Word: leander
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Morality is his standard, but delight is his theme. And uniquely among latter-day writers, he argues that delight can come through morality, and perhaps only through it. No illicit pleasures commend themselves to Cheever. Says he, quoting Leander's last testament to his sons: "Stand up straight. Admire the world. Relish the love of a gentle woman. Trust in the Lord." Cheever does not interpret this as restrictive...
Myth Is Reality. For all its period paraphernalia and local coloration of bicycles, Fourth of July parades, clambakes and the richly detailed human flotsam and jetsam of a tidewater town, The Wapshot Chronicle is essentially a simple drama of destinies and moralities. Father Leander Wapshot's wonderful journal (found in a trunk in the attic) recites like a Greek chorus the ancient obligations to race and region. He had taught his sons to "fell a tree, sow, cultivate and harvest, save money, countersink a nail, make cider with a hand press, clean a gun, sail a boat...
Cheever's father, a model for Leander in the Wapshot books, was a shoe salesman-"a commercial traveler with a flower in his buttonhole," says Cheever. He had a way with and an eye for the ladies, did not marry till late in life. He was 49 when John was born. Soon thereafter he began to have financial trouble...
...cast, but at least it reminds you of Lowell House. As if one could ever forget. The spirit of the notorious Lowell House Christmas plays is ever-present, and ayone who wants to read sex into the lines will have exceptionally meaty material ("You are round and ample/Let Leander have a sample"). Oh yes! Former Master Elliott Perkins' initials are inscribed above a door-way. What else could provide a more appropriate setting or such an enjoyable performance...
...thing wrong with The Wapshot Scandal is that too little of it is about the Wapshots. The remark is not as captious as it appears, for it was that old New England family--Leander, his wife Sarah, their sons Moses and Coverley, and Cousin Honora--that gave Cheever's 1957 book, The Wapshot Chronicle, its extraordinary vitality. Honora, quirky and self-willed as ever, admittedly comes close to being the central figure in this, the author's second novel; and Moses and Coverley, now mature and married, appear from time to time, usually under increasingly desperate circumstances. But most...