The Public Burning (Coover, Robert)

Uncle Sam rapes Richard Nixon in the epilogue. Vice President Richard Nixon, just after his helpless exercise of intervention on behalf of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, is now the reluctant chosen one. If starting at the back and reading to the front, perhaps I never get through this book. Author Robert Coover began with satire and ended with a hundred extra pages of anti-climactic character smearing. What began as an intelligent challenge of the roots of the Red Scare became an overwrought deus ex machine far after the point had been made. J. Edgar Hoover was obsessed with his own power, still believing that any Russian villain is better than none. President Eisenhower could be closest to form, a military tool turned into smiling cow-town golf-politics. At one point, Nixon says that a man who could smile so broadly could not be but so intelligent. Nixon is an engaging narrator, but not the one I could have envisioned. Coover creates from whole cloth a personable, vulnerable, doubtful boy from Whittier and Duke who alternates between charming, rarely, reflections on humble California beginnings and embarrassing feelings about Pat, media circuses, senior senators, Ethel Rosenberg, and the Supreme Court’s waffling. Uncle Sam’s portrayal is over the top un-American, pardonable only for Coover’s amazing gift for folksy and savvy dialogue. What this book brings to light is the comedy of errors that became of the Supreme Court’s version of Twelve Angry Men, with Justice William O. Douglas playing the part of Henry Fonda. Julius Rosenberg receives some original sympathy from Douglas and, privately, Nixon. When Ethel becomes the focus, Nixon waxes exceptionally sympathetic. On page 316: “ – I run toward her: ‘Ethel! Look out!’ She looks up – but too late, the spray hits her full in the face and down she goes, kicking against the current, the jet blasts up her skirt … I throw myself in front of her, absorbing the brunt of the spray.” When he tells her to run for it, she won’t leave without him. Other key passages center around the Times Square celebration, the fact the FBI didn’t have its own electric chair, moving the electrocution up a few hours to respect the Jewish Sabbath, and Ethel’s slow, tormented death, reminiscent of the burning flesh scene in The Green Mile. I’ve been fighting with my subconscious about this book, not about the Rosenberg’s flimsy conviction at the time or about the death penalty, but about the importance of politics. I was closely on every word with some perhaps misguided belief that politics was once more interesting than it is now. Richard Nixon would make some of the most notable presidential headlines, but as a 40 year old cutting his teeth on the ferocity of a witch-hunt that actually mattered much more than Iraq and the more recent Washington cowboys that can be lampooned, it seems fitting that everybody listed in the relentless name-dropping lists should have been present on that Friday night in June. Without question, this is some of the most articulate gibberish to ever be fashioned into a novel. 4.5 stars rounds up to 5.

Robert Coover’s seminal work of fiction explores the execution of the Rosenberg’s, as well as the wider history of cold war paranoia in the US. This is no work of historical fiction, however, as Coover employs a kaleidoscopic vision, inhabiting myth, folk culture, and fabulist in a kind of circus of metafiction. Many have commented on the rendering of Richard Nixon here, who certainly emerges as the most developed character. Pitted against him, however, are the archetypal figures of Uncle Sam and the “Phantom,” who represents the Red Menace. Considered as a part in the constellation of experiments concerning American myth, Coover’s The Public Burning is probably his most sustained effort.

One heck of a ride. To my memory I've read nothing as bold as this book in the satire department. It reminds me a bit of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow for it's sheer size and the speed at which historical/ pop culture jokes and references are thrown at the reader. Some knowledge of names and the McCarthy/ Cold War 1950s American culture would help to fully understand what is going on. It's not totally necessary though as Coover writes with such energy and humor that one is caught up in the story and events despite a lack of total context.His portrayal of Nixon is very complex and uncanny as other reviewers have noted. He really gets under Nixon's skin and brings out the full greediness and soullessness of that man but he does it in a way that still presents Nixon as a fully fleshed out human being.I won't spoil it but the ending is pretty shocking and again I haven't read anything that bold...ever. The only other place with that kind of brash type humor would be South Park or maybe Family Guy...but The Public Burning is on a whole other level of writing so do yourself a favor and strap yourself in for one wild and totally unique ride.

I generally knew what to expect but just felt that Coover went overly long. I was 23 when he srote this and it both represents and is tied to the times. I do wonder how knowledge of Nixon’s physical abuse of Pat, reported now by Seymour Hersh, would have influenced Coover if it were public then.

Robert Coover has been consistently inventive and generally entertaining. This fantasy about the rise of Nixon and the execution of the Rosenbergs is amazing. They were great symbols for the direction American was sliding. If Nixon is one your heroes, get your head out of Fox World, but don't waste your time with this book. If not this book is scary and sometimes fall on the floor funny.

Great read for everyone

At times, The Public Burning is informative, funny and innovative. Coover packs almost as much 1950s trivia into this book as Halbestram did in his non-fiction survey of that decade. But repetition is not always a blessing and the cartoon characterization of Uncle Sam quickly became tiresome.

Had trouble following it at time

This is book like few others. Dense, wordy, packed with minutely researched detail of real characters and events, punctuated with bizarre and fantastic interludes, then shaken in the pot with fervent abandon, the Public Burning is the product of a cynical and zany imagination.The vivid imagery masks a serious intent at dissecting the brooding mood of post-war America through the eyes of "Tricky Dick" Nixon. Equally, you could apply the analysis of Uncle Sam's role on the world stage right up to the present.It isn't an easy read, but you certainly can't ignore it (and anyone who claims to be offended by the book ought to look long and hard at their own part in the American dream...)

muy buen libro, llego en perfectas condiciones y a tiempo