Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Read - For Ages 18 and Over
Review: After I have read a book, it ends up in one of three places. It is donated to the library, it is donated to Goodwill, or it ends up on my bookshelf of "Keepers" to be read again.This one is on my bookshelf of "Keepers". Warning: This book should be read by those over 18 years of age because of several scenes in the book. Women may find it offensive.
Rating: 
Summary: More Over praised Fiction
Review: Ghost Town, Robert Coover (7/02): This is an amazing novel in that it is simultaneously juvenile and pretentious. This attempt at a Beckian version of Cormak McCarthy succeeds on no level. The long drawn out prose are neither poetic nor sparse. The re-visioning of the cowboy myth, by portraying a violent grotesque environment, only come off as silly and has been done before. I could not tell whether the frequent, homey existential quips by the cowboys were supposed to make fun the of the genre or were meant to be profound. Yet, they succeeded at neither. In short, this is another over-praised novel by an author of noteworthy intentions but little original skill needed to pull it off.
Rating: 
Summary: A definitively postmodern western.
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely. Fans of metafiction--that is, fiction about the way fiction works--will find much to enjoy here. Readers looking for a linear storyline and 'realistic' plot should probably stay away. As mentioned before, 'GHOST TOWN' is perhaps best described as a send-up of the Cormac McCarthry western in the style, perhaps, of Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthemle or Italo Calvino. It is rather imperative that one understands and appreciates the metafiction aesthetic, at least in general, if s/he plans to get anything approaching enjoyment out of this novel. Otherwise, there is a significant chance that you will come away rather frustrated. If this sounds like something you think you might enjoy then I'd be willing to bet that you will.
Rating:
Summary: A definitively postmodern western.
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely. Fans of metafiction--that is, fiction about the way fiction works--will find much to enjoy here. Readers looking for a linear storyline and 'realistic' plot should probably stay away. As mentioned before, 'GHOST TOWN' is perhaps best described as a send-up of the Cormac McCarthry western in the style, perhaps, of Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthemle or Italo Calvino. It is rather imperative that one understands and appreciates the metafiction aesthetic, at least in general, if s/he plans to get anything approaching enjoyment out of this novel. Otherwise, there is a significant chance that you will come away rather frustrated. If this sounds like something you think you might enjoy then I'd be willing to bet that you will.
Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER GENRE SKEWERED...
Review: If you've read BRIAR ROSE (also by Coover) and liked it, you'll drool over this 'un. The western novel as epitomized by Zane Grey is deliciously lampooned in such a nightmarish style that I don't think I'll ever watch another western movie without thinking of this book. Everything's in here including the kitchen sink: campfire shootouts, grisly killings, barroom brawls, the sex-starved saloon chanteuse, endless wandering the plains on an indifferent hoss, the hero (if you can call him that) saving the schoolmarm on a traintrack that seems to move right under his feet. The dialogue is itself a hoot as Coover hits this dead-on. It's fun to recognize a character who's been killed earlier in the story; indeed, no one stays dead so as the book comes to an end you can imagine how it could go on and on and on...In all, a short, strange parody to end the western as we know it.
Rating:
Summary: The bloodiest knife fight in fiction history
Review: Less disconnected than some Coover books I've read, Ghost Town borrows elements from literary and hollywood westerns and gives them a subversive and often graphic edge. At times a wonderful read with passages that flow beautifully and at other times harsh and violent. It contains the single bloodiest knife fight in fiction history. All in all a risky venture but Coover blends these two opposites and keeps it together through the end.
Rating:
Summary: The bloodiest knife fight in fiction history
Review: Less disconnected than some Coover books I've read, Ghost Town borrows elements from literary and hollywood westerns and gives them a subversive and often graphic edge. At times a wonderful read with passages that flow beautifully and at other times harsh and violent. It contains the single bloodiest knife fight in fiction history. All in all a risky venture but Coover blends these two opposites and keeps it together through the end.
Rating:
Summary: A Dusty Ride Through The Desert Plains Within
Review: Metafiction is not something I suffer well, but Coover is the perfect cranky, amusing old coot of a guide to lead a wary wanderer through one hell of a strange tale. Despite my initial misgivings, Ghost Town left a mark as indelible as any brand. Long after I finished, I'm still haunted by imagery which seems to penetrate the very heart of our shared American mythology. Saddle up and enjoy the ride.
Rating:
Summary: A Delight From Beginning To End
Review: This is the first Robert Coover book I have read, and I must say, I was thoroughly entertained! Some of the dialog was so funny, I had to laugh out loud. I read several passages a second time, they were such a delight to read. Even when events turn dark, and killing is described in such graphic detail, there is a constant underlying layer of humor. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more of Robert Coover's works.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing genreless genre fiction
Review: Those who come to Coover from his earlier works are well-prepared for this remarkable synthesis of excellent language, excellent description, excellent mood. Those new to Coover will delight in their discovery. Ghost Town is somehow less earnest, more effortless, than earlier Coover, and is more mature for it. Here is a novel that makes no apologies, denies an association with the "modern novel," and expertly ignores the western as genre by setting itself right in the middle of it. In Coover's Ghost Town, genre cliches become literary devices, and stereotypes become grammatical foils. Critics (not to mention grad students) will be playing with this one for years; casual readers will carry it around with them and read their favorite bits over and over again for even longer.
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