Abstract

Copulating fictions
Levine, Paul | June 24, 1996 issue

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This article presents information on the book "John's Wife," by Robert Coover. The protagonist, John's wife elicits opinions and emotions as varied and numerous as the townsfolk themselves. Desired by men and admired by women, John's wife is finally symbol or cipher, unknowable or, as one character says, "unreadable." John's world and Coover's novel begin to deconstruct when she starts to disappear "as an image might fade from a photographic print." The novel's climax occurs on Pioneers Day, when patriotic celebration becomes destructive orgy more carnal than carnivalesque.

See Also:

JOHN'S Wife (Book); COOVER, Robert; CHARACTERS & characteristics; EMOTIONS; FICTION; BOOKS; AUTHORS
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