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The Wapshot Chronicle ()


Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century (63)

Somehow, this piffling little wifty novel won a National Book Award in 1958. The, supposedly, tragicomic story of the decline of the Wapshot family--father Leander, a ferry boat captain, & his sons Coverly and Moses--left me totally unmoved and uninterested.

N.B.--I'm writing this two years later (May 2000) and I've figured it out.  Cheever was a master of the short story (see Orrin's review of The Stories of John Cheever) and the panel simply rewarded a bad novel in an attempt to acknowledge him as a writer.  The book's still dreck, but it makes a little more sense that it made the list.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (D)


Websites:

John Cheever Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA:John Cheever
    -REVIEW ESSAY: THE LATE-SUMMER MELANCHOLY OF ‘THE SWIMMER’: John Cheever's story is the perfect thing to read as August nears its end (Nick Ripatrazone, 8/22//22, Gawker)

Book-related and General Links:
    -John Cheever (1912-1982)(kirjasto)
    -ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA: Your search: "john cheever"
    -Julie and Janet's Page on John Cheever
    -ESSAY: John Cheever and Indirection (Rick Moody, Conjunctions)
    -ESSAY: John Cheever: Parody and The Suburban Aesthetic (John Dyer)
    -ESSAY: PERSONAL BEST:   "  T h e   S w i m m e r  "   b y   J o h n   C h e e v e r (MICHAEL CHABON, Salon)
    -ESSAY:  Saul Bellow: On John Cheever, NY Review of Books
    -ESSAY: Position Paper on "Goodbye, My Brother"
    -ESSAY: Addiction in John Cheever's "The Enormous Radio"   (Dr. Clifton Snider, Sample Story Analysis)
    -REMARKS: Brokenness: on form and the short story (Paul Lisicky, Blithe House Quarterly)
    -ESSAY: WRITERS AND ALCOHOL  (Ann Waldron, The Washington Post)
    -ESSAY: ONE TOO MANY FOR THE MUSE (J. Anthony Lukas, NY Times Book Review)
    -ESSAY: YADDO  (JEAN NATHAN, NY Times Book Review)
    -LINKS:  John Cheever   (1912-1982) (Bedford/St. Martins, Lit Links)
    -LINKS: American Modernism
    -REVIEW: Robert Towers: Light Touch, NY Review of Books
        The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
    -REVIEW: Elizabeth Hardwick: The Family Way, NY Review of Books
        The Wapshot Scandal by John Cheever
    -REVIEW: Frederick C. Crews: Domestic Manners, NY Review of Books
        Drive, He Said by Jeremy Larner
        Teeth, Dying And Other Matters by Richard G. Stern
        The Brigadier and the Golf Widow by John Cheever
    -REVIEW: Thomas R. Edwards: Surprise, Surprise, NY Review of Books
        The World of Apples by John Cheever
        People Will Always Be Kind by Wilfrid Sheed
        Points for a Compass Rose by Evan S. Connell, Jr.
    -REVIEW: Robert Towers: Up the River, NY Review of Books
        Falconer by John Cheever
        A Place to Come To by Robert Penn Warren
    -REVIEW: of THE JOURNALS OF JOHN CHEEVER By John Cheever (Mary Gordon, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of The Journals of John Cheever Edited by Robert Gottlieb (HERBERT MITGANG, NY times)
    -REVIEW: of The Letters of John Cheever Edited by Benjamin Cheever (JOHN GROSS, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of THE LETTERS OF JOHN CHEEVER Edited by Benjamin Cheever (Robert Kiely, NY times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS By John Cheever (John Leonard, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS By John Cheever (Anatole Broyard, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of THIRTEEN UNCOLLECTED STORIES BY JOHN CHEEVER Edited by Franklin H. Dennis (Sven Birkerts, NY Times Book Review)
    -PROFILE: THE CHEEVER CHRONICLE: A DAUGHTER'S BOOK (GLENN COLLINS, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: Elizabeth Hardwick: Cheever, or The Ambiguities, NY Review of Books
        Home Before Dark by Susan Cheever
    -REVIEW: of  HOME BEFORE DARK. By Susan Cheever (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY times)
    -REVIEW: of TREETOPS A Family Memoir. By Susan Cheever (Jane Smiley, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of JOHN CHEEVER A Biography. By Scott Donaldson (Lorrie Moore, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of John Cheever A Biography By Scott Donaldson  (MICHIKO KAKUTANI, NY Times)
    -ARTICLE: Cheever's Widow Suing to Stop Publication of Story Collection (HERBERT MITGANG, NY times)
    -REVIEW: of  UNCOLLECTING CHEEVER The Family of John Cheever vs. Academy Chicago Publishers (Richard Dooling, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW: of UNCOLLECTING CHEEVER.   [ The Family of John Cheever vs. Academy Chicago Publishers ] by  ANITA MILLER (Peter Kurth, Salon)
    -REVIEW: of Uncollecting Cheever (Dave Reid, Foreword Magazine)
 

GENERAL:
    -LINKS: American Writers and Their Works: The 20th Century