Word: john
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Throughout most of his career, John Cheever labored amid the general impression that he was, at best, a minor writer. After all, his specialty was short stories. Never mind that they were clear, sparkling and frequently unforgettable; most of them appeared in The New Yorker and could be dismissed by the grim custodians of literary reputations as well-bred entertainments for the well-to-do. Doubts about his importance dwindled only toward the end of his life. His fourth novel, Falconer (1977), won extensive critical and popular acclaim, and the publication of The Stories of John Cheever (1978) $ prompted general...
This upswing in Cheever's respectability accelerated after his death in 1982. Two books about him have since appeared: a memoir by his daughter Susan, Home Before Dark (1984), and Scott Donaldson's John Cheever: A Biography, published earlier this year. More collections are on the way. After legal wranglings, a compromise between the Cheever estate and a Midwestern publisher has been reached: a selection of the author's uncollected stories will appear next spring. And Cheever's private journals will surely be made public soon. All of this activity prompts a question. If Cheever's early obscurity was unjustified...
...Letters of John Cheever provides a quick, easy answer: no. The author believed, as he once wrote a friend, that "the common minutiae of life" are "the raw material of most good letters." Cheever's letters are crammed with everyday details, although such information does not shed much new light on his fiction, which was luminous enough to begin with. To learn more about Cheever is to take a refresher course in the pleasure of his company. He could toss off a letter that made even a motel remarkable: "The furniture was of no discernible period or inspiration...
...justify its cost. Its real utility, say experts, will be linked to the next- generation Soviet space station. In a tight economic environment, the cost of that project and of the Soviets' huge space effort in general may be prompting some second thoughts. Despite the successes, says John Pike, director of space policy for the Federation of American Scientists, "the glasnost-perestroika crowd is somewhat down on aerospace...
Assassination was impossible. John Kennedy, with Jackie beside him in her raspberry pink suit, was too young, too exuberant to fall. The Secret Service, snooping beneath manhole covers, scanning for hostile eyes, was invincible. There would be no darkness on this bright day in Dallas...