Robert Coover Quotes - Yenra

Novelist Selections

Robert Coover

The end of Robert Coover's "The Magic Poker" (1969): "Soon the bay is still again, the silver fish and the dragonflies are returned, and only the slightest murmur near the shore by the old waterlogged lumber betrays the recent disquiet. The boat is already far out on the lake, its stern confronting us in retreat. The family who prepared this land does not know the girls have been here, nor would it astonish them to hear of it. ... The boat is almost out of sight, so distant in fact, it's no longer possible to see its occupants or even to know how many there are--all just a blurred speck on the bright sheen laid on the lake by the lowering sun. the lake is calm. Here, a few shadows lengthen, a frog dies, a strange creature lies slain, a tanager sings" (Conron 83).