This story sucks.
When John Cheever was collecting the stories for this collection, he chose to leave out some of his earlier stories and push Goodbye, My Brother to the front, even though it came later than others. Beyond that, he let the publisher put out a mostly chronological collection. Sadly, that means the inclusion of this slight noxious story.
Baxter, creep, meets Clarissa, redheaded beauty, and tries to seduce her. Since her mother-in-law drops her off at Vineyard Haven and her husband is somewhere else, he has plenty of opportunity. He keeps inviting her to go out. She keeps accepting. He fails to seduce her. He compliments her beauty. At one point, he kisses her and she doesn't like it. Finally, he compliments her intelligence. That works because she's insecure. As the character from Ally McBeal advised: “compliment a beautiful woman's intelligence and an intelligent woman's looks.”
Clarissa isn't intelligent. Her opinions are banal. She doesn't think women should work. We are all just cogs in a wheel. If it's reasonable to buy ham, she buys ham. If it's reasonable to buy lamb, she buys lamb. She thinks special diets are silly. Then she asks Baxter “Don't you think that's intelligent?”
Of course, he doesn't. No one does. Poor Clarissa is too dumb to know better.
This story relies on the “Beauty=Stupid” trope. This trope is usually incredibly sexist. Piers Anthony, misogynist creep, made it the basis of his first Xanth novel where Chameleon is either very beautiful and stupid or ugly and smart, depending on the time of the month. For some reasons 1980s publishers aggressively marketed Piers Anthony to young readers.
The trope has several disgusting branches. American culture finds blondes attractive, so out come the blonde jokes. Britney Spears' career took off because she fit the sexy teenager role. So let's all cackle when her mental health takes a nose dive. Gamergate had nothing to do with “ethics in game journalaism” and everything to do with harassing women out of spaces reserved for “nerds.”
Artist: Evan Dorkin
There's the one kernel of truth. Beauty is a quality like wealth and fame that gets undue respect. Beautiful people open their mouths and strangers hang on their words. They can say anything – marijuana leaves no scent, mental illness is probably fun, etc. - and find enthusiastic agreement. 30 Rock captured this dynamic perfectly with John Hamm's guest appearance as a man too good looking for his own good. Calvin Klein offers him a modeling job. He's a doctor who can't perform the Heimlich maneuver, a tennis coach who can't play tennis. He's also terrible at sex. He doesn't have to learn anything because everyone caters to him.
Clarissa is beautiful, but is she actually stupid? She might be insecure. She's a pale redhead who is frequently complimented on her beauty. She's uncomfortable in a bikini. Obviously everyone is looking at her. Neither her husband nor mother-in-law want to hear her speak. Baxter might be the first man to ask for her opinion. When she finally speaks for herself, that could be the first time she's stepped out of her pretty vacant role.
That might be giving the story more credit than it deserves. Baxter and Clarissa are both superficial. Baxter is a creep. Clarissa has nothing going for her beyond pale skin, red hair and a wedding ring. Had John Cheever wanted to give her character development, he would have. She's no Joan Harris or even Ethel from The Season of Divorce
She's just boring, like the story.
Next Week: Cheever finally moves to the Suburbs!!!
Yes. Sorry. I still need money to make rent. So if you could contribute to my Gofundme, that’d be great.
If you want to subscribe to the New Yorker, here’s John Updike writing about John Cheever.