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The Babysitter
'She arrives at 7.40, ten minutes late...' She babysits for Mr and Mrs Tucker. She has left a boyfriend alone for the evening. From this seemingly simple start Robert Coover masterfully explores the subtle barrier between 'reality' and thought. As the babysitter triggers the men's sexual fantasies, their erotic imaginations twist into alternative narratives simultaneously experienced by the reader: she does or does not take a bath; she does or does not invite her boyfriend over; she does or does not get caught unawares by Mr Tucker. In a profusion of happenings and imaginings, Coover layers moment upon moment, narrative upon narrative, to shatter the timeline of one evening into a multiplicity of events - contradictory, simultaneous, but all equally 'real'.
31 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Robert Coover
114 books342 followersBorn Robert Lowell Coover in Charles City, Iowa, Coover moved with his family early in his life to Herrin, Illinois, where his father was the managing editor for the Herrin Daily Journal. Emulating his father, Coover edited and wrote for various school newspapers under the nom-de-plume “Scoop.” He was also his high-school class president, a school band member, and an enthusiastic supporter of the Cincinnati Reds. In 1949 Coover enrolled in Southern Illinois University, and, after transferring to Indiana University in 1951, earned his bachelor's degree in 1953 with a major in Slavonic languages. While in college, he continued editing student papers, as well as working part-time for his father's newspaper. The day he graduated, Coover received his draft notice and went on to serve in the U.S. Naval Reserve during the Korean War, attaining the rank of lieutenant. Upon his discharge in 1957, Coover devoted himself to fiction. During the summer of that year, he spent a month sequestered in a cabin near the Canadian border, where he studied the work of Samuel Beckett and committed himself to writing serious avant-garde fiction. In 1958, he travelled to Spain, where he reunited with Maria del Pilar Sans-Mallafré, whom he had earlier met while serving a military tour in Europe. The couple married in 1959 and spent the summer touring southern Europe by motorcycle, an experience he described in “One Summer in Spain: Five Poems,” his first published work. Between 1958 and 1961, Coover studied at the University of Chicago, eventually receiving his master's degree in 1965. The Coovers lived in Spain for most of the early 1960s, a time during which Coover began regularly publishing stories in literary magazines, including the Evergreen Review.
In 1966, after the couple returned to the United States, Coover took a teaching position at Bard College in New York. He also published his first novel, The Origin of the Brunists (1966), which won the William Faulkner Award for best first novel. In 1969, Coover won a Rockefeller Foundation grant and published Pricksongs and Descants, his first collection of short fiction. That year, he also wrote, produced, and directed a movie, On a Confrontation in Iowa City (1969). Coover has maintained an interest in film throughout his career. During the early 1970s, Coover published only short stories and drama, including A Theological Position (1972), a collection of one-act plays, all of which were eventually produced for the stage. He also won Guggenheim fellowships in 1971 and 1974, and served as fiction editor for the Iowa Review from 1974 to 1977. By the mid-1970s, Coover had finished his next novel, The Public Burning; it took him more than two years to find a publisher for the work, which was ultimately cited as a National Book Award nominee. Coover received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1985 and a Rea Award for A Night at the Movies (1987), a collection of short stories. While Coover concentrated primarily on short fiction—with the exception of Gerald's Party—during the 1980s, he produced a series of new novels during the 1990s.
Coover has taught at a number of universities, including the University of Iowa, Columbia University, Princeton University, and Brandeis University, throughout his career. Since 1981 he has been a writer-in-residence and faculty member of the creative writing program at Brown University.
Among the vanguard of American postmodern writers to come of age during the late 1960s, Coover is respected as a vital experimentalist whose challenging work continues to offer insight into the nature of literary creation, narrative forms, and cultural myths. Convinced early in his career that traditional fictional modes were exhausted, Coover has pioneered a variety of inventive narrative techniques, notably complex metafictional structures and ludic pastiches of various genres to satirize contemporary American society and the role of the author. In this wa
In 1966, after the couple returned to the United States, Coover took a teaching position at Bard College in New York. He also published his first novel, The Origin of the Brunists (1966), which won the William Faulkner Award for best first novel. In 1969, Coover won a Rockefeller Foundation grant and published Pricksongs and Descants, his first collection of short fiction. That year, he also wrote, produced, and directed a movie, On a Confrontation in Iowa City (1969). Coover has maintained an interest in film throughout his career. During the early 1970s, Coover published only short stories and drama, including A Theological Position (1972), a collection of one-act plays, all of which were eventually produced for the stage. He also won Guggenheim fellowships in 1971 and 1974, and served as fiction editor for the Iowa Review from 1974 to 1977. By the mid-1970s, Coover had finished his next novel, The Public Burning; it took him more than two years to find a publisher for the work, which was ultimately cited as a National Book Award nominee. Coover received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1985 and a Rea Award for A Night at the Movies (1987), a collection of short stories. While Coover concentrated primarily on short fiction—with the exception of Gerald's Party—during the 1980s, he produced a series of new novels during the 1990s.
Coover has taught at a number of universities, including the University of Iowa, Columbia University, Princeton University, and Brandeis University, throughout his career. Since 1981 he has been a writer-in-residence and faculty member of the creative writing program at Brown University.
Among the vanguard of American postmodern writers to come of age during the late 1960s, Coover is respected as a vital experimentalist whose challenging work continues to offer insight into the nature of literary creation, narrative forms, and cultural myths. Convinced early in his career that traditional fictional modes were exhausted, Coover has pioneered a variety of inventive narrative techniques, notably complex metafictional structures and ludic pastiches of various genres to satirize contemporary American society and the role of the author. In this wa
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 30, 2021
Wow, this was, hmmm, I can't find a word to describe it. Let's try with: mad, sick, abnormal, morbid, crazy, genius and so on. I would give it 5 stars if it wasn't so gross. Also, the ending was excellent. This thing together with Barth's Lost in the Funhouse is really a short and concise in-depth analysis of postmodernism.
September 27, 2017
What? No. No matter how great a piece of literature this may be (and I do kinda understand that and why it is), it really made me sick. Everything is just distorted and full of different scenarios of violence... Murdered babies, various men planning to rape a young girl... While the writing is great and captivating, the plot is just disturbing. I really feel like this story is going to stay with me for a while but not in a good way.
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April 24, 2024Very disturbing. A commentary on American society at the time that explores many possible realities, though one might simply be changing the TV channel.
April 11, 2016
Mind-blowing! Talk about layered narratives!! There's a reason why 'The Babysitter' is Coover's most anthologized story. In 107 paragraphs it teaches you more about metafiction & the nature of postmodern aesthetics than many theory books put together. And if that sounds excessive, remember that this story thrives on excess: a plethora of narrative strands coexisting in the same time but multiple spaces & the readers can choose their own adventure (or can they?!). 'The Babysitter' forms part of Coover's Pricksongs and Descants story collection & truly exemplifies that title. An American masterpiece!
Here's a blog from someone who has been fascinated with this story for the last thirty years:
http://www.flashpointmag.com/mayasone...
Here's a blog from someone who has been fascinated with this story for the last thirty years:
http://www.flashpointmag.com/mayasone...
October 30, 2016
What just happened?
May 2, 2022
I quite literally have no words for this short story. I am writing an essay about it and its so fuckef up that at 4am last night I started literally crying with sheer delusion because this, my friend, is fucked up. it appeals to me literally only in the sense that I have babysat for attractive dads in the past. everything else... welll... post modernism can go fuck itself. A dead baby in the bath and three different rape scenes? tell me more, I am intrigued, said no one ever. My lecturer who set it for this module has a lot to answer for. Tim, I'm coming 4 u. Not in a threatening way x
April 16, 2019
The Babysitter is ,as Emily Temple from LitHub put it, the "schrodinger's cat of literature". It's also an experiment to see what it read like to flip between story mood and themes and point of view as swiftly as we (theoretically- I'm fully converted to ad free netflix and hulu) change the television station. It's like a choose your own adventure story except there's no real choice and every deviance of perspective, fantasy, imagination or desire is given equal weight until the very end when two outcomes are possible. You can search and dissect the branches of story for one "real" thread but they are all real and unreal. The babysitter is both responsible and a selfish baby killer, the babysitter is both safe and brutally raped, the men are both quietly looming over their male gazes fantasies and living them out to violent effect, the bath is being neglected to catch a late night show and being run for a quick dip. Everyone is dead and everything went according to plan for another mundane night visiting friends at a party. It's all possible.
December 31, 2019
well great i feel like throwing up now
November 25, 2015
This is an amazing short story. I have no clue what did really happen, and my notes everywhere in it aren't helping... But damn, this style just doesn't take any breaks, it was impossible to put down.
December 4, 2023
What has happened!?!? I don't think I understand
November 12, 2018
WTF! Can't quite believe what I have just read.
January 27, 2014
I don't really know what to make of this. I *think* this is the story of a normal evening of babysitting, in which nothing untoward actually happens except in the imaginations and fantasies of the various characters, and on the television. It was certainly a gripping read and I finished it in one sitting. More reflection needed.
May 26, 2023
I tried to make sense of it, but failed. I tried reading it word by word but it was so disgusting, scary, weird, and traumatizing with all sorts of sh*t going on. I rarely do one-star reviews, but this was absolutely disgusting.
January 21, 2015
I don't know what I just read. Was it all scenarios? What the final paragraph the real deal? A definite gripping read.
January 5, 2016
Difficult postmodernism work of literature. A puzzle with too many pieces. But very fun to read.
April 23, 2023
so disgusting 🤢
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September 28, 2023I RLY WISH I REMEMBERED WHAT THIS FUCKING LOL EDGY BOOK THAT SOMETIMES HAUNTS ME WAS. IT WAS ABOUT A COUPLE WHO GOES OUT TO A DINNER PARTY WITH FRANDS AND LEAVES THEIR KIDS WITH A BABBYSITTER, AND FROM THERE, IT'S LIKE A FIVE THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED FIC, EXCEPT IT'S MOAR LIKE 25 THINGS. IT WAS WRITTEN IN A VERY INTELLIFICCY STYLE, AND IT JUST SORT OF EXPLORES A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT WAYS THE NIGHT COULD GO WRONG. IT'S LIKE A LITERARY ANXIETY ATTACK. I REMEMBER IN ONE OF THE TIMELINES, THE BABBYSITTER ACCIDENTALLY DROWNS THE BABBY IN THE BATHTUB AND IN ANOTHER, THE HUSBAND CHEATS ON HIS WIFE WITH HER FRAND. I THINK THERE'S ALSO ONE WHERE HE FUCKS THE BABBYSITTER, BUT I'M LESS SURE OF THAT. I ALSO THINK THERE MAY HAVE BEEN ONE WHERE SHE AND THE KIDS ARE MURDERED, BUT I AM EVEN LESS SURE ABOUT THAT.
July 24, 2022
A woman exists, therefore fantasies exist, many of which involve rape. Is our toxic sex culture shaped by seemingly innocuous pop culture and cinema. Forcing yourself on the pretty young thing is hot somehow and it seems so crass and gross and disgusting but reading this Story see how it’s normalised in mens minds. I mean they it’s wrong, but it’s the sexy kind of wrong, so it’s okay. I guess? Maybe I just missed the point.
October 22, 2022
Yes, I get what it's all about, or not about. Yes, I understand all about the juxtaposition of reality and fantasy, both in real life and on television. Yes, I see how clever and brilliant the author is.
I just didn't like the story. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
I just didn't like the story. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
May 24, 2023
I fail to understand why on earth this was the content chosen for the format, other than for the shock. The craft might be good, but I am deeply disturbed and in the worst way by the author's choices. I'll find something else similar to read to explore the Schrodinger narrative style, because there is no way I am reading this voyeuristic, sexist, violent, awful thing ever again.
August 29, 2023
This is literally traumatizing and so confusing. It's very good because of the fact that you just HAVE to read more because you dont know what the actual freak is going on and can't fathom why the story is so disturbing, but ... only read it for a class. I still would like to know what exactly happened but idk if ill ever get an answer
September 6, 2020
Multiple perspectives, multiple unreliable narrators, and multiple (timelines?), all existing in more or less the same moment in time? Or different moments? The brilliance of it is that it’s kind of up to you.
Minus one star bc men are trash and this proves it.
Minus one star bc men are trash and this proves it.
May 8, 2023
Only a man could write something so over-sexual and fetishise something as terrifying as violence and rape. What would be the meaning behind this story if not to show how attractive and "hot" women are when sexually abused? This is not even creepy, it's just horrifying
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2024
I read this for course I have on narrative structure. Though I can appriciate the craft behind it, I find it disgusting and disturbing. I do not understand the choice of topic. Especially not the sections which include Jimmy, I think they distubred me the most. It's just disgusting in my eyes.
May 2, 2024
my heart is racing and i feel like throwing up. i only remembered my professor’s warning when it was too late. not a book i would recommend to anyone yet it’s undeniable that coover is a extremely skilled writer.
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December 20, 2019For my American Lit class
August 27, 2020
Horrifying and disturbing, even tough the use of stereotypes (on babysitters and young people, on married couples) is skillful.
May 1, 2022
In the multiverse, many things can happen. Sometimes you get raped, sometimes you’re the rapist. Such is the human experience.
March 1, 2023
Så otäckt att det knappt är läsbart. Men bra litteratur, antar jag
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews