The Origin of the Brunists - Softcover

COOVER, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553118404 ISBN 13: 9780553118407

Publisher: Bantam, 1966

Synopsis

Originally published in 1969 and now back in print after over a decade, Robert Coover's first novel instantly established his mastery. A coal-mine explosion in a small mid-American town claims ninety-seven lives. The only survivor, a lapsed Catholic given to mysterious visions, is adopted as a doomsday prophet by a group of small-town mystics. "Exposed" by the town newspaper editor, the cult gains international notoriety and its ranks swell. As its members gather on the Mount of Redemption to await the apocalypse, Robert Coover lays bare the madness of religious frenzy and the sometimes greater madness of "normal" citizens. The Origin of the Brunists is vintage Coover -- comic, fearless, incisive, and brilliantly executed. "A novel of intensity and conviction ... a splendid talent ... heir to Dreiser or Lewis." -- The New York Times Book Review; "A breathtaking masterpiece on any level you approach it." -- Sol Yurick; "[The Origin of the Brunists] delivers the goods . . . [and] says what it has to say with rudeness, vigor, poetry and a headlong narrative momentum." -- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Originally published in 1966, The Origin of the Brunists was a sensational debut that won the William Faulkner Foundation Award for Best First Novel and instantly established Robert Coover's fictional mastery. Set in a small mid-American town, it begins with a coal-mine explosion that claims ninety-seven lives. Giovanni Bruno--hawk-faced, silent, some say deranged--is the only survivor. A lapsed Catholic given to peculiar visions, Bruno is adopted as a prophet by a group of secretive small-town mystics. "Exposed" by the town newspaper editor, the Brunist cult gains international notoriety and its ranks swell. As its members gather on the Mount of Redemption--above the site of the mine disaster--to await the apocalypse, and the fabric of the community begins to unravel, Robert Coover lays bare the madness of religious frenzy and the sometime greater madness of "normal" citizens. The Origin of the Brunists is vintage Coover-fearless, incisive, and brilliantly executed.

"A novel of intensity and conviction...[Coover] may become heir to Dreiser or Lewis.... He has splendid talent."--The New York Times Book Review

"A breathtaking masterpiece on any level you approach it."--Sol Yurick, author of An Island Death

"[The Origin of the Brunists] delivers the goods; it explodes on the reader...says what it has to say with rudeness, vigor, poetry and a headlong narrative momentum."--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Robert Coover has won fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Rea Award for the short story, and the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, among other honors. He has taught at Bard College, the University of Iowa, Princeton University and currently teaches electronic and experimental writing at Brown University.

About the Author

Robert Coover has published fourteen novels, three short story collections, and a collection of plays since The Origin of the Brunists received the The William Faulkner Foundation First Novel Award in 1966. At Brown University, where he has taught for over thirty years, he established the International Writers Project, a program that provides an annual fellowship and safe haven to endangered international writers who face harassment, imprisonment, and suppression of their work in their home countries. In 1990-91, he launched the world's first hypertext fiction workshop, was one of the founders in 1999 of the Electronic Literature Organization, and in 2002 created CaveWriting, the first writing workshop in immersive virtual reality. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times has said Of all the postmodern writers, Robert Coover is probably the funniest and most malicious, mixing up broad social and political satire with vaudeville turns, lewd pratfalls, and clever word plays that make us rethink both the mechanics of the world and our relationship to it.” Coover has also received awards from the Lannan Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Rea Lifetime Short Story Award.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1966
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553118404
• ISBN 13: 9780553118407
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 534