Three More John Cheever Classics
John Cheever Goes to Italy, Has Thoughts
Currently struggling with “The Lowboy” and Job Chapter 38 (G-d is talking) and Shabbos is approaching, so it’s time to present three more past articles on John Cheever stories for new readers and readers who want to revisit the glories of Shady Hill and Italy. With these three stories, John Cheever seems to be working some things out as he writes about gender roles and Ugly Americans getting mugged in Italy.
First, we have “The Trouble of Marcie Flint,” a fun story about suburban politics, straying husbands and NIMBY, only NIMBY is the local library. Usually John Cheever depicts Shady Hill as a haven for drunks having cocktail parties and trying to live out their glory days. This story is about city council members that really don’t want to build a library, lest they might invite the wrong sort of people. Marcie Flint is a woman whose husband took off to Italy on an extended business trip and needs something to do. So she joins the city council. And has an affair. Everyone in this story is ridiculous and it’s quite wild.
“The Trouble of Marcie Flint” (The Stories of John Cheever)
“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.”
Next we have Cheever’s first story that takes place in Italy. In the late 1950s, John Cheever lived in an apartment in a castle for a year and didn’t get much writing done. The fact that an author as prolific as John Cheever gets writer’s block says something about his attitude towards Italy. After Italy, he did write several stories about Americans in Italy, but during the year, he wrote one story that isn’t even collected in this book.
"The Bella Lingua" (The Stories of John Cheever)
Princess Orietta Pogson Doria Phamphili descended from an Italian royal family dating back to the 16th century. Mussolini sent her father to a concentration camp. During WWII, she joined the anti-fascist resistance, almost blowing up her family palace when the Nazis occupied it. A devout Catholic, she adopted two children and collected art, boasting one…
Finally, we have another Shady Hill story. I’m at the middle of the book and John Cheever is writing a lot of very short stories (500-2000 words) that pack a punch. In previous articles, I contrasted John Cheever with Raymond Carver who allowed Gordon Lish to tear the heart out of his stories. So do I take that back now that I’m reading John Cheever stories where he packed a great deal of characterization and plotting into smaller spaces?
No. John Cheever wrote these stories and you can tell that he was in charge. He wasn’t letting Gordon Lish delete his weird stuff. His stories are still very weird. They don’t feel like mind games for readers who are missing the important bits. The Wrysons is about two people who keep secrets from each other; silly secrets, the kind of secrets that don’t matter - but matter a great deal to the characters. The Wrysons fear nuclear war and being exposed as chronic baking enthusiasts.
"The Wrysons" (The Stories of John Cheever)
If you want to understand the Cold War, watch The Twilight Zone. Every episode oozes with post-nuclear dread. Even the twist endings reflect the time. On the surface everything is fine, but the façade falls away to reveal a stark reality. In the 1950s and 1960s, America was a powerful force in the world, the world's police officer, the country that not …
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Since I’m writing about John Cheever’s story about brotherly spite, I found this academic article. Check it out.
I’m putting my reprints up on Kindle, including Snuff, a story about friends filming a snuff film.
The NYC Mayor race currently sucks with a fucking antisemite and the man who killed my mother with his nursing home shenanigans during covid in the lead. So if you are living in New York, please check out Zellnor Myrie. He is progressive in all the right ways and unlike the other “progressives” running for mayor, he actually likes Jews.