“The Trouble of Marcie Flint” (The Stories of John Cheever)

Shady Hill Politics

“Like all bitter men, Flint knew less than half the story and was more interested in unloading his own peppery feelings than in learning the truth.”

For all its mess, this is a perfect story. Characters seem extraneous. Details come out of nowhere. The plot comes out non-linear. It's still one of Cheever's best Shady Hill stories, depicting Shady Hill away from the cocktail party circuit, delving into the madrigal clubs and the politics through the perspective of the title character as she becomes her own woman, without needing a husband.

Marcie Flint

Marcie is deceptively passive for most of the tale. When a city council member throws a tantrum, she's apologizing for him. In her first scene, she's hiding the fact that her husband, Chaarlie, is in Torino and may never come home. When Charlie actually comes home, she welcomes him back. Even her decision to send him packing is framed as a guilt-ridden confession. She only screams at Charlie when he hesitates.

Cheever is subtle with Marcie's emerging self-determination. In her introduction, the reader feels sorry for her. She has to fire the cook. Charlie calls her once a week when he's drunk. For a week, friends still invite her to cocktail parties, but a single woman just makes everyone uncomfortable.

Marcie is forced to explore non-drinking social activities, “a regular Santa Claus' workshop of madrigal singers, political discussion groups, recorder groups, dancing schools, confirmation classes, committee meetings, and lectures on literature, philosophy, city planning, and pest control.” One wonders how many Shady Hill residents are eagerly attending that pest control lecture. Definitely her husband would have benefited from a pest control lecture.

Eventually she ends up on the village council, which leads to her sleeping with Noel Mackham, a poor schmuck who only wanted a Shady Hill library and draws the ire of half the council. Because of Cheever's non-linear technique, we see Marcie kicking Charlie out citing her affair before we learn why she slept with Mackham. She tells Charlie that she made a mistake and wants to end the marriage because guilt.

In the next scene, we learn that Marcie did not make a mistake. She chose to sleep with Mackham. She chose to end her marriage with Charlie. Should Charlie beg to come back, she will reject him again. She stood up to the biggest bully in Shady Hill. In defiance, she gives Mackham a pity fuck. By the end, we understand that the trouble of Marcie Flint isn't her affair or reputation. Her only trouble is her husband.

Mark Barrett

Most politics are boring – especially local politics. Local politics is all about zoning laws, parking lots and school funding. Mark Barrett, raging asshole, succeeds at local politics because he's the only board member without shame. He will scream when everyone else talks politely. According to Marcie, everyone has had a problem with “her friend Mark Barrett.”

Barrett is a bully who enjoys throwing his weight around.

In the village council meeting scene, Noel Mackham makes a milquetoast inoffensive speech about appreciating the local library growing up and hoping that Shady Hill children can have the same experience. Barrett takes offense. Mackham pushes back but just barely and this gives Barrett license to rant: “I'm not going to sit here and have someone who lives in Maple Dell tell me the reasons he's such a hot rock is because he reads a lot of books!” Barrett shouted. “Books have their place I won't deny it. But no book ever helped me to get where I am, and from where I am I can spit on Maple Dell. As for my kids, I want them out in the fresh air playing ball, not reading cookbooks.”

Mark Barrett gets away with his behavior, because most council members see a library as a NIMBY issue. Neither the mayor nor Mrs. Selfredge want a library coming into Shady Hill and attracting developers. No one wants to confront him because they either agree or they don't want his attention. Many politicians used aggression in nominally safe spaces to get their way. Hitler and Stalin are extreme examples, but most places have Mark Barrett bullies. All those jokes about drunk uncles at Thanksgiving dinner come from somewhere. In the 1950s, Joseph McCarthy was the most successful loud stupid drunk. He fought Communism and his fellow anti-Communists seemed rational blacklisting suspected radicals.

Mark Barrett's most evil scene happens late in the story when he orders Marcie to cancel her strategy meeting to Mackham. As he's calling Mackham a “meatball”, he proudly relates the story of torturing a poor kid from high school. His victim's only crime was mistaking Barrett for a friend. Marcie is not impressed. She's even less impressed when Barrett screams that she's an intractable weak-willed God-damned fool.

Most people will just go along with Mark Barrett. By the end of the story, Marcie has gotten to a point where she's not going to put up with his bullshit, no matter how many funny stories he tells about almost drowning teenagers.

Charlie Flint

As a counterpoint to Marcie, Charlie Flint is the most delusional character. He begins the story on boat to Italy. He has a suitcase full of peanut butter because he thinks that he can seduce Italian women with the promise of Skippy Extra Crunchy. Even before he rants against Shady Hill with its flannels and gabardines, women who dress like toreros, syringa bushes and PTA Meetings, Cheever informs the reader that there's nothing wrong with Shady Hill.

Marcie's subtle journey to self-determination contrasts nicely with Charlie proudly idiotic trip to Italy. Charlie actually expresses shock when he learns that Marcie had an affair during his extended vacation. When he finally gets home, he assumes nothing has changed. So he buys ant poison and almost kills the children. In the 1950s, they didn't have locked cabinets or Mr. Yuck stickers apparently. Parents left sweet tasty poison out for their children to eat. According to the surviving baby boomers, everyone turned out fine.

Marcie claims that she wants a divorce because she feels guilty. Charlie is dumb enough to believe her. For the reader, it's obvious that Marcie has spent three months learning to fend for herself. She's done with Charlie's antics. Charlie is a man-child who will never grow up. Even as Charlie pledges to return to her and shelter her from the harms of the dark, the reader knows better. Marcie is more than capable of dealing with the harms of the dark without Charlie.

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There was an adaptation of this story by Andrew Gerle here.