The Wapshot Chronicle (Perennial Classics)
by John Cheever
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 229)
Read in July, 2008
Only my intense admiration for “The Swimmer” could have kept me reading this book for an entire 150 pages. I found it deeply uncompelling, probably because there is a problem with causality: there is very little of it. The opening chapter describes a run-away horse pulling a float—which is carrying some ladies, including a main character. Exciting! But in fact it’s just a cheap way to introduce us to the town—as the horse goes trotting by houses, each house’s family is introduced...more
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Read in November, 2007
I feel like I should like John Cheever, I'm supposed to like John Cheever, and for goodness sake, I WANT to like John Cheever. I just... don't like John Cheever. At least, I didn't like "The Wapshot Chronicle." I found the story disjointed, the characters unappealing - especially Leander; every time he appeared I wanted to bang my head against the wall, which is a shame because I think he's supposed to be the main character or something - and I'm not really sure what masochistic ten...more
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Read in May, 1992
It's gonna happen sometime, people, no matter how you may dread it. Yes, I am referring to my long-planned, heavily-unanticipated, as-yet-unwritten, irritatingly irrelevant monograph on John Cheever, wherein I single-handedly return him to his proper place in the first rank of American novelists. Due in equal parts to Seinfeld and postmodernism, Cheever has become little more than a punch line: a sad symbol of dated postwar suburban cocktail-party angst… well, think again, bitches! ...more
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Spoiler alert: this book is really freakin' good. I sort of expected not to like it, though I can't say why, exactly. Maybe because it's a book I've been meaning to read for a long time, a book I felt I should read more so than wanted to read? Or maybe because I made the mistake of reading the Rick Moody foreward, which lavishes so much platitude-laden praise on the novel it made me want to vomit just a little bit?
Anyway, point is, the book's good. A little episodic, but I found that to be ...more
Anyway, point is, the book's good. A little episodic, but I found that to be ...more
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Read in November, 2007
So I was expecting a family history epic type story, and because it's set in New England and written by a man I expected lots of nautical references and the kind of intrigue borne of small-town gossip, a la Richard Russo. I was wrong, so wrong. Get through the first two chapters, and this book is all about sex (and gender relations). Longing for sex, the withholding of sex, sexual identity problems, and women who behave like preying mantises. All the poor Wapshot brothers want is to move ahead i...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
those who are into new england lore
So, I had to put this book down 20 pages in. It was a little too chronicle-y. I, too, grew up in New England but feel no particular need to look back fondly upon, say, lovely fishing trips with my father (namely because I didn't take them) or charming tales of my nutty grandma who verbally harrasses her gardener (because I don't have one of those, either). A little slow, a little choppy, and I guess I just got antsy. You can tell that John Cheever is primarily a short story writer, because the c...more
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Read in January, 2006
I am trying to get through The Modern Library's Top 100 books of the 20th century and this is on the list.
It took me quite a while to get engrossed in this one, but once I was, there was no turning back. What a great story, and so exquisitely written. I'm finding it is hard to go back and forth between the Top 100 list and contemporary fiction as the old ones are generally so beautifully written. This book definitely confirmed that.
It took me quite a while to get engrossed in this one, but once I was, there was no turning back. What a great story, and so exquisitely written. I'm finding it is hard to go back and forth between the Top 100 list and contemporary fiction as the old ones are generally so beautifully written. This book definitely confirmed that.
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
What a wonderful book. Full of eccentric, odd, yet strangely familiar characters, all beautifully drawn, including the peripheral ones. There were many passages in this book that were so powerful, so lovely, or so superbly written, that I had to reread them several times before I could carry on with the rest of the story. Perhaps this is a writer's read. More likely it's just a damn fine book.
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Panio suggested I read this and, since it was Panio's suggestion, I did. Of course it was just what I was looking for-- that goes without saying. Even before I knew what was happening, I couldn't put it down. Cheever neither condescends nor romanticizes his characters and his setting, and yet both achieve a sort of terminal velocity in which something is always up. This book is a sort of dream.
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Read in May, 2008
This was one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. The rich storyline is constructed more in overlapping layers than a story that travels from point A to B. In a way, it's like "Tangled Up In Blue" by Bob Dylan in novel format. I liked the first half of the book more than I liked the 2nd, but overall it was a wonderful and unique book.
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Parker by:
Jill Stukenberg
Despite a somewhat flabby 3/4th section wherein Cheever makes increasingly impenetrable metaphors regarding inanimate objects (such as elevator cables) and their capacity to speak for the whole of the human condition, this is a solid and enjoyable read. Recommended.
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recommends it for:
disaffected New Englanders.
I love Cheever's short stories, so I was really looking forward to this. It somehow seemed disjointed to me. Even though the Modern Library considered it one of the best novels of the 20th century, I think I'll stick to the short stuff, which I still love dearly.
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Read in December, 2005
Our first book club book! And only two of us read it for the first meeting - a few more for the second meeting. No one really liked it. Slow, felt like cheever was trying to squeeze a novel out of a short story.
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Sometimes I question my supposed love for American Literature, since I find our post-WWII while male posterboys -- Cheever, Irving, Updike, Roth, and DeLillo -- so uninspiring. What is one to do?
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Read in August, 2008
Ah New England...
This is the book Jonathan Richman would have written if he was born at the turn of the twentieth century... and if he was a writer... and a drunk.
Weirdly recommended.
This is the book Jonathan Richman would have written if he was born at the turn of the twentieth century... and if he was a writer... and a drunk.
Weirdly recommended.
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Read in December, 2007
Found this on the Modern Library's top 100 books, although I'd never heard of it. Fantastic read, butnot a profound impact. I haven't really thought about it since I finished it.
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I was going to try and read this before my trip to Colorado so I could give it back to my step-mom, but I read the first 50 pages or so and I just can't get into it. I quit.
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I've come to the conclusion that I really just don't care for Cheever. His characters are never particularly likeable, and his storylines often somewhat depressing.
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Read in June, 2000
i think it was the right book for me at the right time. i was intrigued by the seriousness the characters took to their lives.
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
Classic American Lit
It's been sometime but I remember really enjoying this book. It's some salty east coast literature. Sea side and all that.
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