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<book id="268338">
  <title><![CDATA[Gerald's Party (Coover, Robert)]]></title>
  <isbn><![CDATA[0802135285]]></isbn>
  <isbn13><![CDATA[9780802135285]]></isbn13>
    <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173289036m/268338.jpg</image_url>
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  <best_book_id type="integer">268338</best_book_id>
  <books_count type="integer">8</books_count>
  <default_description>&lt;div&gt;Robert Coover's wicked and surreally comic novel takes place at a chilling, ribald, and absolutely fascinating party. Amid the drunken guests, a woman turns up murdered on the living room floor. Around the corpse, one of several the evening produces, Gerald's party goes on &amp;#8212; a chatter of voices, names, faces, overheard gags, rounds of storytelling, and a mounting curve of desire. What Coover has in store for his guests (besides an evening gone mad) is part murder mystery, part British parlor drama, and part sly and dazzling meditation on time, theater, and love.&lt;/div&gt;</default_description>
  <id type="integer">417016</id>
  <media_type nil="true"></media_type>
  <original_language_id type="integer" nil="true"></original_language_id>
  <original_publication_day type="integer" nil="true"></original_publication_day>
  <original_publication_month type="integer" nil="true"></original_publication_month>
  <original_publication_year type="integer">1986</original_publication_year>
  <original_title>Gerald's Party (Coover, Robert)</original_title>
  <rating_dist>total:62|5:12|4:25|3:18|2:6|1:1|</rating_dist>
  <ratings_count type="integer">62</ratings_count>
  <ratings_sum type="integer">227</ratings_sum>
  <reviews_count type="integer">87</reviews_count>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">9</text_reviews_count>
</work>

  <average_rating><![CDATA[3.66]]></average_rating>
  <ratings_count><![CDATA[60]]></ratings_count>
  <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[9]]></text_reviews_count>
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/268338.Gerald_s_Party]]></url>
  <authors>
        <author id="16086">
      <name><![CDATA[Robert Coover]]></name>
      <role><![CDATA[]]></role>
      <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16086.Robert_Coover]]></url>
      <average_rating><![CDATA[3.79]]></average_rating>
      <ratings_count><![CDATA[1324]]></ratings_count>
      <text_reviews_count><![CDATA[160]]></text_reviews_count>
    </author>
      </authors>
    <reviews start="1" end="20" total="87">
    <review id="59470801">
    <user id="2366075">
    <name><![CDATA[John]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Vineyard Haven, MA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2366075-john-sundman?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jun 12 20:02:16 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Jun 17 09:09:32 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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 &quot;closed room&quot; mystery--and beats it to death. I guess the meta-joke is that just as the hellish party is inescapable and goes ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59470801">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59470801?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="63102891">
    <user id="131922">
    <name><![CDATA[Mark]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/131922-mark-monday?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jul 11 19:47:17 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Jul 11 19:52:30 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[gosh it's hard to believe that post-modernism used to be where it was at in literature. the writing here is dark and sardonic. some actual moments of reality intrude upon the constantly surrealistic tableau. despite the dark and often despairing ideas on display, it's not too heavy a read. and there...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63102891">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/63102891?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="14454100">
    <user id="792523">
    <name><![CDATA[Zack]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/792523-zack?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Wed Jan 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Feb 03 11:34:34 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Feb 03 11:48:10 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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 br...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14454100">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14454100?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="1288170">
    <user id="88638">
    <name><![CDATA[Scott]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/88638-scott?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri May 18 01:35:02 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri May 18 01:35:02 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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 &quot;well known&quot; 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 ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1288170">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1288170?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="70789948">
    <user id="1244504">
    <name><![CDATA[Shigekuni]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Bonn, Germany]]></location>        
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  </user>
      <rating>0</rating>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Sep 10 19:17:29 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Sep 10 19:17:29 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Gerald&#039;s Party (Coover, Robert) by Robert Coover (1997)]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70789948?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="43043785">
    <user id="1652316">
    <name><![CDATA[Michael]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Okatie, SC]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Jan 14 13:44:49 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Mar 26 18:25:28 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[There is a lot of unattributed dialogue and action in this novel and, although I am a big fan of both Coover and the Marx Brothers, I connot rank Coover with Gaddis, who is a master at this sort of thing. Whenever the text began to roll literary theory, philosophy, and other erudite subjects into th...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43043785">more...</a>]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43043785?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="32981022">
    <user id="186550">
    <name><![CDATA[Arvid]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Providence, RI]]></location>        
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/186550-arvid-tomayko-peters?utm_medium=api]]></url>
  </user>
      <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Sep 15 22:51:47 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 15 22:54:23 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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.]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32981022?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="5343167">
    <user id="321166">
    <name><![CDATA[Dave]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[New York, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>4</rating>
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  <date_added>Thu Aug 30 06:49:04 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Aug 31 09:18:19 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[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 &quot;back there&quot; -- the world it creates is uncomfortably dark (but hysterically funny).]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5343167?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="30484815">
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    <name><![CDATA[Steve]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[High Point, NC]]></location>        
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      <rating>5</rating>
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  <read_at>Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 18 15:14:09 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Aug 18 15:14:48 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[What a rollicking nutball good time!]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30484815?utm_medium=api]]></url>
</review>
    <review id="77000293">
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    <name><![CDATA[Andrew]]></name>
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  <date_added>Sat Nov 07 07:28:45 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Nov 07 07:28:45 -0800 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[]]></body>
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  <date_added>Mon Aug 17 11:03:59 -0700 2009</date_added>
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  <date_added>Mon Aug 03 22:46:35 -0700 2009</date_added>
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