Robert Coover: Open House


The latest addition to my website is Robert Coover‘s Open House. There is a party going on in the penthouse suite in a Manhattan high-rise but nobody know who is giving it, who owns the suite and what the party is for. There are free drinks and food and people just seem to drift in, uninvited. Gradually it deteriorates with lots of sex, drunkenness and debauchery. At least two people try to steal the title deeds to the property. Several people are killed and quite a few sexually assaulted. Everyone behaves badly, not helped by the exit lift is out of order. There are several writers, including an elderly experimental writer probably based on Coover himself, as well as lawyers, estate agents and random drifters. Some are seemingly rich, others less so. It all seems to be a mockery of Trump’s America, with a Trump-like gangster who does steal the title deeds and likes assaulting women and a decidedly unsavoury supporting cast of characters including a nun who is a stripper for the Lord, a serial rapist and lots of crooks.

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