Reading the 20th Century discussion

This book John Cheeveris available for Kindle in the UK for 99 pence today...



The Wapshot Chronicle (1957)

by

John Cheever


I know nothing about it except that I have heard of John Cheever and suspect he might be quite good. Also suspect he might be in the John Updike mould someone who I used to enjoy but suspect has dated quite badly


Anyway, it's got good reviews, the blurb mentions Trollope, Dickens, and Henry James, and it's only 99 pence today...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...



* Hester and I will be buddy reading The Wapshot Chronicle in July 2025 - please join in if you fancy it. All are welcome*



More about The Wapshot Chronicle (1957)...

Meet the Wapshots of St Botolphs. There is Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea-dog and would-be suicide; his licentious older son, Moses; and Moses's adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly. Tragic and funny, ribald and splendidly picaresque, and partly based on Cheever's adolescence in New England, The Wapshot Chronicle is a family narrative in the finest traditions of Trollope, Dickens, and Henry James

Cheever's debut novel is skittish, mercurial and ringing with life ― Guardian

The best introduction to Cheever's work...richly inventive and vividly told ― New York Times Magazine

A tapestry woven from the threads of emotion, tragedy, comedy...and the irony so wonderfully evident in the author's short stories...a literary mosaic...Cheever is a pleasure to read ― San Francisco Chronicle

A brilliantly written novel, vastly and sometimes sadly, amusing ― Time

Is John Cheever a favourite author?


I look forward to finding out in July 2023 when we will buddy read The Wapshot Chronicle

All our welcome to join in


In the meantime let's discuss John Cheever


John Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs" or "the Ovid of Ossining." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the suburbs of Westchester, New York, and old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born.

His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a character's decorous social persona and inner corruption, and sometimes as a conflict between two characters (often brothers) who embody the salient aspects of both--light and dark, flesh and spirit. Many of his works also express a nostalgia for a vanishing way of life, characterized by abiding cultural traditions and a profound sense of community, as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia.

A little late to the John Cheever Party ( being a non drinker myself ) last year I read and reread four of his short stories as I simply couldn't get them out of my head . The Swimmer , The Enormous Radio, Reunion and The Five Forty Eight . I can recommend them all . By coincidence I'm currently reading The Guest by Emma Cline which explores the same existential territory of The Swimmer (exclusivity ,wealth, performative existence, eternal youth and denial) and seems to have water and swimming pools as a theme .....but with a female protagonist.

Reunion is very short but not a wasted word . Cheever turns a gimlet gaze on his own frailty , alcohol dependency , which reminds me of Patrick Hamilton. His writing style is minimal .

I can also recommend Olivia Laing/ The Trip to Echo Spring which I read last year. It explores why writers drink and had an excellent chapter on Cheever, as she journeys across the States .

Hester, this all intrigues me. I look forward to learning more.
I have not read any Cheever that I remember.

I loved all of those stories, Hester. We had his collected short stories in our home library when I was growing up and I would dip into them as a teen.

This is all most excellent. My anticipation levels have been suitably raised


Thanks Ben, thanks Hester

I will investigate those top tips

The Cheever / Cline connection has been niggling all day as I continue "The Guest" as I keep hearing " The Swimmer " in the plot. Just found a clip on YouTube where Emma Cline says "The Swimmer" is her favourite short story and she wrote "The Guest" with it in mind . So far it's doing the same thing, albeit in a novel not a short story ....a gradual unraveling of an individual punctuated by a series of encounters . In "The Swimmer" the main character is trying to swim home and in Cline's version Alex, our main character , is trying to get to a party on Labor Day . Both destinations take on an almost mythic quality and both characters are practiced in the art of self deception . Isn't it great when one writer pays homage to another ?

Whilst I eagerly await our July 2023 buddy read of The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), and because I espied it in my library, I have just embarked upon…


Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1977)


It’s only 100 pages so I will be able to deliver a swift verdict on my first Cheever

Anyone already read it? Or know anything about it?



From one of the most renowned twentieth-century American writers, this “luminous ephiphany of life ... [is] a charming fable of old age, nostalgia, and loss” ( The Washington Post Book World ).

Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Cheever's final novel is a fable set in a village so idyllic it has no fast-food outlet and having as its protagonist an old man, Lemuel Sears, who still has it in him to fall wildly in love with strangers of both sexes.

But Sears's paradise is threatened; the pond he loves is being fouled by unscrupulous polluters. In Cheever's accomplished hands the battle between an elderly romantic and the monstrous aspects of late-twentieth-century civilisation becomes something ribald, poignant, and ineffably joyful.

"This is perfect Cheever—it is perfect." — The New York Times Book Review

John Cheever is a favorite of mine. I consider his short story The Swimmer to be the finest story written in the second half of the 20th century.

Thanks John


You're not the first to acclaim that story - I look forward to it

Just noticed this thread. I also downloaded The Wapshot Chronicle so hope to join in the buddy read.

Hurrah - great news Susan 🙌🏻

Last night I finished my first Cheever....



Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1977)


It was his final book and is only 100 pages


Not as good as I'd hoped to be but enjoyable enough...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

3/5

I've only read his story, The Swimmer - it has a stylised concept that worked for me.

That's a shame Nigeyb..I think it was published the year he died .

Thanks RC and Hester


I am still optimistic about my nascent Cheever journey and looking forward to reading The Swimmer and The Wapshot Chronicle

Look forward to hearing more about him, I watched Seinfeld on Netflix during the lockdowns so now when his name comes up I think of the Cheever letters in that! I assume the storyline was based on Cheever being posthumously outed?

I don’t know Alwynne, though used to love Seinfeld back in the day

It's when George is still engaged to Susan and he finds love letters from John Cheever to Susan's dad - Cheever's daughter was also called Susan and I think it was her memoir written after her father's death that revealed that Cheever had had relationships with men as well as women.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/200...

Very interesting


Thanks