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Bullet Park
Bienvenidos a Bullet Park, un universo en donde hasta sus habitantes más intachables pueden sentirse aterrorizados por el simple acto de mirarse al espejo. En ese ambiente asfixiante, John Cheever narra la azarosa intersección de las vidas de dos hombres: Eliot Nailles, un buen hombre que ama con devoción a su mujer ya su h ijo, y Paul Hammer, el hijo bastardo que, tras años de rodar, se establece en Bullet Park con un objetivo: asesinar al hijo de Nailles.He aquí una novela mordaz y punzante sobre los suburbios norteamericanos, con sus fachadas idénticas, su normalidad desesperante y, bajo una superficie impecable, el infierno que late. Una auténtica obra maestra, escrita con el lirismo y la potencia que han hecho de Cheever uno de los exponentes máximos de la literatura moderna.
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
120 people are currently reading
2337 people want to read
About the author
John Cheever
298 books1,081 followersJohn 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 cultural traditions and a profound sense of community, as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia.
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 cultural traditions and a profound sense of community, as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 286 reviews
July 14, 2017
Extraordinarily bizarre novel with some gorgeous, hilarious sections of writing. I prefer THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE, which has all the weirdness of this book with more interesting characters. Try to avoid the back jacket copy, or any summary, because the lesson here is in the (insane) delay of plot - it's a 220 page preamble, then 20 brief pages of action, and if you know what's coming it will take away most of the fun. The first half of the preamble belongs to Nailes, and is told in a roving 3rd person that details the happenings in Bullet Park and the corresponding dissolution of the protagonist's psyche I read it as a Richard Ford pastiche, which was often great:
"Vital statistics? They were of no importance. The divorce rate was way down, the suicide rate was a secret; traffic casualties averaged twenty-two a year becasue of a windign highway that seemed to have been drawn on the map by a child with a grease pencil. The winters were too inclement for citrus fruit but much too clement for the native white birch."
The second half belongs to Hammer (yes, Hammer and Nailes), and is told in an odd, tight stream-of consciousness first person that has a good deal of surreality, sometimes to its detriment. This section is faster, more character driven, and less good, as the voice loses Cheever's lyricism. The narrative hook comes in very close to the end of this section, and is quickly resolved in a climax that seems way too easy.
And I think that's on purpose. One gets the feeling (as with the Wapshots, to a lesser extent), that Cheever is mocking the expectations we have for novels as he revels in them. Think of this more as a loose series of vignettes, accompanied by a narrative scaffolding that Cheever doesn't really care about. It's also worth mentioning that this book is tremendously preoccupied with homosexuality. Nearly every character (five different characters!) has a gay panic moment or three, and the male body is fetishized throughout. There is also a commensurate amount of character-driven homophobia, and this feels like that rare case where knowing about the author's personal life - Cheever's famous bisexuality - helps explain something that would otherwise be a flaw.
Mainly, as always with Cheever, the writing, the writing:
"There seemed to be some metric regulation to the pace of the talk. it was emotional, intimate, evocative and as random as poetry. They had come from other places and would go to other places but sitting against the light at four in the afternoon they seemed as permanent as the beer pulls."
"Vital statistics? They were of no importance. The divorce rate was way down, the suicide rate was a secret; traffic casualties averaged twenty-two a year becasue of a windign highway that seemed to have been drawn on the map by a child with a grease pencil. The winters were too inclement for citrus fruit but much too clement for the native white birch."
The second half belongs to Hammer (yes, Hammer and Nailes), and is told in an odd, tight stream-of consciousness first person that has a good deal of surreality, sometimes to its detriment. This section is faster, more character driven, and less good, as the voice loses Cheever's lyricism. The narrative hook comes in very close to the end of this section, and is quickly resolved in a climax that seems way too easy.
And I think that's on purpose. One gets the feeling (as with the Wapshots, to a lesser extent), that Cheever is mocking the expectations we have for novels as he revels in them. Think of this more as a loose series of vignettes, accompanied by a narrative scaffolding that Cheever doesn't really care about. It's also worth mentioning that this book is tremendously preoccupied with homosexuality. Nearly every character (five different characters!) has a gay panic moment or three, and the male body is fetishized throughout. There is also a commensurate amount of character-driven homophobia, and this feels like that rare case where knowing about the author's personal life - Cheever's famous bisexuality - helps explain something that would otherwise be a flaw.
Mainly, as always with Cheever, the writing, the writing:
"There seemed to be some metric regulation to the pace of the talk. it was emotional, intimate, evocative and as random as poetry. They had come from other places and would go to other places but sitting against the light at four in the afternoon they seemed as permanent as the beer pulls."
July 2, 2019
So Very Sixties
A bizarre book full of absurdities and unfathomable details of travel and personal description.
An upper middle class New York suburb is chosen by an apparent psychopath for the location of a senseless murder. The target is the son of a local resident, undistinguished except for his smug racism, boredom and moderate alcohol and drug dependency. The motive appears to derive from a suggestion by the murderer's estranged mother that "...nothing less than a crucifixion..." will wake the world.
A metaphor for the perceived attack on or deterioration of middle class values during the 1960's? Possibly but then why would Cheever put such an attack in the mind and hands of another middle class nutcase? And what do the repeating tropes, like the white threads on clothing, the yellow room, allusions to homosexual panic, and the unaccounted for drowsiness of both would-be murderer and his victim, signify?
Locations - Rome, the Italian Alps, Switzerland, Cleveland - come and go without need or apparent purpose. Historical events - a political assassination, the translation of an Italian poet - are mentioned without context or consequence.
If this book had been written 30 years later, I would have pegged it as authored by an experimental AI programme. Perhaps Cheever was prescient enough to anticipate the technology. But I'm doubtful. Clearly I need someone to give me a skeleton key to Bullet Park.
A bizarre book full of absurdities and unfathomable details of travel and personal description.
An upper middle class New York suburb is chosen by an apparent psychopath for the location of a senseless murder. The target is the son of a local resident, undistinguished except for his smug racism, boredom and moderate alcohol and drug dependency. The motive appears to derive from a suggestion by the murderer's estranged mother that "...nothing less than a crucifixion..." will wake the world.
A metaphor for the perceived attack on or deterioration of middle class values during the 1960's? Possibly but then why would Cheever put such an attack in the mind and hands of another middle class nutcase? And what do the repeating tropes, like the white threads on clothing, the yellow room, allusions to homosexual panic, and the unaccounted for drowsiness of both would-be murderer and his victim, signify?
Locations - Rome, the Italian Alps, Switzerland, Cleveland - come and go without need or apparent purpose. Historical events - a political assassination, the translation of an Italian poet - are mentioned without context or consequence.
If this book had been written 30 years later, I would have pegged it as authored by an experimental AI programme. Perhaps Cheever was prescient enough to anticipate the technology. But I'm doubtful. Clearly I need someone to give me a skeleton key to Bullet Park.
September 26, 2023
Somewhere between Raymond Carver, Richard Yates, and American Beauty lies Bullet Park. Well, that's partly true, but you'd also have to add in a colder tone, more strange behaviour, some existentialism, and even a little mystery too. Whilst this wasn't by any means a bad novel, I felt Cheever's Brilliant short story 'The Swimmer' did more for me in just a few pages than this did in roughly 250. This felt far too illusive for me. It takes on some big themes that I just didn't feel were explored properly, with weird characters that I struggled to feel anything for. Apparently this novel didn't go down too well with readers on first release in the late 60s, as they much preferred his work featuring the Wapshot family. I've only read The Wapshot Chronicle, and can see what they mean. That was a warm, easy to read novel that really struck a chord, especially moments between father & son, whereas this just I couldn't find much of a connection. Overall Bullet Park is a novel about chance, evil that comes quietly and unannounced, and the fears and frustrations of modern man. Don't be fooled by the nice looking cover, as lurking behind those perfect white picket fences and bright green lawns, live some messed-up people that I certainly wouldn't want as neighbours. Having said that, it would make for some interesting cocktail parties I bet. For anyone who read and liked the Wapshot Chronicle this is, despite there being humour now and again, darker and more troublesome territory.
March 21, 2019
John Cheever’in Yüzücü adlı öykü(ler) kitabından sonra romanını da okumak istedim. Yazar 2. Dünya Savaşı sonrası Amerika’nın orta sınıfını oluşturan çoğu beyaz yakalı, Amerikan Rüyası’nda tanımlanan insanları merceğine almış. New York’ta çalışıp banliyöde yaşamayı tercih eden, evli, çocuklu, kokteyl partiler ve kilise ziyaretlerini aksatmayan beyazlar romanın kahramanlarını oluşturuyor.
Bu roman üç bölümlü, ilk bölümde (ki en iyi bölüm burası) Nailles ailesi, ikinci bölümde Hammer’lar, romanı sonlandıran üçüncü bölümde ise ilk iki bölümde anlatılan kişilerin yollarının kesişmesi anlatılıyor. Romanın öyküsü bu son bölümde ortaya çıkıyor. Yazarın dili güzel, kara mizahı sıklıkla kullanıyor. Konudan konuya çok sık geçmesi ve ilgisiz minik hikayeleti aralara sıkıştırması benim hoşuma gitmedi. Buna rağmen bütün olarak bakıldığında kitabı sıkılmadan hatta keyif alarak okudum.
Kitabın 138 ile 142. sayfalarının kitabın ana fontu olan “Times New Roman”dan neden farklı bir fontla yazıldığını anlamadım. Can Yayınlarına bu dikkatsizlik yakışmıyor bence. Öncelikli olmasa da okunacaklar listesine konulabilir.
Bu roman üç bölümlü, ilk bölümde (ki en iyi bölüm burası) Nailles ailesi, ikinci bölümde Hammer’lar, romanı sonlandıran üçüncü bölümde ise ilk iki bölümde anlatılan kişilerin yollarının kesişmesi anlatılıyor. Romanın öyküsü bu son bölümde ortaya çıkıyor. Yazarın dili güzel, kara mizahı sıklıkla kullanıyor. Konudan konuya çok sık geçmesi ve ilgisiz minik hikayeleti aralara sıkıştırması benim hoşuma gitmedi. Buna rağmen bütün olarak bakıldığında kitabı sıkılmadan hatta keyif alarak okudum.
Kitabın 138 ile 142. sayfalarının kitabın ana fontu olan “Times New Roman”dan neden farklı bir fontla yazıldığını anlamadım. Can Yayınlarına bu dikkatsizlik yakışmıyor bence. Öncelikli olmasa da okunacaklar listesine konulabilir.
February 3, 2018
İsmini duyup da hiç okumadığım yazarlardandı John Cheever (1912-1982). Daha çok öyküleriyle öne çıkmış, hatta “Amerikan banliyölerin Çehov’u” olarak da biliniyormuş. (Böyle bir unvanı, öykülerini hayranlıkla okuduğum Raymond Carver da hak eder bence). Cheever’ı okumaya 1969’da yayınlanan bu romanıyla başlamış oldum. Bullet Park’ın kahramanları da banliyölerde yaşayan insanlar. Daha ziyade düzenin çarkına kapılmış, büyük şehirdeki (New York) işleri ile evleri arasında mekik dokuyan, mutluluk rolü oynayan, teselliyi genelde içkide bulan, arada cinsel fanteziler veya maceralar da yaşayan, ama genelde bir kıstırılmış duygusu içinde olan kişiler bunlar. Buradaki bazı yorumlarda da dikkat çekildiği üzere Richard Ford’un “Revolutionary Road”uyla bazı paralelikler içeriyor. Romana hakim karamsar atmosfer son cümlede de müstehzi bir şekilde vurgulanıyor. İki ayrı koldan ve ilk iki bölümde gelişen hikaye gerilimin iyice arttığı üçüncü ve son (ve de en kısa) olan bölümde kesişiyor. Kitabın ilk yarısı daha güçlü. Sonrası sanki aceleye getirilmiş gibi. Romana pek bir anlam katmayan, adeta öylesine değinilip geçilen sürekli seyahatler gibi tuhaflıklar da var. Ancak insanoğlunun karanlık doğasına ışık tutan kısımları çarpıcı. Cinselliği ele alış tarzı da dikkate değer. Ben keyif alarak okudum, ileride Cheever’ın esas güçlü olduğu anlaşılan öykülerini de okumak isterim.
December 9, 2017
kapitalizme, amerikan orta sınıfına, new york'a işe trenle giden banliyö insanlarına mükemmel bir bakış.
çalış, güzel bir kadınla evlen, çoğal, havuzlu 5 odalı bir ev al, pazarları kiliseye gidip çimleri biç, 15'te bir parti ver... amerikan filmlerinden ve bence en önemlisi "mad men"den aşina olduğumuz bir hayat.
ilk bölümle ikinci bölüm sonunda bağlansa da ikinci bölümün, hammer'ın hikayesinin daha zayıf olduğunu düşünüyorum. cheever sanki sonlara doğru sıkılmış sanki. nailles ve ailesinin hikayesi ise mükemmel.
richard yates'in bağımsızlık yolu adlı romanıyla bullet park'ı bir arada inceledim: http://tembelveyazar.blogspot.com.tr/...
çalış, güzel bir kadınla evlen, çoğal, havuzlu 5 odalı bir ev al, pazarları kiliseye gidip çimleri biç, 15'te bir parti ver... amerikan filmlerinden ve bence en önemlisi "mad men"den aşina olduğumuz bir hayat.
ilk bölümle ikinci bölüm sonunda bağlansa da ikinci bölümün, hammer'ın hikayesinin daha zayıf olduğunu düşünüyorum. cheever sanki sonlara doğru sıkılmış sanki. nailles ve ailesinin hikayesi ise mükemmel.
richard yates'in bağımsızlık yolu adlı romanıyla bullet park'ı bir arada inceledim: http://tembelveyazar.blogspot.com.tr/...
March 10, 2024
A scathing look at American suburbia from the 1960s, with the picket fences and happy facades hiding marriages and lives of regret, boredom and depression. Throw in an unstable neighbour with dark intentions and some dark humour and this is an enjoyable and diverting short novel.
April 3, 2022
Welcome to Bullet Park, the paradise of the American middle class. In this exemplary environment, we will witness the fateful meeting between two men: on the one hand, Eliot Nailles, a citizen that integrated into their community, which, despite its internal contradictions, wants his wife and his son to have a happy disposition. And on the other hand, a new neighbour, Paul Hammer, a nowhere man who, after half a lifetime of wandering, decides to buy a house in Bullet Park. Coinciding with the stranger's arrival, Nailles will see how slowly crumbling their little world is. The tragedy unleashes when his son starts to have problems in school and will intensify to unsuspected limits.
September 13, 2012
“Dunque, vorrei avere davanti a me un quadro con su dipinta una stazioncina dieci minuti prima che cali la notte” : intorno case bianche con pianoforti a coda che nessuno suona, camini fumanti, scaffali di libri (vuoti o sui quali giace un solo volume, l’elenco del telefono rilegato in broccato rosa), famiglie “normali” riunite nel salotto di casa come la famiglia Nailles, Eliot, Nellie e il loro figlio Tony. Così inizia Bullett Park.
“..e tutto di nuovo ridivenne bello, bello, bello ma bello come era sempre stato.” Così termina Bullett Park.
In mezzo a questo quadretto di una tranquilla vita di periferia di un sobborgo americano, c’è qualcosa che si potrebbe impropriamente definire “un giorno di ordinaria follia”, impropriamente perché la follia è una costante dell’esistenza dei protagonisti della storia, Hammer e Nailles (martello e chiodo, letteralmente), li accomuna e ne accompagna, seppur in forme diverse, le giornate, le ore ed i pensieri, è una ossessione con obiettivi ed oggetti diversi, che si consuma, per l’uno, in un breve arco di tempo, come un fuoco che divampa e purifica.
Cheever dipinge con la parola, colma di una sferzante ironia, un luogo metaforico, Bullett Park, un’isoletta che sta in un angolo di un più vasto mondo (il nostro, di ieri e di oggi) abitato da una umanità drogata di whisky e di pasticche di psicofarmaci, necessari per non soccombere al terrore di affrontare l’esistenza ogni giorno e a scacciare le paure e le angosce che li opprimono, uomini e donne che “hanno svuotato la vita della forza, della puzza, dei colori e dell’impegno che soli riescono a darle un senso”.
Un romanzo lancinante ed attuale, con un'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta tanto e nel finale mi ha lasciato leggermente delusa, cioè la mancanza di una trama ben definita che dia continuità alla storia; tuttavia la fragilità del romanzo nulla toglie alla bravura di uno dei maestri della narrativa contemporanea americana.
“..e tutto di nuovo ridivenne bello, bello, bello ma bello come era sempre stato.” Così termina Bullett Park.
In mezzo a questo quadretto di una tranquilla vita di periferia di un sobborgo americano, c’è qualcosa che si potrebbe impropriamente definire “un giorno di ordinaria follia”, impropriamente perché la follia è una costante dell’esistenza dei protagonisti della storia, Hammer e Nailles (martello e chiodo, letteralmente), li accomuna e ne accompagna, seppur in forme diverse, le giornate, le ore ed i pensieri, è una ossessione con obiettivi ed oggetti diversi, che si consuma, per l’uno, in un breve arco di tempo, come un fuoco che divampa e purifica.
Cheever dipinge con la parola, colma di una sferzante ironia, un luogo metaforico, Bullett Park, un’isoletta che sta in un angolo di un più vasto mondo (il nostro, di ieri e di oggi) abitato da una umanità drogata di whisky e di pasticche di psicofarmaci, necessari per non soccombere al terrore di affrontare l’esistenza ogni giorno e a scacciare le paure e le angosce che li opprimono, uomini e donne che “hanno svuotato la vita della forza, della puzza, dei colori e dell’impegno che soli riescono a darle un senso”.
Un romanzo lancinante ed attuale, con un'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta tanto e nel finale mi ha lasciato leggermente delusa, cioè la mancanza di una trama ben definita che dia continuità alla storia; tuttavia la fragilità del romanzo nulla toglie alla bravura di uno dei maestri della narrativa contemporanea americana.
August 31, 2024
Bullet park o del terror de lo cotidiano
Bullet Park, la novela de John Cheever publicada en 1969, es una mirada aguda y perturbadora a la vida en los suburbios estadounidenses.
El Dios de los Suburbios
El suburbio en Bullet Park no es el paraíso de clase media que promete paz y estabilidad, sino un infierno moderno disfrazado de tranquilidad. Cheever desnuda la superficialidad y el vacío existencial que se esconde detrás de las fachadas impecables y los jardines bien cuidados. Para los personajes de la novela, el suburbio es una prisión de conformidad, donde las vidas están cuidadosamente empaquetadas en rutinas predecibles y el éxito se mide por el cumplimiento de expectativas sociales vacías. La felicidad es una ilusión, y la desesperación, una constante que se oculta tras las persianas cerradas de las casas.
Terrores Cotidianos
Cheever sumerge a sus personajes en un mundo donde lo cotidiano se convierte en una fuente de terror. Los problemas aparentemente triviales de la vida suburbana —una barbacoa fallida, el mantenimiento de una piscina, la rutina del trabajo— se cargan de un peso simbólico que desvela la precariedad de la existencia. La inminente crisis de identidad del protagonista, Eliot Nailles, y su lucha por mantener una fachada de normalidad frente al colapso emocional, son un reflejo de cómo lo común y corriente puede transformarse en una amenaza constante. Los terrores en *Bullet Park* no son monstruos visibles, sino el producto de la opresión psicológica de un entorno que exige conformidad a cualquier costo.
La Angustia del Absurdo
El absurdo impregna cada página de Bullet Park, convirtiendo la existencia de los personajes en un sinsentido. La novela expone cómo, en la búsqueda de significado en un mundo desprovisto de él, los personajes caen en un estado de alienación. La vida en Bullet Park es absurda porque, a pesar de los esfuerzos por encontrar orden y propósito, todo se siente vacío y carente de significado. Cheever articula este absurdo a través de situaciones y diálogos que, aunque parecen normales en la superficie, desvelan la absurda falta de coherencia y propósito en las vidas de sus personajes.
La obra culmina en un acto de violencia inexplicable que simboliza la explosión final de la angustia contenida en un mundo donde las normas y las expectativas sociales aplastan cualquier posibilidad de autenticidad. Cheever sugiere que el suburbio es un microcosmos del universo moderno: un lugar donde el orden y la seguridad son solo una fachada que oculta la desesperación y el vacío existencial.
Bullet Park, la novela de John Cheever publicada en 1969, es una mirada aguda y perturbadora a la vida en los suburbios estadounidenses.
El Dios de los Suburbios
El suburbio en Bullet Park no es el paraíso de clase media que promete paz y estabilidad, sino un infierno moderno disfrazado de tranquilidad. Cheever desnuda la superficialidad y el vacío existencial que se esconde detrás de las fachadas impecables y los jardines bien cuidados. Para los personajes de la novela, el suburbio es una prisión de conformidad, donde las vidas están cuidadosamente empaquetadas en rutinas predecibles y el éxito se mide por el cumplimiento de expectativas sociales vacías. La felicidad es una ilusión, y la desesperación, una constante que se oculta tras las persianas cerradas de las casas.
Terrores Cotidianos
Cheever sumerge a sus personajes en un mundo donde lo cotidiano se convierte en una fuente de terror. Los problemas aparentemente triviales de la vida suburbana —una barbacoa fallida, el mantenimiento de una piscina, la rutina del trabajo— se cargan de un peso simbólico que desvela la precariedad de la existencia. La inminente crisis de identidad del protagonista, Eliot Nailles, y su lucha por mantener una fachada de normalidad frente al colapso emocional, son un reflejo de cómo lo común y corriente puede transformarse en una amenaza constante. Los terrores en *Bullet Park* no son monstruos visibles, sino el producto de la opresión psicológica de un entorno que exige conformidad a cualquier costo.
La Angustia del Absurdo
El absurdo impregna cada página de Bullet Park, convirtiendo la existencia de los personajes en un sinsentido. La novela expone cómo, en la búsqueda de significado en un mundo desprovisto de él, los personajes caen en un estado de alienación. La vida en Bullet Park es absurda porque, a pesar de los esfuerzos por encontrar orden y propósito, todo se siente vacío y carente de significado. Cheever articula este absurdo a través de situaciones y diálogos que, aunque parecen normales en la superficie, desvelan la absurda falta de coherencia y propósito en las vidas de sus personajes.
La obra culmina en un acto de violencia inexplicable que simboliza la explosión final de la angustia contenida en un mundo donde las normas y las expectativas sociales aplastan cualquier posibilidad de autenticidad. Cheever sugiere que el suburbio es un microcosmos del universo moderno: un lugar donde el orden y la seguridad son solo una fachada que oculta la desesperación y el vacío existencial.
November 15, 2019
Okuduğum en gerçekçi romanlardan biri. Sade ve vurucu anlatım tarzıyla Amerikan Rüyası'nın bir parçası olan banliyö yaşamının aslında nasıl olduğunu karakter tahlilleri ile açıklıyor. Değişen dünyada tutunmaya çalışan eski moda düşünceli karakterler, bunalımlar, sahte dostluklar ve tüm bunların ortasında katil olmaya karar veren biri. Yazarın diğer kitaplarını da okumak istiyorum.
November 22, 2010
I have to laugh at the lurid come-on printed on the first page of my 1988 Bantam paperback of this book: "HAVE YOU EVER COMMITTED A MURDER?" Anyone who buys this book hoping for a gruesome "there's a killer in all of us" potboiler is destined for disappointment.
However, if they're open to it, they might find something infinitely more interesting. "Bullet Park," like most great books, establishes itself in the first line: "Paint me a small railroad station then, ten minutes before dark." As soon as I read that I knew I was going to love the book. A clean, artful and disorienting sentence. Who's talking? Who's listening? Who's painting? It is Cheever's gleeful refusal to answer any of these questions that carries "Bullet Park."
The novel is at once digressive, non-linear, and barreling along with the momentum of one of those trains that carry Eliot Nailles into the city every day. It presents a much more nuanced and complex portrait of suburbia than we are used to getting (take, for example, the well-intentioned but lazily written "Mad Men"), even down to the structure of its narrative which to me resembles the winding lanes and culs-de-sac of a housing development. Cheever shows the human race a fundamental respect by sketching every character, no matter how ripe for suburban convention, as capable of deep wells of emotion and weirdness.
Most importantly, it is rendered in disciplined but gorgeous prose, and the author seems to be writing with the freedom that comes from having no other goal than to satisfy yourself. That's the only way that something this bizarre and excellent comes into the world.
However, if they're open to it, they might find something infinitely more interesting. "Bullet Park," like most great books, establishes itself in the first line: "Paint me a small railroad station then, ten minutes before dark." As soon as I read that I knew I was going to love the book. A clean, artful and disorienting sentence. Who's talking? Who's listening? Who's painting? It is Cheever's gleeful refusal to answer any of these questions that carries "Bullet Park."
The novel is at once digressive, non-linear, and barreling along with the momentum of one of those trains that carry Eliot Nailles into the city every day. It presents a much more nuanced and complex portrait of suburbia than we are used to getting (take, for example, the well-intentioned but lazily written "Mad Men"), even down to the structure of its narrative which to me resembles the winding lanes and culs-de-sac of a housing development. Cheever shows the human race a fundamental respect by sketching every character, no matter how ripe for suburban convention, as capable of deep wells of emotion and weirdness.
Most importantly, it is rendered in disciplined but gorgeous prose, and the author seems to be writing with the freedom that comes from having no other goal than to satisfy yourself. That's the only way that something this bizarre and excellent comes into the world.
November 14, 2025
Primer contacto con Cheever y vaya tela. Entre sin saber nada de él. Solo fachadas perfectas y que pasa con el sueño americano. Y wow. Es increíblemente moderna en los temas (tanto que esperan que hubiera un personaje gay) pero al tener un léxico tan clásico se hace muy ágil.
Después en el epílogo te cuentan que además de un escritor increíble y un gran observador de la raza humana era un alcohólico casi terminal, además de un ególatra, un padre nefasto y bisexual armarizado. Todo ese mundo late bajo las palabras y las tramas que hacen ese microcosmos de Bullet Park. No sé muy bien que contar porque aún estoy en shock. Pero inventó Mad Men, inventó Desperate Housewives y mil millones de cosas más.
Después en el epílogo te cuentan que además de un escritor increíble y un gran observador de la raza humana era un alcohólico casi terminal, además de un ególatra, un padre nefasto y bisexual armarizado. Todo ese mundo late bajo las palabras y las tramas que hacen ese microcosmos de Bullet Park. No sé muy bien que contar porque aún estoy en shock. Pero inventó Mad Men, inventó Desperate Housewives y mil millones de cosas más.
June 21, 2018
Amerikan banliyö hayatının boşluğunu ve hastalıklı insanlarını hicivle anlatan bir kitaptı. Yazarın diğer kitaplarına da göz atacağım.
April 1, 2014
Carried the paperback around with me for the three or four days I read it, sneaking reads in chairs here or cars there and lines everywhere - luxuriating in Cheever's masterful, seemingly effortless and eternally enlightening (delightful) descriptions of lounge light, thanatonic thunder, scary suburbia, mad mothers, fucked-off fathers, and, as always, alcoholism.
It would've made a great Alfred Hitchcock movie with Jimmy Stewart as Nailles and either Robert Mitchum or Cary Grant as Hammer (in the mind-cinema Mitchum became Grant halfway through the reading, Bewitched style) - it has enough tension and comedy and doubling and mirroring and weird-sexy-destructive/desirable blondes and cryptohomosexuality that, perhaps, no doubt, in some parallel universe, Hitchcock actually made this instead of adapting a...a Leon Uris novel, of all things (Topaz).
Just imagine Hitchcock doing a chainsaw-through-church doors rescue? Yes. Please. Instead. (ex: the chainsaw won't start...the chainsaw won't start...the chainsaw won't...the chainsaw STARTS! b/w flourish of Bernard Hermann score!)
It would've made a great Alfred Hitchcock movie with Jimmy Stewart as Nailles and either Robert Mitchum or Cary Grant as Hammer (in the mind-cinema Mitchum became Grant halfway through the reading, Bewitched style) - it has enough tension and comedy and doubling and mirroring and weird-sexy-destructive/desirable blondes and cryptohomosexuality that, perhaps, no doubt, in some parallel universe, Hitchcock actually made this instead of adapting a...a Leon Uris novel, of all things (Topaz).
Just imagine Hitchcock doing a chainsaw-through-church doors rescue? Yes. Please. Instead. (ex: the chainsaw won't start...the chainsaw won't start...the chainsaw won't...the chainsaw STARTS! b/w flourish of Bernard Hermann score!)
June 6, 2018
3.5
'Beni sevmenin tek nedeni, beni sevdiğini düşünmenin tek nedeni, bana bir şeyler verebilmen.' Sf:107
'Tony pazartesi okula geri döndü, Nailles ise -uyuşturucu etkisi altında- işe gitti; her şey eskisi gibi harika, harika, harika, harikaydı.' Sf:214
'Beni sevmenin tek nedeni, beni sevdiğini düşünmenin tek nedeni, bana bir şeyler verebilmen.' Sf:107
'Tony pazartesi okula geri döndü, Nailles ise -uyuşturucu etkisi altında- işe gitti; her şey eskisi gibi harika, harika, harika, harikaydı.' Sf:214
December 6, 2025
Bullet Park by John Cheever
“Incandescently charming” to use a description from the book, which referred to the arrival at a final party, but can be said about this novel too
John Cheever is one of my favorite writers and Bullet Park may be the last of his works that I have completed.
There would be journals, letters and perhaps one odd short story that I missed, together with the determination to read again The Wapshot Chronicle, some of the short stories and Falconer.
The writing of this genius is superb and flawless.
This does not mean that I understand or admire all of it.
This is what happened in this novel, where I did not get the jest of the story, once it veered into Hammer territory.
Hammer is the name of the second most important character, at least from what I gather, even if I am somewhat confused.
The other characters are not what you would call “normal”, well adjusted, even if the relationship between Eliot Nailles and his wife Nelly is to be envied, and especially at this moment I wish I had the same understanding with my spouse.
Nelly and Eliot make love very often and not just enjoy each other’s company, but Eliot is so attracted to his wife that this sets him apart.
There is a well-studied honeymoon effect, which shows that after about two years, the initial infatuation diminishes drastically and most couples do not feel anything like the attraction they had at the start of their marriage, or I could say any relationship, but I may be wrong.
Nevertheless, when Eliot stumbles upon Nellie, who is naked and about to get ready for a party, he has the urge to make love to her, and he does, as happens almost at anytime, anywhere, under various circumstances.
- What a lucky couple, we may say!
But alas, there always seems to be something that causes trouble in no matter what paradise and it is the case here too.
Tony is the son and at various stages he presents his parents with an intriguing panel of problems, varying from watching television for hours on end, without any care for homework, to bad grades in French.
When confronted by the French teacher- admittedly another strange character- and told that he would be off the football practice, on account of his lamentable performance in French, the teenager explodes
- I could kill you! Here I am not even sure that he did not actually say “I will”
So he has to spend time at the police station, which is not a pleasant setting to have to take your child from.
To make things worse, at one point Tony decides not to get out of bed for weeks on end, in spite of the doctors brought in to cure him.
It sounds somewhat funny in recollection to say that his mother brought in a swami, a guy with a bad eye and a good character.
Come to think of it, he may be among the very few- was he the only one actually? - rounded up, decent characters.
Even Eliot is not really such a nice guy, if we think of the reaction to his son’s “binge watching” – which by the way is the word of 2015- when he just threw the TV out.
I also hated that bastard for the shooting of a snapping turtle, even if I get that she can be dangerous and could even kill a dog, if we are to believe Eliot.
The impression is that almost all the people in this novel are more or less nuts, and if that is too strong a word, then they all have psychological issues and challenges, which is today’s word for what we used to call handicap.
Hammer is off completely, but I will not go into that, because the justification of this assessment might compromise, spoil the reading of the work.
My feeling was that I am reading a surreal story, for long parts of it, with the impression that the atmosphere is so bizarre and the characters so alien, that a ship with extraterrestrials might land and then they would explain that this fascinating at times behavior is something pretty lame on the planet beta 3345, which is where they all come from.
In conclusion, this is not one of my favorite Cheever books.
“Incandescently charming” to use a description from the book, which referred to the arrival at a final party, but can be said about this novel too
John Cheever is one of my favorite writers and Bullet Park may be the last of his works that I have completed.
There would be journals, letters and perhaps one odd short story that I missed, together with the determination to read again The Wapshot Chronicle, some of the short stories and Falconer.
The writing of this genius is superb and flawless.
This does not mean that I understand or admire all of it.
This is what happened in this novel, where I did not get the jest of the story, once it veered into Hammer territory.
Hammer is the name of the second most important character, at least from what I gather, even if I am somewhat confused.
The other characters are not what you would call “normal”, well adjusted, even if the relationship between Eliot Nailles and his wife Nelly is to be envied, and especially at this moment I wish I had the same understanding with my spouse.
Nelly and Eliot make love very often and not just enjoy each other’s company, but Eliot is so attracted to his wife that this sets him apart.
There is a well-studied honeymoon effect, which shows that after about two years, the initial infatuation diminishes drastically and most couples do not feel anything like the attraction they had at the start of their marriage, or I could say any relationship, but I may be wrong.
Nevertheless, when Eliot stumbles upon Nellie, who is naked and about to get ready for a party, he has the urge to make love to her, and he does, as happens almost at anytime, anywhere, under various circumstances.
- What a lucky couple, we may say!
But alas, there always seems to be something that causes trouble in no matter what paradise and it is the case here too.
Tony is the son and at various stages he presents his parents with an intriguing panel of problems, varying from watching television for hours on end, without any care for homework, to bad grades in French.
When confronted by the French teacher- admittedly another strange character- and told that he would be off the football practice, on account of his lamentable performance in French, the teenager explodes
- I could kill you! Here I am not even sure that he did not actually say “I will”
So he has to spend time at the police station, which is not a pleasant setting to have to take your child from.
To make things worse, at one point Tony decides not to get out of bed for weeks on end, in spite of the doctors brought in to cure him.
It sounds somewhat funny in recollection to say that his mother brought in a swami, a guy with a bad eye and a good character.
Come to think of it, he may be among the very few- was he the only one actually? - rounded up, decent characters.
Even Eliot is not really such a nice guy, if we think of the reaction to his son’s “binge watching” – which by the way is the word of 2015- when he just threw the TV out.
I also hated that bastard for the shooting of a snapping turtle, even if I get that she can be dangerous and could even kill a dog, if we are to believe Eliot.
The impression is that almost all the people in this novel are more or less nuts, and if that is too strong a word, then they all have psychological issues and challenges, which is today’s word for what we used to call handicap.
Hammer is off completely, but I will not go into that, because the justification of this assessment might compromise, spoil the reading of the work.
My feeling was that I am reading a surreal story, for long parts of it, with the impression that the atmosphere is so bizarre and the characters so alien, that a ship with extraterrestrials might land and then they would explain that this fascinating at times behavior is something pretty lame on the planet beta 3345, which is where they all come from.
In conclusion, this is not one of my favorite Cheever books.
November 12, 2020
Con molto ritardo, la mia prima lettura di Cheever: scrittura notevole, trama che cattura... lettura soddisfacente. (Esperienza "Cheever" da ripetere.)
September 30, 2018
John Cheever's least successful novel is my least favorite one. Set in the late 1960's at the height of the "God, how I hate Suburbia" trend in American letters, it alternates between oddly shafted suburban satire (a French teacher has a sexy mouth because of working through "strenuous French vowels"), and implied violence, but despite its title, most of BULLET PARK's violence is psychic anguish. This alone is not un-Cheever, but the meandering plot is.
BULLET PARK works best for completionists and American Studies majors. For extended suburban satire where personal and social concerns intertwine, see the movie AMERICAN BEAUTY. For top-notch Cheever in novel form, read FALCONER instead: it has plenty so say and is tough to put down.
BULLET PARK works best for completionists and American Studies majors. For extended suburban satire where personal and social concerns intertwine, see the movie AMERICAN BEAUTY. For top-notch Cheever in novel form, read FALCONER instead: it has plenty so say and is tough to put down.
January 11, 2008
Most people I know really don't like this book. I read it at a time when I sort of identified with the central agonist...well one could argue whether the father or the son was central...but I was a teenager and similarly weird. The novel has a real redemptive (almost Biblical) beauty in the way the father breaks through societal, cultural, etc. conditioning....well there was a spoiler....soz!....to me, this is another book (like, say, Franny and Zooey, which I ADORE) in that category where if you read the book AT THE RIGHT TIME it sort of stays with you forever. Probably if I had found it now, it wouldn't touch me as deeply nor as lastingly.
March 13, 2017
Grotesquely funny and full of bizzare symbolism. The part in which Nailles drinks rainwater scooped out of an urn at the cemetery to swallow the pill he's just bought from his pusher must be my favourite image. Come on, that's just genius! Why haven't I bloody read Cheever before?!
January 30, 2020
Kitabı parçalara bölsek bir sürü güzel hikaye çıkardı. Neden roman yazma gereği duymuş anlamadım. İkinci bölüm olan Hammer kısmında biraz sıkılmış olsam da Cheever’ın hikaye anlatıcılığını seviyorum. Bu da başarılı bir örneği.
March 30, 2012
In a way, I hesitate to give this novel merely a 4 because I'm guessing that when Cheever originally wrote it in 1967, it was a great deal more astounding. Bullet Park is about a suburb of NYC where there's a very thin veneer that everything is going smoothly. The locals are suicidal, homicidal, adulterers, racist, impossibly sad, addicted to illegally prescribed medicines, TV, cigarettes and alcohol and at the end of the week they all go to Christ's Church like the good little Christians they are. In a way you feel very sorry for some of them if they were so unlikable with their tortoise shooting sense of entitlement. And, I think the point Cheever is making is that you need to look more closely at people because they just aren't as simple as they seem. Fortunately, though this point has been made multitudes of times since humans could hold pencils, he delivers in a twisted and interesting way with a commanding sense of language that helps you identify with the glimpses of these tortured moments. For some it's just how to live a life. There's no other way and there's not a huge amount of hope in the novel. Bullet Park will always exist. NYC will always exist. Homocidal maniacs that make a big hit at cocktail parties will always exist and really, what else do we have to fill the history books of America?
There is such a sadness here. There is such torment and it is thick and ripe and you can sense and feel it with all cells of your body.
Also, I really liked the bit about the cat.
Memorable quotes
pg 10 "Vital statistics? There were of no importance. The divorce rate was way down, the suicide rate was a secret; traffic casualties averaged twenty-two a year because of a winding highway that seemed to have been drawn on the map by a child with a grease pencil..."
pg. 25 "Sitting at their breakfast table Nailles and Nellie seemed to have less dimension than a comic strip, but why was this? They had erotic depths, origins, memories, dreams and seizures of melancholy and enthusiasm."
pg. 36 "The opening night seemed to him to have had the perfection of a midsummer day whose sublimity hinted at the inevitability of winter and death."
pg. 40 "One morning Tony refused to get out of bed. "I'm not sick," he said when his mother took his temperature. "I just feel terribly sad. I just don't feel like getting up."
pg. 61 "What is the pathos of men and women who fall asleep on trains and planes; why do they seem forsaken, poleaxed and lost? They snore, they twist, they mutter names, they seem the victims of some terrible upheaval although they are merely going home to supper and to cut the grass..."
pg. 79 "She wore no perfume and exhaled the faint unfreshness of humanity at the end of the day."
pg. 86 "The secret to keeping young is to read children's books. You read the books they write for little children and you'll keep young. You read novels, philosophy, stuff like that and it makes you feel old."
pg. 117 "I'm not afraid of the dark but there are some kinds of human ignorance that frighten me."
pg. 128 "All rain tastes the same and yet rain fell for Nellie from a diversity of skies. Some rains seemed to let down like a net from the guileless heavens of her childhood, some rains were stormy and bitter, some fell like a force of memory. The rain that day tasted as salty as blood."
pg. 157 "I have noticed, in my travels, that the strange beds I occupy in hotels and pensions have a considerable variance in atmosphere and a profound influence on my dreams."
...
pg. 159 "but wouldn't you say that I possess indisputable proof of the fact that we leave fragments of ourselves, our dreams and our spirits in the rooms where we sleep?
pg. 178=179 "The station was then being razed and reconstructed and it was such a complex of ruins that it seemed like a frightening projection of my own confusions and I stepped out into the street, looking for a bar.
pg. 187 "Outside I could hear the brook, some night bird, moving leaves, and all of the sounds of the night world seemed endearing as if I quite literally loved the night as one loves a woman, loved the stars, loved the trees, the weeds in the grass as one can love with the same ardor a woman's breasts and the apple core she has left in an ashtray. I loved it all and everyone who lived."
pg. 196 "I can't drive safely on the goddam Jersey Turnpike sober. That road and all the rest of the freeways and thruways were engineered for clowns and drunks."
There is such a sadness here. There is such torment and it is thick and ripe and you can sense and feel it with all cells of your body.
Also, I really liked the bit about the cat.
Memorable quotes
pg 10 "Vital statistics? There were of no importance. The divorce rate was way down, the suicide rate was a secret; traffic casualties averaged twenty-two a year because of a winding highway that seemed to have been drawn on the map by a child with a grease pencil..."
pg. 25 "Sitting at their breakfast table Nailles and Nellie seemed to have less dimension than a comic strip, but why was this? They had erotic depths, origins, memories, dreams and seizures of melancholy and enthusiasm."
pg. 36 "The opening night seemed to him to have had the perfection of a midsummer day whose sublimity hinted at the inevitability of winter and death."
pg. 40 "One morning Tony refused to get out of bed. "I'm not sick," he said when his mother took his temperature. "I just feel terribly sad. I just don't feel like getting up."
pg. 61 "What is the pathos of men and women who fall asleep on trains and planes; why do they seem forsaken, poleaxed and lost? They snore, they twist, they mutter names, they seem the victims of some terrible upheaval although they are merely going home to supper and to cut the grass..."
pg. 79 "She wore no perfume and exhaled the faint unfreshness of humanity at the end of the day."
pg. 86 "The secret to keeping young is to read children's books. You read the books they write for little children and you'll keep young. You read novels, philosophy, stuff like that and it makes you feel old."
pg. 117 "I'm not afraid of the dark but there are some kinds of human ignorance that frighten me."
pg. 128 "All rain tastes the same and yet rain fell for Nellie from a diversity of skies. Some rains seemed to let down like a net from the guileless heavens of her childhood, some rains were stormy and bitter, some fell like a force of memory. The rain that day tasted as salty as blood."
pg. 157 "I have noticed, in my travels, that the strange beds I occupy in hotels and pensions have a considerable variance in atmosphere and a profound influence on my dreams."
...
pg. 159 "but wouldn't you say that I possess indisputable proof of the fact that we leave fragments of ourselves, our dreams and our spirits in the rooms where we sleep?
pg. 178=179 "The station was then being razed and reconstructed and it was such a complex of ruins that it seemed like a frightening projection of my own confusions and I stepped out into the street, looking for a bar.
pg. 187 "Outside I could hear the brook, some night bird, moving leaves, and all of the sounds of the night world seemed endearing as if I quite literally loved the night as one loves a woman, loved the stars, loved the trees, the weeds in the grass as one can love with the same ardor a woman's breasts and the apple core she has left in an ashtray. I loved it all and everyone who lived."
pg. 196 "I can't drive safely on the goddam Jersey Turnpike sober. That road and all the rest of the freeways and thruways were engineered for clowns and drunks."
September 22, 2007
I've been meaning to read Cheever all my adult life, but didn't expect to like him -- suburban malaise is not a subject I need to spend a lot more time exploring. Bullet Park just goes to show that subject matter has little bearing on your enjoyment when the author is capital-G Great. This book is exactly what I feared about Cheever: set in a wealthy Connecticut bedroom community, the protagonist is a salaryman addicted to amphetamines, the teenage son is bedridden with depression, the wife is a repressed sexpot -- this has been done to death in countless books and movies for at least 40 years. And I loved it! Cheever makes it fresh, and throws in the counterpoint to the protagonist Nailles -- the sociopathic Hammer who decides on a whim to murder Nailles' son. Don't worry, these aren't spoilers. You don't read this book for the plot, but for the prose. Cheever's carries you along on a broad, smooth river of words to the violent and surprising (and uplifting!) conclusion. What a great surprise Bullet Park turned out to be.
Read
December 31, 2017The structure of this book reminded me of Franny & Zooey (Salinger), in that there were sections in different styles and from different perspectives. I wonder if the author thought through the entire book before writing, though, since the last 100 pages just barely necessitate the first 100. The writing is more modern than I expected, having never read Cheever before. I wish the author had spent more time with the story as opposed to 85% on character background / development, but it wasn't a terribly long book, and the quality of the writing--and what I can imagine it effected when it was published--makes up for the continual thought of 'so, when is there going to be something that actually happens?'
January 26, 2018
¡Alucinante! La primera parte nos acerca a un terreno que el autor estadounidense conoce bien: la vida en los barrios residenciales, la tranquilidad y los problemas de las familias de la clase media, su existencia mediocre, el paso del tiempo entre césped y piscinas. Situaciones que Cheever describía con habilidad en sus cuentos y que hizo que lo denominen el "Chejov de los suburbios".
reseña completa: http://0enliteratura.blogspot.pe/2011...
reseña completa: http://0enliteratura.blogspot.pe/2011...
February 13, 2018
My teacher encouraged me to read this in school, I did, and was pretty dissapointed.
His short stories are excellent, but it doesn't seem to me that he's got what it takes to sustain a full novel. THe narrative pretty much runs out after the first half or so.
Suburban gothic has been much better done elsewhere, says I.
His short stories are excellent, but it doesn't seem to me that he's got what it takes to sustain a full novel. THe narrative pretty much runs out after the first half or so.
Suburban gothic has been much better done elsewhere, says I.
August 28, 2016
1993 notebook: another great American book. The mild adultery, the man sucked under the morning express, the man who knows the different sounds trees make in the wind - larch, tulip, oak. But what good does it do, he thinks? Someone has to observe the world. That's the line, the line for me.
July 21, 2019
Nailles, Nellie ve Tony'den oluşan ailenin absürd günlük hallerinin anlatıldığı ilk bölüm iyiydi. Yetenekli Bay Ripley'e benzeyen Hammer'ın anlatıldığı ikinci bölüm yordu biraz. Günlerce yataktan çıkmayan Tony'nin hastalığının bir şaman tarafından iyileşmesi, Nailles'in banliyodeki bir yolculuk arkadaşının tren rayları tarafından yutulduğu/çekildiği sahne tam Cheever beklenecek ayrıntılar. Bir de Hammer sosyopatının cimri ninesinin eve davet ettiği arkadaşını kandırmak için istiridyenin içine Wallmart'tan aldığı inciyi koyması ve adamı şaşırtmasına uzun süre güldüm.
Güzel ayrıntılara rağmen Cheever'ın motivasyonunu, neden bu hikayeyi roman olarak tasarladığını anlamadım. Eğer banliyödeki aileleri incelemekse zaten öykülerinin çoğu zaten bu temaya dair. Bu roman büyük meseleler hakkında değil, bir sosyopatı oluşturan koşullar hakkında, sosyal tırmanış halinde olan bir ailenin tuhaf gündelik hikayeleri hakkında. Daha fazlası değil. Cheever öykülerini okumamış okurlar bu kitaptan başlamasın.
Güzel ayrıntılara rağmen Cheever'ın motivasyonunu, neden bu hikayeyi roman olarak tasarladığını anlamadım. Eğer banliyödeki aileleri incelemekse zaten öykülerinin çoğu zaten bu temaya dair. Bu roman büyük meseleler hakkında değil, bir sosyopatı oluşturan koşullar hakkında, sosyal tırmanış halinde olan bir ailenin tuhaf gündelik hikayeleri hakkında. Daha fazlası değil. Cheever öykülerini okumamış okurlar bu kitaptan başlamasın.
Read
October 12, 2022Bullet Park, divida en tres partes, nos presenta en un primer momento la vida de los Nailles y las apariencias que forzosamente adoptan en la cotidianidad de los suburbios estadounidenses, apariencias que se presentan al lector (a) como engranajes y partes dispuestas para el desarme del sueño americano que representan los personajes. Habitantes de un atrezo en una vida que sabe a plástico, neurosis y drogas, conjugado lo anterior con los afectos y sueños que anidan irremediablemente en la condición humana. Un complejo cuadro de extraños colores.
A continuación proseguimos con la narración autobiográfica del obsesivo y alcoholizado Paul Hammer, narración que nos envuelve en la búsqueda onírica de la tranquilidad y sosiego a partir de la visión omnipresente de las paredes amarillas. Un viaje marcado por delirios de persecución, inquietudes existenciales y la sombra acechante de la muerte. Quizás uno de los pocos dispuestos a desencajar la máscara de la sociedad. O quizás no.
Por último, la tercera parte...léalo.
Cheever logra entregar una historia atrapante. Sus personajes, atados a paisajes inmaculados pero sospechosamente irreales, logran condensar la imagen popular del desencanto por el estilo de vida de la clase media estadounidense, parodiada, criticada y representada en un extenso catálogo de obras barajadas en diversos formatos. Una pieza literaria que nos muestra el ocaso de un estilo de vida que puja por perseverar la cotidianidad y la aparente normalidad de sus rituales y costumbres.
A continuación proseguimos con la narración autobiográfica del obsesivo y alcoholizado Paul Hammer, narración que nos envuelve en la búsqueda onírica de la tranquilidad y sosiego a partir de la visión omnipresente de las paredes amarillas. Un viaje marcado por delirios de persecución, inquietudes existenciales y la sombra acechante de la muerte. Quizás uno de los pocos dispuestos a desencajar la máscara de la sociedad. O quizás no.
Por último, la tercera parte...léalo.
Cheever logra entregar una historia atrapante. Sus personajes, atados a paisajes inmaculados pero sospechosamente irreales, logran condensar la imagen popular del desencanto por el estilo de vida de la clase media estadounidense, parodiada, criticada y representada en un extenso catálogo de obras barajadas en diversos formatos. Una pieza literaria que nos muestra el ocaso de un estilo de vida que puja por perseverar la cotidianidad y la aparente normalidad de sus rituales y costumbres.
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