Review of New Coover

[Richard Romeo]

from kirkus reviews:

THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY PIERRE
Author: Coover, Robert

Review Date: JULY 15, 2002
Publisher:Grove
Pages: 416
Price (hardback): $24.00
Publication Date: 10/02
ISBN: 0-8021-1724-4
ISBN (hardback): 0-8021-1724-4
Category: FICTION


A wild, pornographic, funny, postmodern rant that, like most from Coover 
lately (Ghost Town, 1998, etc.), adds up to something less than the sum of 
its parts. (what the heck does a sum of a novel mean?)

In the tradition of Tristram Shandy or Finnegan's Wake, this is a story that 
can be opened at any point and read at length with great pleasure—though it 
somehow can't come together as a single and complete work.(again, what does 
that mean--why criticize an experimental work using standards of the more 
traditional narrative-based work?)

It introduces us to the life and times of Lucky Pierre, a legendary porn 
star known to and admired by all the citizens of Cinecity, the frozen 
capital of some unnamed utopian world of endless sexual gratification. 
Pierre is more than a celebrity: he is one of the guiding lights and elder 
statesmen of Cinecity, on close terms with the mayor and the rest of the 
town mothers and fathers. There's no semblance of a developing linear 
narrative, so best may be simply to touch on the brighter elements of the 
story. Pierre has nine muses (Cecilia, Cleo, Clara, Cassandra, Constance, 
Carlotta, Cora, Catherine, and Calliope) who direct his films and create 
elaborate sexual worlds for him to perform in. He is a man of many personae, 
taking on variously the character of a smutty cartoon, submissive slave, 
dirty officemate, naughty little boy, helpless castaway, sex machine, 
outlaw, or bored suburban husband. The scenarios are about as coherent as 
actual porn films—that is, not coherent at all but simply serving as the 
pretexts for extended (and admittedly pretty amusing) sexual intercourse. 
(i'm sure that's what Coover's pre-text is:  extended riffs on fucking.  I 
doubt it)

There is, for example, an extremely funny scene involving female medical 
students, a lecture hall, a gurney, and a buxom professor who demonstrates 
to her audience how the proper stimulation of Pierre's—well, you get the 
point. After a while, you can easily get lost in the subject.

A lot more fun than it probably deserves to be.

(I wonder what was the motivation for nine different women directors.  the 
subtitle is now Directors' Cut instead of Raw Footage.)

fwiw...
rich




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