Cheever: A Life - Softcover

Bailey, Blake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330437917 ISBN 13: 9780330437912

Publisher: Picador, 2010

Synopsis

John Cheever was one of the foremost chroniclers of post-war America, a peerless writer who on his death in 1982 left some of the best short stories of the twentieth century, a number of highly acclaimed novels, and a private journal that runs to an astonishing four million words. Cheever was a soul in conflict who hid his contradictions - alcoholism, secret bisexuality - behind the screen of genial family life in suburbia. In this luminous, definitive work, one of the most gifted biographers of his generation reveals the troubled but strangely lovable man behind these disguises, a creator of timeless fiction. `An instant classic' Philip Hensher, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year `Lively, funny, informative, astute, masterly. It's impossible to imagine how anyone could have done a better job' Blake Morrison, Guardian `The highlight of my reading year' Observer `I simply can't imagine a better literary biography than this one' Spectator

About this title

Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, March 2009: In Blake Bailey's monumental, masterful, and, at nearly 800 pages, mammoth biography, Cheever: A Life, the author of A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates turns his attention to the "the Chekhov of the suburbs" and his storied, celebrated, and deeply tortured life. Written with compassion and the full cooperation of Cheever's widow, Mary, and their three children, Cheever is rich with detail and chronicles the mournful arc of a lifetime struggling with a core duplicity that ached throughout his writing life--despite a 41-year marriage, Cheever was a closeted bisexual who simmered with self-loathing. Bailey covers the author's childhood, his time in the army, his life as a writer and his literary rivals (Salinger, in particular, seemed to irritate him), his alcoholism (he would struggle against taking that first "scoop" of gin from the pantry every morning while he was writing), and his struggle to play the role of suburban family man. The book is peppered with literary cameos: Updike, Bellow, and Roth are there, along with his Iowa Writers' Workshop students T.C. Boyle, Ron Hansen, and Allan Gurganus. (While at Iowa Cheever made it a weekly ritual to watch Monday Night Football and eat homemade pasta with fellow instructor John Irving.) Bailey also edited two Library of America editions of Cheever's stories and novels published to coincide with his biography. This literary hat trick will no doubt spark a well-deserved Cheever renaissance honoring his legacy as an American master. --Brad Thomas Parsons

About the Author:

Blake Bailey is the author of the highly acclaimed biography of Richard Yates, A Tragic Honesty, which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the editor of John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0330437917
• ISBN 13: 9780330437912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 770