About the Author

M. Keith Booker is professor of English at the University of Arkansas. He is the author or editor of over fifty books including The Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels (2010), Mad Men: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), Tony Soprano’s America: Gangsters, Guns, and Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), and Star Trek: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

Reviews

Arguing that the Coens’ work exists in a kind of alternate reality America, Booker compares each of the movies to the genre it is meant to subvert and contrasts characters and story lines with elements of the filmmakers’ personal and creative history. The author deftly makes his case; the book is engaging, though undeniably academic. VERDICT A worthy addition to larger libraries and of use to film students everywhere.
*Library Journal*

Booker takes a thorough look at the oeuvre of filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. Booker’s thesis is that their films all take place in a kind of “alternate reality” informed by the Coens’ deep engagement with film history and genre. Devoting each chapter to a different genre, including film noir (Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn’t There) and black comedy (Fargo and A Serious Man), Booker takes a painstaking approach, giving detailed plot synopses of each film and carefully analyzing its relationship both to Hollywood classics and other Coen titles. Booker is at his best using his considerable expertise in film history to trace these complex relationships: for instance, the subtle ways Barton Fink’s protagonist is and is not like playwright and screenwriter Clifford Odets. In fact, the more attention one pays to these films’ finer points, the more one is drawn into a web of connections and references. . . . [A] solid contribution to the study of the Coens’ acclaimed work.
*Publishers Weekly*

Booker knows the films intimately, and he argues convincingly that the Coen brothers’ films, taken as a group, constitute a dark but affectionate view of contemporary US society. Graced with numerous stills and written in a direct and accessible style, this is the best available one-stop guide to the Coens’ work.
*Choice Reviews*