Teasing the Korean Posted July 29, 2019 Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 I had The Collected Stories of John Cheever a long time ago. I read many of the stories. I re-purchased it a few years ago, and have thus far read most of the stories. I plan on reading them all. I have never read any of his novels. I love the film adaptation of The Swimmer and the short story also. What are your thoughts on John Cheever? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted July 29, 2019 Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 I like the stories by and large; some of them are near magical. The novels don't work so well for me, kind of shaggy at times; I think his imagination benefited from the compression of the story form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.D. Posted July 29, 2019 Report Share Posted July 29, 2019 41 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said: I had The Collected Stories of John Cheever a long time ago. I read many of the stories. I re-purchased it a few years ago, and have thus far read most of the stories. I plan on reading them all. I have never read any of his novels. I love the film adaptation of The Swimmer and the short story also. What are your thoughts on John Cheever? Very much agreed on The Swimmer. I read quite a few of his short stories over the years, but no novels. Weirdly, I read Cheever's short story Torch Song in an anthology (of American Short Stories or the like) 15-20 years ago, and it creeped me out so badly that I never read anything more of his. Well-written, but something about that story deeply disturbed me. I even pitched my copy of the anthology. So I guess you could say that I find Cheever's writing extremely powerful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted July 30, 2019 Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 5 hours ago, T.D. said: Very much agreed on The Swimmer. I read quite a few of his short stories over the years, but no novels. Weirdly, I read Cheever's short story Torch Song in an anthology (of American Short Stories or the like) 15-20 years ago, and it creeped me out so badly that I never read anything more of his. Well-written, but something about that story deeply disturbed me. I even pitched my copy of the anthology. So I guess you could say that I find Cheever's writing extremely powerful! I read the Complete Shorts Stories and found them very depressing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted July 30, 2019 Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 I've dipped into the short stories (eventually I upgraded from the old volume to Library of America's Collected Stories and Other Writings) but haven't gotten through all of them. I'm pretty sure I read The Wapshot Chronicle in my early 20s but none of his other novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted July 30, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 I'm curious about the similarities or differences between the St. Botolph's location in the novels and the Shady Hill location in the short stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catesta Posted August 7, 2019 Report Share Posted August 7, 2019 John Cheever?! Dad, you and John Cheever?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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