Quite an unusual collection of stories, to say the least. Some need multiple re-readings, or at least time to assimilate, like The Panel, and some are grotesque, like The Marker. However, some are more accessible, and even playful. The structure of some allow for multiple scenarios, like the famous " The Babysitter. Other favorites were The Pedestrian Accident, The Hat Act, The Brother and The Elevator. I read somewhere that the title of the collection comes from early music, where plucked notes lie below an upper melody or descant. That makes sense for the stories that are take offs on fairy tales, like The Doors and The Gingerbread House. ( )

He pronounces it aloud, smiles faintly, sadly, somewhat wearily, then continues his tedious climb, pausing from time to time to stare back down the stairs behind him.

When the time arrives for resolution, I will be there. One day soon the followers of Coover will engage those of Barth tooth and claw. There will be no quarter. The scene will remind us of Bangkok and we will wear the shirt of Coover proudly. Through the tear-gas and vitriol we will triumph. Our cause will prevail because of the brilliance of The Magic Poker and The Babysitter. These two exercises astonish in their smutty Impressionism. It will be admitted that I was sometimes too impatient or ill-equipped to truly delight in all of the pieces presented here.

Where Barth paints with manic glee about Story, Coover recycles his own variations, distilling a Gestalt where the dross whispers of all outcomes and the reader's imagination trembles in capacity. Hope remains --and victory will be ours. Coover Rules!
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The short stories in this collection were so different from each other and from everything else I’ve ever read that it’s hard to know where to begin with this book. Some of them were retellings of well-known stories and fairy tales, although many of those were so obscure that I wasn’t familiar with the original story. There was also a lot of non-linear storytelling with Coover going back and rewriting his own plots so that you were reading several different versions of the same story at once. I liked this technique and the possibilities it raised for a story to go in many different directions, but the book as a whole wasn’t enjoyable for me. I was often lost and felt like I just wasn’t getting it. I also felt like certain plot elements crossed the line from unpleasant and uncomfortable into disgusting and repulsive. Another minor complaint I have to mention is that while I don’t mind it when authors throw in a little bit of foreign language, Coover really tested my patience with the amount of Spanish in the story dedicated to Cervantes. Not being able to understand large chunks of the text gets frustrating after a while. Overall, I never reached the point where I wanted to throw the book across the room, but I’m definitely glad to be finished with it. ( )

Pricksongs and Descants by Robert Coover
4 stars
Pricksongs and Descants is a collection of short stories by Robert Coover that was originally published in 1969. The stories are retellings of popular stories including fairy tales, bedtime stories, and a few biblical stories. The Amazon synopsis states the following: "In these riotously word-drunk fictional romps, two children follow an old man into the woods, trailing bread crumbs behind and edging helplessly toward a sinister end that never comes; a husband walks toward the bed where his wife awaits his caresses, but by the time he arrives she's been dead three weeks and detectives are pounding down the door; a teenaged babysitter's evening becomes a kaleidoscope of dangerous erotic fantasies-her employer's, her boyfriend's, her own; an aging, humble carpenter marries a beautiful but frigid woman, and after he's waited weeks to consummate their union she announces that God has made her pregnant."

I read this book as part of the 1001 group's Books of the Month and I was the only one (thus far) who liked the book. Unlike the others who read this book, I really enjoyed the experience of reading this collection. The writing was wonderful and the stories deliciously creepy, bizarre, and often disturbing. I also normally dislike short stories but I enjoyed these ones. I like strange, bizarre, and seemingly absurd books (perhaps this is why I like Kafka so much). I can't say I spent too much time thinking about the symbolism behind the stories but I just enjoyed the process of reading because Coover challenges this process at every twist and turn. One of the stories, "The Babysitter" was an interesting experimentation in the multiple ways a story could unfold although it wasn't my favorite in terms of content.

I enjoyed the way that Coover's stories were so different in tone, style, perspective from one to the next. In several stories he pulls the reader in the narrative (the Leper), making us wonder how we are complicit in the story. I liked the experimental nature of the stories and how he deconstructed what we normally view as fiction or fairy tales. What made this book special to me was the way that Coover played around with genre and narrative structure, deconstructing the very stories that form the fabric of our own societal mythology.

It was unlike anything I've read on the 1001 list and I quite enjoyed it.
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Short stories. Some with fairytale basis. All with lots of sexual references. Not really my thing. ( )