie
rated it:
In an attempt to tie up the year's loose ends, I decided it was time to return to, and finally finish reading the last thirty pages of, Gerald's Party.
I was using a train ticket as a bookmark.
The ticket was dated January 4, 2009.
That's my review of Gerald's Party
I was using a train ticket as a bookmark.
The ticket was dated January 4, 2009.
That's my review of Gerald's Party
Aug 31, 2007
Dave
rated it:
A warped fever dream of a book. I couldn't put it down. I often think of re-reading it, but am not sure I want to go "back there" -- the world it creates is uncomfortably dark (but hysterically funny).
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 07, 2012
Jan 19, 2012
Jan 01, 2012
Dec 18, 2011
Dec 10, 2011
Dec 08, 2011
Dec 06, 2011
Nov 19, 2011
