The Public Burning

[rich]

Glad you like it Joseph. I think you'll like the ending. But I think what
the makes the book soar is that Nixon is a full-fledged, full-bodied
character, not just what we would expect if it was just a dull retread of
Nixon the man in real life.

rich

On Fri, May 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM J Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> I’m about 200 pages into it, having read Huck Out West and some short
> stories some years ago, I thought I'd check it out.
> It is an intense read. The character of Uncle Sam is the most  credible
> and terrifying attempt to give voice to an essential part of the american
> spirit I have found; or maybe not exactly the American spirit but the
> spirit energy of the US government. This Uncle Sam is odiously self
> righteous aggressive, propagating hate as freedom, but comically poetically
> macho country boy  .   It is fucking mesmerizing and impossible to
> describe.    I’m now at the place where Nixon has been mentally reviewing
> the trial of the Rosenbergs as though he were the defense attorney and
> seeing the high probability that it was staged by the FBI and surrounded by
> the   influences on Judge  and Prosecutor  of the high pitch of McCarthy
> anticommunism.  The details with which this case is being reviewed is
> stunning and as impressive as journalism as it is as fiction. Coover's
> point not being as far as I can tell to argue innocence, but a very
> disturbing fever pitch of manipulation of very little evidence and  a very
> incompetent defense.
>    I agree that it resonates with recent events in provocative ways.
>
> Coover may be the greatest iconoclast of recent US literature.
>
>
>
> On May 1, 2025, at 11:50 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> If you want something to tickle your whiskers re: the rogue nature of the
> current administration, read the Public Burning, Coover's masterpiece. Much
> of it resonates even more today though it was great before the King in
> Yellow showed up.
>
> having a re-re-reread with new recognitions
>
> rich
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
>
>