Vampire

by Robert Coover

He sets off one day on an arduous journey to a remote kingdom, wondering, as the weeks pass, about the wisdom of it. Even the purpose. When he launched forth, he was sure he had a purpose, but by the time he reaches the primitive mountain village at the edge of the wilderness, he can no longer remember it.

Genres: Short Stories, Vampires

2 pages, ebook

First published October 17, 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

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I’ve never been drawn to vampires myself, those tales that have enthralled millions from Bram Stoker’s 1897 classic, Dracula, to Ann Rice’s popular series, The Vampire Chronicles, the fact that vampires continue to capture the public imagination is truly fascinating. What is it about these ghoulish bloodsuckers? After reading this Robert Coover flash fiction, I think I now get it. Count me in as a new fan! However, since I’m not at all familiar with the conventions of the genre, I’ll have to ask readers the following questions:

• Is the main character a legitimate vampire, since, after all, in this Robert Coover tale he is wearing a golf shirt and colorful Bermuda shorts?

• When he smiles, showing his teeth, the villagers shriek, shrink back and cross themselves theatrically. Shouldn’t the villagers turn on their heels and run for their lives?

• He enters a castle at night. Wolves howl. Is there a close connection between vampires and wolves?

• And the castle is cold and smells of unwashed laundry. The cold I can understand but what’s with the smell of unwashed laundry?

• Once in his living room, the TV is on. We read: “Seems to be a sitcom with comic monsters playing a ball game of some sort with human heads. He laughs along with the canned laughter on the TV and about as sincerely.” Does this program sound familiar to anyone?

• We are given more detail on his family life: “The children are swinging from the fixtures overhead, squealing, squabbling, pissing drollishly upside down, the big ones biting the little ones and making them cry; like children everywhere, he supposes, though in truth he’s never paid much attention to the noisome little pests.” Can vampires have children? I was under the distinct impression vampires have always been genetically incapable of producing offspring.

• There is a direct reference of how his hemorrhoids flare up. Is this the first recorded account in literature of a vampire having hemorrhoids?

Robert Coover's Vampire can be read via this link courtesy of GRANTA: https://granta.com/vampire/




American author Robert Coover, Born 1932

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.

this is the FIFTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2020 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards, because i have not compiled as many as usual this year.

IN ADDITION, this may be the last year i do this project since GR has already deleted the pages for several of the stories i've read in previous years without warning, leaving me with a bunch of missing reviews and broken links, which makes me feel shitty. because i don't have a lot of time to waste, i'm not going to bother writing much in the way of reviews for these, in case gr decides to scrap 'em again. 2020 has left me utterly wrung out and i apologize for what's left of me. i am doing my best.

DECEMBER 7: VAMPIRE - ROBERT COOVER

my saving grace during these advent calendars = FLASH FICTION! thank you, robert coover, for writing this tiny surreal suburban satire about vampiric malaise that didn't...WAIT FOR IT...suck.

FLASH REVIEW FOR FLASH FICTION.

sometimes it is too sleepy to do more.

read it for free here

DECEMBER 1: PG - COURTNEY SUMMERS
DECEMBER 2: THE JUMPING MONKEY HILL - CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
DECEMBER 3: ORIGIN STORY - T. KINGFISHER
DECEMBER 4: THE GREAT SILENCE - TED CHIANG
DECEMBER 5: A CLEAN SWEEP WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS
DECEMBER 6: BORED WORLD - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 8: A STATEMENT IN THE CASE - THEODORA GOSS
DECEMBER 9: STET - SARAH GAILEY
DECEMBER 10: MARGOT'S ROOM: EMILY CARROLL
DECEMBER 11: HORROR STORY - CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
DECEMBER 12: TERRAIN - GENEVIEVE VALENTINE
DECEMBER 13: IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN - ZEN CHO
DECEMBER 14: GHOUL - GEORGE SAUNDERS
DECEMBER 15: DURING THE DANCE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 16: CLEARING THE BONES - CELESTE NG
DECEMBER 17: THE WAITER'S WIFE - ZADIE SMITH
DECEMBER 18: DEMOLITION - FIONA MCFARLANE
DECEMBER 19: NO PERIOD - HARRY TURTLEDOVE
DECEMBER 20: DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE - GG
DECEMBER 21: RUB-A-DUB-DUB - TONY MILLIONAIRE
DECEMBER 22: HANSA AND GRETYL AND PIECE OF SHIT - REBECCA CURTIS
DECEMBER 23: BRIDESICLE - WILL MCINTOSH
DECEMBER 24: I, CTHULHU, OR, WHAT'S A TENTACLE-FACED THING LIKE ME DOING IN A SUNKEN CITY LIKE THIS (LATITUDE 47° 9' S, LONGITUDE 126° 43' W)? - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 25: CHRISTMAS TALE - MARK LAWRENCE
DECEMBER 26: THE MONSTERS OF HEAVEN - NATHAN BALLINGRUD
DECEMBER 27: TWO DREAMS ON TRAINS - ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 28: THE MARTIANS CLAIM CANADA - MARGARET ATWOOD
DECEMBER 29: UNDER THE WAVE - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 30: MR. SALARY - SALLY ROONEY
DECEMBER 31: A/S/L - EMMA CLINE

come to my blog!

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Father Christmas to vampires. My reading is all over the place right now.

But I saw a review of this one yesterday and thought it would be nice to finish reading something before I fall asleep. Which right now is about five minutes after my day’s work is done.

Enough time to read this nice little satirical take on vampiric day to day struggles. Being a vampire is exhausting too. Especially if you are a decent fellow.

You can see for yourself here: https://granta.com/vampire/

3.5 stars

[Lygeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nice little vampiric short story was that!
Cause our hero is a decent vampire after all, a good man and he deserves better!
( I lost counting of his children - how many were they?)

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

You have read 58 of 111 books.
52%
52%
24 books behind schedule

Rather than succeeding in reading one book for each and every 111 children of ALP in 2015, I'll just add this shortshort=story credit as a gesture in that direction. Instead of succeeding in reading 111 little charming books, I'll be reading McElroy and Forrest and Brodkey and a few others.

You too can read this little Coover=nugget at ::
http://granta.com/vampire/
It's pretty bloody sweet!!

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 5 out of 5]

short, charming, and surprisingly easy to follow for a Coover narrative. I mean, this thing has a beginning, a middle, an end, and one character who follows through ALL of those! Completely unexpected.