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The Stories of John Cheever [Paperback]

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4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 892 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (1978)
ISBN-10: 0345284364
ISBN-13: 978-0345284365
ASIN: B000FZZ7BM
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 3.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product Description

61 of Cheever`s short stories.

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Customer Reviews

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13 reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poet of the Suburbs 27 Nov 2002

By JimOD

Format:Paperback

Ten years ago when I packed in my job in London and moved back to my mother's place, my first project was to read John Cheever's stories from start to finish. Nobody does what Cheever does - he is romantic, spiritual and funny all at once. He loved the Bible and the atmosphere of a provincial church on a Sunday morning, but he also loved sex, gin and cigarettes. The stories follow the order they were published, beginning with his early New York tales of little people "making it" - or more often not making it. The scene gradually shifts to the suburbs, in which businessmen flounder in debt and lust, although they are often saved by something as simple as a vision of light through the trees. In "The Pot of Gold", an early story, a husband waits years for the moment when he will get rich, realising after many disappointments that his riches - his pot of gold - is his marriage. From another writer such a plot might just be sentimental, but Cheever is very good at describing the degradation of poverty in a society as money-oriented as America's. Most of these stories were written for the New Yorker, and like his hero Scott Fitzgerald, Cheever quickly developed a magazine style that could handle the big themes but is never ponderous.
The stories mainly deal with ordinary men who live ordinary lives, but the solutions to their problems are often extraordinary and miraculous. My own favourite is "The Country Husband", in which Francis Weed survives a plane crash and falls in love with his babysitter on the same day. Anyone who is looking for Updike without the politics, Hemingway without the macho stuff and Fitzgerald without the glamour will love these stories. Since I first read them ten years ago in my mother's house, I have reread them countless times and they have never lost their power.

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars American fiction at its best... 16 Feb 2007

By Heather VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

John Cheever projects such a strong vision of a particular time and place in American history that i think it would be hard not to like these stories. They are, as individual stories, great achievements but as a collection these stories become something much more, they transport the reader into the heart of the post war American suburb, describing societies lonliest and most vunerable characters. Those for whom achieving their 'American Dream' is not an option but a necessity, it is their sheer belief that against all odds they will succeed, which keeps them going.

My personal favourites are those which describe Cheever's fictional 'Shady Hill' suburb, in particular, 'O Youth and Beauty' which tells the story of the once great sportsman Cash Bently who spends his weekends hurdling over the furniture in his neighbours houses, as a desperate attempt to win back some of his former glory.

This is a great collection, one which you will come back to time and again.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest short story writer of his generation 3 Jun 2011

By Mr. Rupert J. B. Smith

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Nobody does the short story like John Cheever. There's something almost magical about his work - and I don't mean in the awful, corny, 'magic realist' sense - I mean that he creates a surprising, inexplicable effect from the subtlest of means. I've often read a JC story and thought, afterwards, 'what just happened? how did he do that?'. The narratives are often oblique or veiled - which is a quality I usually dislike, but Cheever pulls it off with aplomb. The stories are funny, sexy, sometimes shocking, often sad, and they get under the skin like nothing else. There are too many favourites to choose from but if you want a starting point have a crack at The Housebreaker of Shady Hill, Goodbye My Brother, and The Sorrows of Gin. One final point - these are not stories to be guzzled down in handfuls. They're like a good martini - to be taken slowly, one or two at a time.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars America suburbia

Years ago I saw "the swimmer" film with Burt Lancaster then I saw a review of John Cheever's work recently. Read more

Published 5 days ago by Mark Colvin

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the book that...

I ordered this copy partly because it had a forward by Hanif Kareishi.
I was looking forward to reading this forward... Read more

Published 7 months ago by Katdinsky

2.0 out of 5 stars over-rated

Wanting to have good national writers is a powerful motivator. I think that this has happened with John Cheever, from the retrospective praise of his work to our fascination with... Read more

Published on 7 May 2011 by rob crawford

4.0 out of 5 stars No Happy Endings

Reading this collection of John Cheever's short stories is like stumbling upon a 1950s black and white film or an early television series. Read more

Published on 2 May 2011 by John Fitzpatrick

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential collection for fiction lovers

I had read bits and pieces of Cheever, but it took me a while to get into this. Two or three of the early pieces are quite slow, too. The solution? Read more

Published on 22 Oct 2010 by Golowy

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for the content, but not the best binding around

I can only echo what other reviewers have said. These stories are unlike anything else I've ever read. Read more

Published on 5 May 2010 by MT

5.0 out of 5 stars The Savagery of Cheever

I had never read Cheever before and this Vintage collection begins with a tale of reunion where a large family are reunited at some decaying holiday place on the coast. Read more

Published on 3 May 2010 by J. S. Lewison

3.0 out of 5 stars A little overrated but still much to enjoy

There is a repetitiveness in theme and tone to Cheever's work. There is also at times a bitterness that almost seems to come from the author, not the narrator. Read more

Published on 8 Feb 2010 by Flibertigibbit

5.0 out of 5 stars reliable delivery, reliable information

Delivery was well ahead suggested time, status of the book was "as new" as promised.

Published on 21 April 2009 by Luis Medina Trivi�o

5.0 out of 5 stars Melt-in-the-mouth stories.

Cheever is one of the best American short story writers of the 20th century, along with Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway, Richard Yates and Carver. Read more

Published on 10 Sep 2007 by C. Sturgess

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