“The Bus to St. James's” (The Stories of John Cheever)

And we're back in Manhattan

I tried to read Flannery O'Connor, but I couldn't get past the racism – n-word, hard-r “keep them in their place” racism. Even her classics like “A Good Man is Hard to Find” have characters casually going “Look at that N----”. Read the Complete Stories and you get crap like “The Geranium” that frame an old Southerner freaking out because his daughter lives in an apartment building with black people as a sympathetic figure. He doesn't say “black people.” Seriously, her old fashioned racism is exhausting.

Why am I fine with John Cheever?

John Cheever characters are privileged white people in 1950s America. They benefit from white supremacy even more than Flannery O'Connor's shitbags. In John Cheever stories, black people are invisible. Manhattan is as white as a Woody Allen movie or a Friends rerun (but without the Jews). You don't even notice the lack of diversity until it's pointed out.

In “The Bus to St James's”, John Cheever points out the racism twice. In one scene, Mrs. Sheridan asks if the trustees of St. James's, a Protestant Episcopal School for (rich) boys and girls, have ever considered enrolling Negro children. She satisfied with a non-answer. In the second scene, Mr. Bruce tells Mrs. Sheridan that he was impressed with the question. John Cheever informs the reader that Mr. Bruce was not impressed. In fact, he'd pull his daughter out of the school if they ever accepted black students. Both characters are virtue signaling. They don't care about racial equality. They are privileged and they like it that way. Mrs. Sheridan wants to fight with her mediocre husband and Mr. Bruce wants to seduce Mrs. Sheridan.

In fact, beyond their cooks and maids, Mr. Bruce and Mrs. Sheridan never have to talk to anyone ethnic or poor or even middle class. They live in a rarified social order where their one glimpse of the working class comes in the morning waiting with their children for the bus to St. James's. They see doormen walking dogs and porters scrubbing lobby floors.. Even then, a stranger walking past in the tuxedo covered in sawdust takes their attention.

They don't even get first names. They are Mr. Bruce and Mrs. Sheridan. Even in the final paragraph, after they've been sleeping together for months, they are still Mr. Bruce and Mrs. Sheridan. We only learn Mr. Bruce's first name because his wife, Lois, hires a private detective to tell her where Mr. Bruce has sex with Mrs. Sheridan. She rings and knocks and yells his name (it's Stephen) until a neighbor comes out and looks at her.

This story's power comes from theses unnaturally formal and privileged characters. The plot is conventional. Mr. Bruce and Mrs. Sheridan have an affair. Mr. Bruce is just as calculating as Blake from “The Five Forty Eight.” His first wife is dead. He chose his second wife based on her fragility. “Lois had been frail when Mr. Bruce first met her. It had been one of her charms.” She's pale and weak, susceptible to poison oak, cold germs and fatigue. They've been married for five years and he's run out of things to talk about. She complains about her back. He's very bored.

For Mr. Bruce, Mrs. Sheridan is the strong independent alternative to Lois. He marries weak women whom he can control, but he chases after the strong ones.

Not surprisingly, John Cheever influenced Mad Men and this story feels like an episode. From the pilot, Don Draper is a man who marries safe but chases after exciting strong women. Midge, Don's first girlfriend, sets the tone for Don's mistresses. She's fun and non-conformist. She challenges Don. Don sees her as a symbol of freedom, but she's not a symbol. She's a messy fucked-up women with her own issues. When Midge shows up later in the series, addicted to heroin and begging for money, Don is shocked. He never saw Midge's vulnerability or humanity. He never wanted to see it.

Mr. Bruce has the same willful blindness when it comes to Mrs. Sheridan. He only wants to see her as a strong independent woman. Beyond asking uncomfortable questions, she openly hates her husband. In their first real conversation, Mrs. Sheridan's daughters volunteer that their brother drowned the previous summer. Instead of sympathy or concern, Mr. Bruce feels horny. He's impressed that she doesn't seem upset. He doesn't think it's sad or disturbing.

He calls it a feat of intelligence and grace.

This is a love story, but a Cheever love story, meaning that at least one of the characters is a narcissist. As the story progresses, they don't even hide their affair. Mr. Bruce suggests they go down in separate elevators, but Mrs. Sheridan rejects that idea. The same day, they run into Lois' mother and act like it's the most natural meeting. They don't care. They are at the honeymoon stage where nothing matters beyond the other person.

In the months that follow, everyone notices them. Everyone tells their spouses. They aren't bothered. At least, Mr. Bruce is not a hypocrite. When his daughter and friends get caught “playing doctor,” he doesn't scold her. He considers it natural. He only gets angry at the other girl's mother for getting on a moralistic high horse.

Finally, everything falls apart. Lois may or may not be leaving Mr. Bruce, but Mr. Sheridan takes his daughters out of the country. In the last paragraph, Mr. Bruce comforts Mrs. Sheridan who collapses into him. As Mr. Bruce repeats “it's going to be OK,” he's only talking about himself. John Cheever has told us enough to know that it certainly won't be OK for Mrs. Sheridan.

Mr. Bruce may try to stay with her for a few weeks or even months, but it's over. He wanted an affair with a woman of “intelligence and grace” who doesn't flinch at the mention of her dead son. He ended with a sad soon-to-be-divorced woman, a broken emotional wreck. He's already married a fragile wife. He doesn't need a fragile mistress.

Mr. Bruce is a rich white guy in the 1950s. He never has to clean up his mess.

To read the John Cheever stories yourself, here’s the Library of America edition

If you have a job for a writer, contact me. If you’d like to help out but don’t want to commit to a subscription, please donate to my Gofundme. Even $5 will help.