John Cheever’s Followers (1,071)

John Cheever

Born

in Quincy, Massachusetts, The United States

May 27, 1912

Died

June 18, 1982

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Gay & Lesbian

Influences

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Chekov, Proust ...more

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John Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer, sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs" or "the Ovid of Ossining." His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the suburbs of Westchester, New York, and old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born.

His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a character's decorous social persona and inner corruption, and sometimes as a conflict between two characters (often brothers) who embody the salient aspects of both--light and dark, flesh and spirit. Many of his works also express a nostalgia for a vanishing way of life, characterized by abiding cult ...more

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John Cheever’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 58,342 ratings · 5,168 reviews · 297 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Stories of John Cheever 4.26 avg rating — 15,762 ratings — published 1978 — 67 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Falconer 3.64 avg rating — 8,835 ratings — published 1977	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wapshot Chronicle 3.75 avg rating — 7,575 ratings — published 1957 — 137 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Swimmer 4.03 avg rating — 5,608 ratings — published 1964 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bullet Park 3.75 avg rating — 3,145 ratings — published 1967 — 89 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oh What a Paradise It Seems 3.48 avg rating — 1,817 ratings — published 1982 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wapshot Scandal 3.74 avg rating — 986 ratings — published 1964 — 79 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Journals of John Cheever 4.20 avg rating — 841 ratings — published 1990 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Enormous Radio 3.99 avg rating — 884 ratings — published 1947 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Collected Stories and Other Writings by John Cheever, Blake Bailey (Editor) 4.33 avg rating — 467 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by John Cheever (?)

“I've been homesick for countries I've never been, and longed to be where I couldn't be.”
― John Cheever

3578 likes

“I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone.”
― John Cheever

tags: readers-and-writers

1858 likes

“Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread out around us like a bewildering and stupendous dream.”
― John Cheever

tags: books, fiction, inspirational, on-fiction, writing

1266 likes

See all John Cheever's quotes »

Polls

1st Quarter 2025 Long Reads Classics

Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac, 1843, 656 pages

47 votes, 23.9%

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 1000, 1182 pages

46 votes, 23.4%

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, 1870, 688 pages

29 votes, 14.7%

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman, 1962, 658 pages

27 votes, 13.7%

Lincoln by Gore Vidal, 1984, 672 pages

24 votes, 12.2%

The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever, 1978, 693 pages

21 votes, 10.7%

My Past and Thoughts by Alexander Herzen, 1870, 752 pages

3 votes, 1.5%

197 total votes

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John Cheever’s Followers (1,071)

John Cheever

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John Cheever’s books