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Falconer (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by John Cheever (Author), A.M. Homes (Introduction) "The main entrance to Falconer - the only entrance for convicts, their visitors and the staff - was crowned by an escutcheon representing Liberty, Justice..." (more)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Frequently Bought Together

Falconer (Penguin Classics) + Collected Stories (Vintage Classics) + The Wapshot Chronicle (Vintage Classics)
Total RRP: £33.98
Price For All Three: £22.31

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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (30 Jun 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141187859
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141187853
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 98,715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #5 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > C > Cheever, John

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Product Description

Product Description

A story of human redemption, Falconer explores an ex-professor's experiences as an inmate in Falconer Prison. Ezekiel Farragut, convicted of killing his brother, has been imprisoned in the state prison where he is visited by his wife Marcia, with whom he has a love-hate relationship. Falconer tells the story of Farragut, his crime and punishment and his struggle to remain a man as he comes to terms with how his life has changed forever.

About the Author

John Cheever (1912-1982) was born in Quincy, Massachussetts. During a writing career which spanned forty years, John Cheever won a National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and an American Book Award. His titles include The Stories of John Cheever and Oh What A Paradise It Seems. A.M. Homes is the author of several novels and a collection of stories. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, she also writes for Art Forum, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Among her many awards are Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships. She lives in New York.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The main entrance to Falconer - the only entrance for convicts, their visitors and the staff - was crowned by an escutcheon representing Liberty, Justice and, between the two, the sovereign power of government. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Falconer (Penguin Classics)
72% buy the item featured on this page:
Falconer (Penguin Classics) 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£7.60
Collected Stories (Vintage Classics)
14% buy
Collected Stories (Vintage Classics) 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
£8.98
Bullet Park (Vintage Classics)
5% buy
Bullet Park (Vintage Classics) 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£5.80
Cheever: A Life
4% buy
Cheever: A Life 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£15.38
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great prison literature, 28 Nov 2002
By JimOD (Brighton, Sussex) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Falconer (Paperback)
I first read this book ten years ago when I was squatting in Kentish Town, and it seemed true then and it seems even truer now. Cheever knew that a novelist's job was to do several things at the same time, but he never managed it quite so sweetly until this book. Like its contemporary, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Falconer" is set in an American prison in the early 1970s. Just as Ken Kesey went to work in a prison to find an outlet for his vision of an alternative America, Cheever went to his local jail, but the results are startlingly different. All of Cheever's beautiful obsessions - with addiction, failed marriages and sexy men - come out in this book. Farragut, the hero of the novel, is an otherworldly guy for whom life has been a series of seminars and skiing trips. Confronted with himself in prison, he accepts his bisexuality and in real rhapsodic style embraces Jody, the man he hooks up with. Cheever captures the sordidness and loveliness of American life with wit and elegance and charm, and we are led through a series of bizarre scenarios to the hero's eventual redemption. It is hard to think of a more cover-breaking moment in a writer's life than "Falconer" - it is a novel that is literally lit up with the author's honesty. Hearteningly, it was also the moment when Cheever achieved visible success, won the prizes and was recognised for what he was: the natural heir to Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected gem, 29 Jan 2009
By E. Billingham ""Wizzo Hughes"" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Although highly recommended by Esther Freud's book group - I read it in a magazine, she did not call me up! - some of my own group were fairly resistant to the idea of Falconer, set in a prison and about a drug addicted man who had murdered his brother. It was hardly going to be a barrel of laughs to chase away the January blues. But hey, it turned out to be a great success with all but one of our group (who didn't get it at all). It is beautifully written, full of humanity and extremely moving. And there are laughs, too. It will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommended by me now, as well as Esther.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Soars, 9 Jan 2010
The story is a prison (melo)drama, the institute given the name Falconer. The prose (and the emotions) fly high, indeed, like the bird. A reference to Faulkner too? He also knew how to produce beautifully written melodrama.

I enjoyed it for the great writing (probably I should read decent literature more often, then it wouldn't seem such a novelty). Critics mention Fitzgerald, but I thought more of Salinger, the author's neat pinpointing of quirky psychology, sad sense of humour and deep romanticism.

The biography of the author shouldn't matter to the fiction produced and sometimes knowledge can spoil it, but I found a little information about John Cheever's personal life, did, with this work, enhance the poignancy of it.

Hope you enjoy it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
What I so like about this book is that, although set in an awful situation in terrible surroundings, it radiates love to every side and makes life seem effortlessly worthwile even... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. A. M. J. Wigmore

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