January 27, 2014: “The Frog Prince” by Robert Coover
According to the Q&A with Robert Coover, this is a “reimagined fairy tale.” Well, yes. But beyond that, the magazine stretches to ask Coover questions that shed light on this story. The girl turns the frog into a prince by kissing him, she gets high by licking him (in his special froggy places), they have sex (his semen tastes “muddy”), and he eventually gets tired of the whole thing because, as it turns out, he wasn’t a prince originally—he was just a frog.
That’s all I’ve got.
Gerstang’s reading of the Coover story is beyond obtuse. Why such an ignoramus would take up this work is baffling.
EE
Thanks for your comment. Why don’t you enlighten us.
Other reviewers of the story also struggle to find anything useful to say about the story:
http://readingoncloud9.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/tny-story-the-frog-prince-by-robert-coover/
http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2014/01/20/robert-coover-the-frog-prince/
http://grantcatton.blogspot.com/2014/01/four-new-yorker-fiction-reviews.html