The Public Burning by Robert Coover

 


What if Robert Coover wrote a sequel to The Public Burning set in 2025 where Donald Trump takes decisive action following his election as the next US President? The title might be The New Public Burning. Robert Coover could do it, after all, he's still kicking at age 91 and he wrote The Brunist Day of Wrath in his 70s as a sequel to his The Origin of the Brunists.

The Public Burning published in 1976 and became a bestseller, a novel where the year is 1953 and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are to be executed on the night of their fourteenth wedding anniversary in two electric chairs mounted on a stage in Times Square, New York City. Everybody who is anybody plays their part in this national extravaganza, including J. Edgar Hoover, Cecil B. De Mille, Walt Disney, Ed Sullivan, Betty Crocker, and Uncle Sam cast as Sam Slick, wily Yankee Peddler.

Here's what I picture in The New Public Burning: the location is Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the football stadium at University of Florida, seating capacity 90,000. There's a stage set up on the 50 yard line with four electric chairs. Similar to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the crime is treason. The four Neo-Maoists to be publicly fried are Joe & Jill Biden alongside Barack & Michelle Obama. As befitting this momentous occasion, Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, will serve as master of ceremonies.

So, in the spirit of Robert Coover's style of over-the-top satire, what other right wing folks are on the scene and what other entertainments are in the offing?