Pricksongs & Descants , originally published in 1969, is a virtuoso performance that established its author - already a William Faulkner Award winner for his first novel - as a writer of enduring power and unquestionable brilliance, a promise he has fulfilled over a stellar career. It also began Coover's now-trademark riffs on fairy tales and bedtime stories. In these riotously word-drunk fictional romps, two children follow an old man into the woods, trailing bread crumbs behind and edging helplessly toward a sinister end that never comes; a husband walks toward the bed where his wife awaits his caresses, but by the time he arrives she's been dead three weeks and detectives are pounding down the door; a teenaged babysitter's evening becomes a kaleidoscope of dangerous erotic fantasies-her employer's, her boyfriend's, her own; an aging, humble carpenter marries a beautiful but frigid woman, and after he's waited weeks to consummate their union she announces that God has made her pregnant. Now available in a Grove paperback, Pricksongs & Descants is a cornerstone of Robert Coover's remarkable career and a brilliant work by a major American writer.

《對位鏇律與分枝鏇律》是Coover的第一個小說集，錶達瞭對塞萬提斯敬意，說塞萬提斯的故事”體現瞭所有優秀敘述藝術所具有的那種雙重性：它們一方麵與人類生活中未被意識的神話殘餘做鬥爭，設法綜閤那些不可思意的東西，另一方麵衝擊瞭那些幼稚的思維模式和枯竭的藝術形式，最後再帶著新的復雜性返迴。這段歸納塞萬提斯創作思想的話也可用來描述庫弗的創作。如同塞萬提斯，庫佛也堅持“與人類生活中未被意識的神話殘餘做鬥爭”。他喜歡從《聖經》、童話等婦孺皆知的經典裏尋找那些人們對它們的反應早已定型的情節和人物等材料，再用不同視覺重新安排這些材料，讓讀者在體味新模式所帶來的自由與驚喜的同時，意識到一直未被意識的舊神話規則對他們的控製力。《對位鏇律與分枝鏇律》裏改寫《聖經》的“弟弟”、“J的婚姻”等故事就是較好的例子。