Coover's fiction then - and now

Always good to see something by Robert Coover in the New Yorker; current story, The Waitress, seems to be part of a series, which, if memory serves, the NYer is publishing as one-page pieces with illustrations on facing page by the same artist - maybe they'll be published in similar format in book form? Each seems to be a take on a fairy tale or folk tale - this one about the paradox of being granted three wishes, none of which turns out exactly as one had hoped or expected. Each of the tales is in a contemporary setting and, as one would expect from Coover, each is more overtly sexual that the ur-model. Each is also pretty funny and would play well if read aloud. I don't know if these represent Coover at his best - it's hard to even try to compare them to the greatly imaginative pieces of his youth, the pieces in Pricksongs & Descants or the really innovative The Cat in the Hat for President. But Coover's always been up to something in his long, fine career. As noted in a previous post, I have been looking forward to the sequel to Origin of the Brunists for many years, and now it's out - The Brunist Day of Wrath - but I have to say: 1,000 pages? It may be a long time before I delve into that - and I wonder why Coover, or a smart editor, didn't encourage making this book into a series of three or four more manageable, readable, and sale-able publication.