• The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary 3
• The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary 2
• The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary Judgment

S. McDonald
Professor Williams

Postmodernism: The Magic Poker a part of short-story collection Pricksongs and Descants originally published in 1969 it begins with a daydreamer, a writer, writing down the objects which emerge him and his attention. Coover's best-known work, The Public Burning, deals with the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in terms that have been called magic realism. Half of the book is devoted to the mythic hero Uncle Sam of tall tales, dealing with the equally fantastic Phantom, who represents international Communism. As narrator, Coover introduces us, via Henry Waugh, into the Universal Basketball Association as a second-order fictional world, while in 'The Magic Poker' he directly introduces us into a first-order one. Robert Coover's 'Writing Degree Zero': 'The Magic Poker' January 1989 Arizona Quarterly A Journal of American Literature Culture and Theory Wayne B. The Magic Poker Robert Coover July 1 1969. View Article Pages. We strive to present a reader-friendly digital text version of each story. While errors in automatic.

ENC 1102

The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary 3

12 January 2011
Reader Response 1
The first time I read “The Cranes” by Peter Meinke, it appeared to be
nothing more than a story about an elderly couple sitting in their car at the Gulf of
Mexico reflecting on their lives together. However, the second time I read the short
story, I began to pick up on the author’s symbolism. It wasn’t until I read the story for a
third time that I realized the couple was committing suicide.
I truly enjoyed this story. There is so much more to it than I originally thought.
The initial shock of realizing that the husband and wife were taking their own lives was

The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary 2

quite disturbing to me. However, I was greatly comforted by the couple’s sense of humor
in these final moments of their lives. They were so completely at ease with one another.
The author uses descriptions of three different kinds of birds to convey an image
of how the couple must view themselves and the world around them at this point in their
lives. “Along the marshy shore two tall stately birds, staring motionless toward the Gulf,
towered the bobbing egrets and scurrying plovers.” (Meyer 621) The first clue the author
gives that there is more to the story than there first appears to be is the mention of the
shower curtain on the front seat. “the shower curtain spread over the front seat crackled
and hissed.” (Meyer 622) The next clue is when the wife questions if they are doing the
right thing. “Maybe this is the wrong thing,” (Meyer 622) she asked her husband. I
began to suspect that they could be committing suicide when the plaid towel is
mentioned. “He turned in his seat, picked up an object wrapped in a plaid towel, and
placed it between them in the front.” (Meyer 622) The author had described how the

The Magic Poker Robert Coover Summary Judgment

Gulf looked only a few lines before this....