Is John Cheever very famous in America?

I'm not sure he is still well-read, but, for a time, he was very well-known to those who read. I don't think he was ever as popular as, say, Rowling -- who is? -- but in the late 70's and early 80's, you would expect to see his books in the front of a bookstore on a table of the more popular books. Same with John Updike, another author who specialized in the social norms of the american suburban male. Updike, though, might have been a touch more famous because of his Rabbit stories.

Cheever was once very famous -- mostly for his short stories, which are among the best of the last century. "The Enormous Radio" is one of the best shorts stories of all time. But his flame has faded over time, and now he's not very widely read although he could have a comeback any day -- writers often do, especially ones as good as he was. He also was a troubled bisexual who led a strange and depressing life.

Susan Cheever on the other hand is not well known and although she is a good writer, she might not have a career if not for her last name. Likewise for Ben, his son, a terrific guy married to one of the most evil, hideous, and repellent humans on this planet.

He was certainly well known in our household, we especially appreciated his letters

Susan Ross

[quote] Likewise for Ben, his son, a terrific guy married to one of the most evil, hideous, and repellent humans on this planet.

Strong words! What's so terrible about her?

Weren’t all his stories about wealthy NY suburban alcoholics?

[quote]Cheever was once very famous -- mostly for his short stories, which are among the best of the last century. "The Enormous Radio" is one of the best shorts stories of all time.

Thanks, I googled this and have found an "audio" version, which made me happy, but OMG - quel gayvoice! not John's but the guy they've chosen to read it.

I've heard Meryl Streep do an audio recording of Cheever's "The Sorrows of Gin", and it is really good. She performs the story really, and her delivery of a character's breakdown at the end is funny and heartbreaking.

John Cheever is remembered by those of us who appreciate fine writing. I don’t know about Susan’s reputation as a writer of fiction but her familiar memoir “Home Before Dark” is especially fine.

When you have a Seinfeld episode named after you, you are famous.

Ben Cheever married the widely loathed Times reviewer Janet Maslin.

Why is Janet Maslin hated?

I read his stories when I was in high school but I really remember him from the Seinfeld episode.

Cheever was on my required reading list as I prepared to come out. I remember his fine writing fondly. I never got Updike though.

[quote]as I prepared to come out.

What?

[quote]Why is Janet Maslin hated?

Yes, why?

Updike's collected reviews and essays are wonderful. He had wide-ranging reading interests and I have discovered some gems through his reviews.

R14 Falconer.

His book Falconer, which takes place in a prison, is fantastic and contains a crazy-hot scene of inmates sneaking off into a secret grotto to jerk off and blow each other.

Cheever wrote quite a bit about his bisexuality. He was tortured by it, which, some speculate, contributed to his alcoholism.

Below is a cool article from a few years ago about the sale of his house.

Thanks R16. I've read and enjoyed a few of Updike's essays and would be interested in the Collected. He was also a prolific poet.

Wasn't he the author who wrote about key parties?

One of my favorite short stories is "The Swimmer" which became a movie with the handsome Burt Lancaster

Maslin is considered the bane of all serious writers -- she writes pleasant reviews for books whose authors are her friends, or book written by authors she wishes to meet. She pans anyone she feels isn't at her social level - ie: she's known at the Times for reviewing authors, not actual books. She is, in sum, an egregious social climber, cruel to those she's climbed over, cloyingly sweet to those she wishes to climb up to.

And that's the nicest paragraph anyone's ever written about her.

She doesn't [italic]sound[/italic] like the worst person in the world.

I too hated Gummo and loved Eyes Wide Shut

I don't know Gummo, and I was as neutral as can be about Eyes Wide Shut. I saw it once and remember nothing about it. I could have seen it again in the past year, but wasn't interested.

[quote]Wasn't he the author who wrote about key parties?

I read most of Cheever's short stories and some of Updikes's, many years ago and have forgotten specific but they both wrote a lot about adultery and lust among upper middle class WASPs. I don't recall specific cases of key parties, but certainly could have been.

The most memorable "key party" in literature to me was in Moody's "The Ice Storm" brought to the screen with Sigourney Weave and Kevin Kline, et. al.

I remenber reading some dismal book which had a rave review from Janet Maslin from the NYT. I never read a review from her again, it was that bad (some domestic thriller that made Gone Girl look like , well, John Cheever).

[quote]One of my favorite short stories is "The Swimmer" which became a movie with the handsome Burt Lancaster

The movie sounds brilliant.

Any idea how it compares to the short story?

R22 in the world of Ann Coulter, Megan McCain and other repug women stirring racism, homophobia and misogyny this seems very minor.

Was he a WASP?

[quote]

One of my favorite short stories is "The Swimmer" which became a movie with the handsome Burt Lancaster

The movie sounds brilliant.

Any idea how it compares to the short story? —Anonymous

It's been decades since I read the story and saw the movie, but I think it followed the story, as well as it could, given that the movie is 95 minutes and the short story was only 12 pages.

I think the movie's reputation has grown in recent years. The surreal nature of the film was difficult to follow and confused original viewers.

Wasn't Joan Rivers in The Swimmer?

r32 Yes, she is.

Looks like she could act. Wonder why she didn't do more acting.

I only read the gay stuff: the prison and swimmer tales.

Who cares about alcoholic straight people stories?

R18 I read Falconer while I was serving time in prison and thought it was a very interesting and realistic book. It helped me get through those tough times.

R36 -- Oh...I hope I haven't killed this thread....like I have so many others.

How do you kill threads, r37? By talking about having been in prison?

From his last novel, "Oh What A Paradise It Seems" liked cock

Lemuel Sears, a twice-widowed computer-industry executive, spies beautiful real-estate woman Renee in a Manhattan bank, is swamped with reborn Eros ("She could have been the winsome girl on the oleomargarine package or the Oriental dancer on his father's cigar box who used to stir his little prick when he was about nine"), and is soon her insatiable lover; however, when Renee--an elusive sort dedicated to New School-style self-improvement--proves to be cruelly fickle, Sears promptly finds himself in a low-key, tender affair with. . . Renee's middle-aged doorman. (His "next stop, of course, was a psychiatrist.") I

I would say he is still very famous, but only among people who are interested in literature; he doesn't have the "crossover" fame of Updike (whom he's often put alongside with as the epitome of the classic New Yorker short story), where you're a household name even with those who aren't that big on literature.

(I first came across him because there's an excerpt of his novel "Falconer" in David Leavitt's Penguin anthology of gay short fiction, which I bought when I was 14.)

[quote]Oh...I hope I haven't killed this thread

It's not exactly vivacious.

literature is a dying art anyway