The best of [Coover's] stories are now collected in Going for a Beer ... When Coover’s stories don’t work, which is about half the time even here, they’re dreadful ... But when they work, oh my ... The sensation is that of being in an astounding if disturbing movie, in which you are the only human with a ticket ... A handful of Coover stories is probably enough for me. A slimmer volume than this one might be a portable classic.
Robert Coover’s new collection of short stories, Going for a Beer, is a mixtape of variations and a fugue on time from a postmodern master. The prismatic repertoire of nearly six decades, it comprises something old, something new, something borrowed and something dark and blue ... That range, from primal myth to science fiction, is representative. In Coover’s fictional universe, familiar tales and conventional genres are made new, tinged with shuddering wonder and titillating humor.
These have been, for over 40 years, some of the most remarkable stories written in this country ... He is both astounding and fun to read at the same time. A hell of a trick.
