Major New Biography of Author John Cheever

[Mike 03]

Finally someone has authored what is apparently a formidable, major biography of John Cheever, a major author, and contemporary of Updike's (and often compared to him), who lived a tortured existence because he felt compelled to conceal his bisexuality. He was married for something like forty years. He was a serious alcoholic; this almost killed him. But his writing is legendary and a huge part of the canon of American 20th Century literature.

He also taught some of the most influential writers of the currrent age, including John Irving, and my favorite teacher (lucky to have him), T. C. Boyle, who used to tell us stories about Cheever and what it was like to have him for a instructor during one of Cheever's worst alcoholic periods.

The new biography has received extremely positive reviews.

It is called "Cheever: A Life," and it is by Blake Bailey, who actually edited a two volume edition of Cheever's work.

Although I read Cheever's wife's memoir, I felt it was written too soon after his death to deal honestly with the complexity of this man, and the new book--at 750 pages--is sure to provide a much more detailed and balanced examination of his amazing, but tortured and tragic, life, which is reminiscent in some ways of Robert Frost's existence.

[Mist]

1. Thanks for posting--I love Cheever's work. This sounds like a substantial bio, and from

a writer who edited Cheever's work. Should be good. I didn't know Cheever's wife had written on her husband. I do remember that his daughter Susan wrote a memoir of Cheever, "Home Before Dark."

[Mike 03]

2. You are correct! "Home Before Dark" was by his daughter!

I was thinking of the legal battle over publication of his journals, I think.

I want to re-read Cheever's work. It is fascinating to me how an artist's secrets might influence their work.

Right now I'm reading a biography of Samuel Johnson that delves into aspects of his character that were not well known, nor even touched upon by Boswell in his "Life of Johnson."

It saddens me that Cheever lived such an unhappy life, but I wonder how his sadness fed his art, and I wonder about that with other artists as well.

Thanks again for correcting me on "Home Before Dark."

You are exactly right--that was not Cheever's wife.

[Mike 03]

3. UPDATE: This is a stupendous biography.

I received it late Thursday, opened it, began reading when Cheever was sixty and teaching at the Iowa's writer workshop, read to the end, then went back to the beginning.

I couldn't put it down until my eyes were beginning to cross.

This is one amazing biography. I had heard Cheever was complicated and troubled, but I had not even a shred of a clue how complicated this guy was.

It makes me want to try to read his work again.

But, I have to say, this is a biography that struck me almost as a horror story. It is masterful; detailed in the extreme, with each fact relevant but the majority of them frightening.

In the end it is a story of tremendous redemption, but what a painful journey he, his brother, and his entire family had.

I hate that cliche, "I couldn't put it down," but I couldn't put it down. That is the fastest I have ever read a book of this length.

In addition to appreciating it as the study of a writer who in his boyhood was traumatized by a difficult childhood, it provides incredible insight into what it was like to be deeply conflicted about having a confused sexuality during a very judgmental time. Also, Cheever idolized the most masculine writers, which probably just made it all more horrible.

I just wish he had extended the compassion he had for his own conflicts to his wife and children, who were scarred forever by his bitterness.

I hope this biography wins awards. It is stunning; it veritably leaves me speechless.

[ruggerson]

4. One of the best ever episodes of Seinfeld

deals with this.