The Stories of John Cheever

John Cheever

Literary fiction · Satire

First published: 1978
Print length: 693 pagesVintage International, 2000

National Book Award, 1981

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1979

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, 1978

Description

This volume gathers John Cheever’s short fiction in a single collection. It includes “The Enormous Radio,” “Goodbye, My Brother,” “The Country Husband,” “The Five-Forty-Eight,” and “The Swimmer,” bringing several well-known stories together. Rather than presenting one continuous narrative, the book offers a sequence of self-contained works that can be read separately or as part of the larger collection. The result is a substantial entry point for readers interested in Cheever’s short-story writing, with five notable titles explicitly represented among the volume’s broader contents. This format also makes it easy to revisit a particular selection without reading the book in order.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Descriptive · Lyrical · Witty

Pace

Measured

Tone

Melancholic · Satirical · Unsettling · Wistful

Structure

Anthology

Focus

Atmosphere · Character · Relationships

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

ClassFamilyIdentityIsolationMarriageWealth

About John Cheever

John Cheever was an American short story writer and novelist whose fiction maps decorous social surfaces against private disorder. His recurring settings include Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the Westchester suburbs, old New England villages, and Rome. His short fiction uses atmospheric, lyrical description and satire for compact studies of character and relationships, as represented by pieces such as “The Enormous Radio,” “The Country Husband,” and “The Swimmer.” His novels work on a broader scale. The Wapshot Chronicle follows an eccentric New England family in a loose episodic structure, setting inherited customs against individual appetites. Falconer confines a professor to prison, where institutional routine, withdrawal, memory, and precarious intimacy narrow the narrative around an inward struggle.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Vintage International
Language: English
ISBN: 9780375724428

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.