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The Wapshot Scandal
In this companion volume to The Wapshot Chronicle, the members of the Wapshot family of St. Botolphs drift far from their New England village into the demented caprices of the mighty, the bad graces of the IRS, and the humiliating abyss of adulterous passion.
A novel of large and tender vision, The Wapshot Scandal is filled with pungent characters and outrageous twists of fate, and, above all, with Cheever's luminous compassion for all his hapless fellow prisoners of human nature.
A novel of large and tender vision, The Wapshot Scandal is filled with pungent characters and outrageous twists of fate, and, above all, with Cheever's luminous compassion for all his hapless fellow prisoners of human nature.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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1005 people want to read
About the author
John Cheever
297 books1,071 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 103 reviews
August 21, 2023
En mi comentario a Crónica de los Wapshot hablaba del talento narrativo de Cheever, capaz de hacer grande una novela algo irregular y descompensada, aquí doy fe de que el milagro no se repitió esta vez.
Los problemas que ya se apreciaban en su anterior novela se hacen aquí más evidentes sin que los aciertos consigan en esta ocasión levantar la novela. Siguen existiendo partes que constituyen magníficos relatos, otras que, sin llegar a tanto, tienen toda su fuerza y su genio (de ahí las tres estrellas), pero la sensación general es de batiburrillo, de una “escandalosa” falta de unidad (de ahí que solo hayan sido tres generosas estrellas).
No parece que el autor pasase por sus mejores momentos durante la redacción de la novela -el alcohol, su matrimonio, recelos homosexuales-, quizás por ello da la impresión de estar poseído por una rabia que le empujaba a vomitar todos sus demonios sin importarle lo más mínimo cuestiones relacionadas con la estructura o la tensión narrativa. El propio autor, comentando sobre lo que supuso para él su escritura, llego a decir:
“Nunca llegué a sentir simpatía por el libro y para cuando escribí la última página, yo no estaba pasando por mi mejor momento. Quise quemar el libro. Me despertaba por las noches oyendo la voz de Hemingway… Yo nunca había oído la voz de Hemingway pero no tenía duda alguna de que se trataba de la suya, diciéndome una y otra vez: “Ésta no es más que la pequeña agonía. La gran agonía llegará más adelante.”Una rabia que le lleva a arremeter sin matizaciones con un mundo en el que las mujeres se escapan con los encargados de los supermercados o se lían con los chicos que hacen los repartos o lloran porque se les queda frío el té y se quema la tostada o arrancan todos los botones de las camisas de sus maridos, en el que, ay Dios, te obligan a pagar impuestos, en el que todo el mundo anda preocupado por el cáncer y la homosexualidad, en el que jóvenes desaprensivos intentan engañar a solitarias mujeres maduras y mujeres descaradas explotan la lujuria de hombres adinerados, donde bandas secuestran aviones, donde unos gamberros pueden torturarte simplemente porque no les gusta tu geta.
Una lista de rechazos que se van acumulando uno tras otro tras el retrato de una Noche Buena nevada en el pueblecito de Saint Botolphs conformando un contraste un tanto descarado: la felicidad de las compras de navidad, los jóvenes patinando en el lago helado, el párroco dirigiendo el coro de villancicos de casa en casa donde son agasajados con una taza de té o una copita de licor. Bien es cierto que el párroco se emborracha a veces y que sigue soltero, lo que ofende a las mujeres en su amor propio, pero de qué forma tan maravillosa se transforman las caras de los componentes del coro apenas entonan las primeras notas. Bien es cierto que a veces se producen accidentes como la desaparición de aquel viejo que se calló al río cuando iba a desprenderse de la camada de gatitos que no podía mantener y al que tardaron varias semanas en echar de menos, pero qué felicidad la de las familias reunidas alrededor del árbol.
Aun así, hay momentos, algunos muy muy buenos, en los que la novela está a la altura del autor.
May 19, 2017
The Wapshot Scandal is a logical, or probably illogical, continuation of
The Wapshot Chronicle
.
Children grow up and the problems that used to be their parents’ become the problems of the grown-up children and problems always tend to accrue and multiply.
“Had he come back to relive that moment when he had relinquished the supreme privileges of youth – when he had waked feeling less peckery than usual and realized that the doctor had no cure for autumn, no medicine for the north wind? The smell of his green years would still be in his nose – the reek of clover, the fragrance of women’s breasts, so like the land-wind, smelling of grass and trees – but it was time for him to leave the field for someone younger. Spavined, gray, he had wanted no less than any youth to chase the nymphs. Over hill and dale.”
We always want to enter the same river twice but knowing that this is impossible we just keep drifting downstream…
Children grow up and the problems that used to be their parents’ become the problems of the grown-up children and problems always tend to accrue and multiply.
“Had he come back to relive that moment when he had relinquished the supreme privileges of youth – when he had waked feeling less peckery than usual and realized that the doctor had no cure for autumn, no medicine for the north wind? The smell of his green years would still be in his nose – the reek of clover, the fragrance of women’s breasts, so like the land-wind, smelling of grass and trees – but it was time for him to leave the field for someone younger. Spavined, gray, he had wanted no less than any youth to chase the nymphs. Over hill and dale.”
We always want to enter the same river twice but knowing that this is impossible we just keep drifting downstream…
December 8, 2020
I just finished this recently and really enjoyed it. I read the first Wapshot novel- The Wapshot Chronicle, about two years ago I think, and that was a great read as well. The first book is all about the Wapshot family, who live in the village of St Botolphs, in a close-knit community, and follows their highs and lows and developments, and is very much a family-orientated novel. With this one, the two boys- Moses and Coverly- are now young men, and have families of their own, and the events take place mainly away from St Botolphs, and the feel of the book is more of a fractured type affair, with not as much emphasis on family closeness. The first novel is definitely slower paced, and is a gradual examination of the characters and what makes them tick, whereas The Wapshot Scandal is more of a page-turner, almost, but still really high quality at the same time...
I like how with this Wapshot novel, we get to see how the two boys have turned out as adults, and where they've chosen to live, and who they've chosen to settle down with, and also how they have developed once they have left their childhoods behind. We also get to experience more of the adventures of Cousin Honora, the quirky much older cousin, who features in the first book, and she most certainly does get up to some tricks in this one!
Whereas the first novel has family bonding and strife, a bit of tragedy and much more besides, this follow up has affairs, financial collapses, heavy drinking, and more generally in terms of adults losing their way a bit, and becoming somewhat lost and broken by certain circumstances, and poor decisions they make along the way...
It's hard to say which of the two books is the best, as both have a lot of great similar qualities, and they both also have differing qualities, which set them apart in quite big ways, but with both, you always get the amazing writing quality, ever-present in Cheever works, with sentences you want to re-read, to fully try to comprehend the true poetry of them. You also get the unpredictable plot details, which can leave you scratching your head in wonder at how he thinks of such odd scenarios, but always in a way that somehow works, however strange it may be...definitely a great writer, that some may like and some may not, but he's certainly got a style all his own, and I have greatly enjoyed everything I've so far read by him, and wish he'd written more books, as I've nearly read them all now.
September 8, 2018
In John Cheever's first novel (1957), Moses and Coverly Wapshot, sons of Leander the fisherman, grow up in little St. Botolphs, Massachusetts, a port so small that, like pumpkin pie, it "has no upper crust" (that last *mot* per their elderly cousin Honora). But the boys must leave their stagnant little home place and make their way in the world, a sometimes alarming proposition since the boys have been handsomely equipped with the airs and attitudes of 19th Century New England and not much beyond that.
In this well-received sequel, THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL (1964), **SPOILERS** that same cousin Honora decides to flee for Italy because it turns out, ca. 1960, that she has never paid an income tax. Just never got around to it. The Italian scenes and interludes were inspired by Cheever's own sojourn in Rome with wife and child, and another on the way. I don't know about the curling iron, but I do know they are both fine and funny books. Moses and Coverly and father Leander: well, they do have a time of things. Both are funny books, yet shot through with Cheever's very real anguish at times.
The Wapshot Chronicle;
The Wapshot Scandal.
In this well-received sequel, THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL (1964), **SPOILERS** that same cousin Honora decides to flee for Italy because it turns out, ca. 1960, that she has never paid an income tax. Just never got around to it. The Italian scenes and interludes were inspired by Cheever's own sojourn in Rome with wife and child, and another on the way. I don't know about the curling iron, but I do know they are both fine and funny books. Moses and Coverly and father Leander: well, they do have a time of things. Both are funny books, yet shot through with Cheever's very real anguish at times.
The Wapshot Chronicle;
The Wapshot Scandal.
September 21, 2009
Let us just say that William Faulkner is not the only middle aged white man who can expertly craft a sentence while keeping the reader engaged and perplexed at the same time. This book was like reading a simplier version of As I Lay Dying with out the Southern charm and sophistication. It was a good read. I liked some of the elegance of the prose. Those main characters were not that well developed but their interactions with others drove the story along in a manner where you really don't mind. I'll probably dive into some more of his literature. I mean any author who correctly uses the phrase "what had happened was" is alright with me.
September 29, 2017
This much sustained quirkiness is oppressive, and even the darkness that descended over several plotlines didn't lighten my mood.
January 23, 2014
I realized why I was having difficulty with this elegantly written book when I was about 40% of the way through - there is no protagonist! Unless you consider an entire family as one.
After a brilliantly written first chapter, in which we get a tour around the town of St. Botolph's and its inhabitants, with the writer passing the POV like a baton from one character to the other, the story settles on the widely dispersed Family Wapshot. Coverley, the scientist, married to man-hating and frigid Betsy, lives in Talifer, a scientific research town; Moses, the brother is an alcoholic and lives with his cheating wife Melisa in Proxmire Manor; and rich cousin Honore who has not paid her taxes lives in the family homestead town of St. Botolph's.
After this fact is established, the novel circles in episodic fashion around the lives of these characters, following each (and their spouses) for awhile, then jumping off to the next, until it comes full circle to the first and so on. In between we get exposed to a few more offbeat characters: Dr. Cameron, Coverley's psychotic boss, who is brought to heel at a senate hearing when his abandoned and handicapped son arrives and asks only for love, nothing more; Emile, the mercenery young man who is having an affair with Melisa, a woman recognized as his mother in the various hotels they hide out for their assignations; and Norman, the polite but relentless tax investigator who pursues Honora to Italy and explains the process of extradition to her with elan.
The descriptions are oblique and hilarious: when Coverley is "granted" sex by Betsy, it's "an ascent up the rockwall, the chimney, the flume, the long traverse over the last ridge until one has a view of the whole world." Dr. Cameron's hard-on aboard a plane is "a venerial reverie with a painful inflamation." Some scenes appear contrived and caricateurish: the repeated breakdown of Getrude Lockhart's appliances leading to her catastrophic life choice is a bit overdone. Even Honore has the honour of plugging in her curling iron and knocking out the power in an entire ship!
All families evolve through triumph and tragedy and this one, with it's foibles, is no different. When the remnants of the Family Wapshot gather to celebrate Christmas in the old homestead, they are all scarred from their individual acts of commission. No one is saved but everyone is changed, a bit poorer in the pocket book perhaps, but richer in the soul.
The style is very direct, like reportage in some places and yet lyrical in others. Cheever's mastery of the short story comes out in this book, intended as a novel no doubt, but coming across as a string of linked stories.
After a brilliantly written first chapter, in which we get a tour around the town of St. Botolph's and its inhabitants, with the writer passing the POV like a baton from one character to the other, the story settles on the widely dispersed Family Wapshot. Coverley, the scientist, married to man-hating and frigid Betsy, lives in Talifer, a scientific research town; Moses, the brother is an alcoholic and lives with his cheating wife Melisa in Proxmire Manor; and rich cousin Honore who has not paid her taxes lives in the family homestead town of St. Botolph's.
After this fact is established, the novel circles in episodic fashion around the lives of these characters, following each (and their spouses) for awhile, then jumping off to the next, until it comes full circle to the first and so on. In between we get exposed to a few more offbeat characters: Dr. Cameron, Coverley's psychotic boss, who is brought to heel at a senate hearing when his abandoned and handicapped son arrives and asks only for love, nothing more; Emile, the mercenery young man who is having an affair with Melisa, a woman recognized as his mother in the various hotels they hide out for their assignations; and Norman, the polite but relentless tax investigator who pursues Honora to Italy and explains the process of extradition to her with elan.
The descriptions are oblique and hilarious: when Coverley is "granted" sex by Betsy, it's "an ascent up the rockwall, the chimney, the flume, the long traverse over the last ridge until one has a view of the whole world." Dr. Cameron's hard-on aboard a plane is "a venerial reverie with a painful inflamation." Some scenes appear contrived and caricateurish: the repeated breakdown of Getrude Lockhart's appliances leading to her catastrophic life choice is a bit overdone. Even Honore has the honour of plugging in her curling iron and knocking out the power in an entire ship!
All families evolve through triumph and tragedy and this one, with it's foibles, is no different. When the remnants of the Family Wapshot gather to celebrate Christmas in the old homestead, they are all scarred from their individual acts of commission. No one is saved but everyone is changed, a bit poorer in the pocket book perhaps, but richer in the soul.
The style is very direct, like reportage in some places and yet lyrical in others. Cheever's mastery of the short story comes out in this book, intended as a novel no doubt, but coming across as a string of linked stories.
August 29, 2019
The Wapshot Scandal was John Cheever's follow up novel to his National Book Award winner, The Wapshot Chronicle. I truly enjoyed the earlier novel. This one still had a sort of humor but was darker. It is set in contemporary early 1960s New England, several decades later than the end of the former novel. Life has become more troubled even though prosperity has been brought by the postwar boom.
The Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation, hangs like a miasma of anxiety over the two Wapshot brothers. It festers as a deep ennui for their wives. The matriarchal great-aunt of the Wapshot family, whom the brothers are counting on for a large inheritance, failed to pay her income tax and stands to lose her fortune to the IRS.
I think Cheever did nail the underlying zeitgeist of the times. Though the Wapshots were always a bit outside the laws and conventions of their late 19th and early 20th century New England society, these brothers and their wives are stuck between an unthinkable future and the realities of their present. The wives want passion, freedom and a purpose. The men don't seem to know what they want.
Cheever writes in a readable style and it is impossible not to be drawn in. I remember my parents and their friends discussing the state of the world and society when I was in high school. Cheever brings those same issues to life through his characters, their anxieties and actions. His story is grim at times but also made me laugh while I groaned.
I left for college and adult life in 1965, determined to get what those wives wanted, to stop war and the bomb, to find the purpose of my life. In this novel, I found yet another conception of what I left behind.
The Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation, hangs like a miasma of anxiety over the two Wapshot brothers. It festers as a deep ennui for their wives. The matriarchal great-aunt of the Wapshot family, whom the brothers are counting on for a large inheritance, failed to pay her income tax and stands to lose her fortune to the IRS.
I think Cheever did nail the underlying zeitgeist of the times. Though the Wapshots were always a bit outside the laws and conventions of their late 19th and early 20th century New England society, these brothers and their wives are stuck between an unthinkable future and the realities of their present. The wives want passion, freedom and a purpose. The men don't seem to know what they want.
Cheever writes in a readable style and it is impossible not to be drawn in. I remember my parents and their friends discussing the state of the world and society when I was in high school. Cheever brings those same issues to life through his characters, their anxieties and actions. His story is grim at times but also made me laugh while I groaned.
I left for college and adult life in 1965, determined to get what those wives wanted, to stop war and the bomb, to find the purpose of my life. In this novel, I found yet another conception of what I left behind.
December 29, 2025
The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever
10 out of 10
Judging from the long list of his works that the under signed has enjoyed thoroughly – there would be about 25 more links aside from http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/05/f... - John Cheever is not just one of his favorites, but one of the top five, the one with most titles in the personal archive and The Wapshot Chronicle http://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/w... has been read once before and this note refers to the latest encounter with a magnum opus that is listed on the Modern Library Top 100 novels compilation.
This chef d’oeuvre is infinitely complex, in spite of the approachable, readable style and it covers an immense territory, offering ample portraits of figures that are just passing through the narrative…take the example of the clergy who is on the base in the middle of the Atlantic, where Coverly Wapshot is sent – this in itself is a glorious episode that has humor and drama mixed in the perfect combination, with Coverly trying to get a job and decent position that would entitle him and his parents to aspire to the legacy of rich Honora, their bizarre relative that would only transmit her fortune to her relatives if they prove potent – literally and figuratively – applying to be a civilian, yet working with the Army.
Coverly gets married to Betsy and he is almost immediately sent to San Francisco, hoping to be assigned to a base in Oregon, or Alaska, where his spouse might join him, only instead, he is packed to an island – an atoll really – in the middle of the Pacific, where he will have to spend the next nine month, with a break of only two weeks – his choice if he travels to a nearby place, for he is not allowed to return to the states – and life here is confined to a very limited space and almost no entertainment…I might be wrong there, what entertainment to speak of, unless one is a Buddhist and/or stoic and needs nothing more than he already has, which is indeed the definition of Nirvana, the state in which you want nothing.
At one point, he gets a message from home, stating that his father is dying and he takes it to a military official – though he is a civilian, the latter expects him to salute – and incidentally, another humorous gem is the statement of the author that ‘the assignment is so secret, we cannot get into the details of it, as if John Cheever is bound to respect the secrecy acts for his fictional character’ who says there is nothing that he can do, but invites the man to go see the clergy and when he does, we have yet another peculiar personage, who has built a hut with bamboo and palm leaves – presumably they do not have much else to use there, unless it is brought with great effort form long distances – that serves as a church.
The clergy talks a lot – well, we have maybe twenty sentences in all for this passage, brilliant as the rest of them – about how he has placed Welcome signs all over the place, he also has moldy magazines and whenever his wife sends cookies – and they are so sublime that she would make a fortune if she were to open a bakery shop – he places a tray for people to eat…only this is as far as he would go to entice service men and civilians to come to the service and he complains that he only has five coming on Sundays, whereas another priest can get thirty and fill in the church, but that is the result of making a pact ‘no service attendance, no whiskey’, which the clergy with a small audience sees as close to blasphemy…
Eventually, Coverly Wapshot gets shipped away on special transportation and reunites with Betsy, but there are many troubles ahead, for the woman seems to be quite unstable – if that is not the case for all of us, and it would be especially so if confines within a military base – and she resents the fact that they have no friends – and positive psychology studies have demonstrated that the happiest people on the planet have one thing in common and no, it is not money, but strong bonds with family and friends – tries hard to find someone to socialize with, and when they have drinks with a couple, the man not only tries to kiss her, makes a pass, but tears her dress and Coverly punches him down.
The abuser is then crying for understanding, stating that this is the way he is, has been considering suicide, but he has this kid brother who depends on him and has to send money to keep in college, he has these urges and then his wife keeps spending to the point where he cannot pay the bills and owes money all over America…a long speech that is not emotional and ludicrous at points, followed by another soliloquy from the spouse who is also unhappy that the brother gets all, now a jacket, then something else and she has to see that her man does not think of her, but only of that spoiled relative…
Betsy is infuriated when she prepares for a special evening, forgiving the assault, with a lot of time and energy dedicated to a very elaborated meal, with everything in order, only to have the ‘friends’ say they are not able, the husband is sick, when in fact they are just visiting another neighbor…Betsy has a breakdown, takes her husband’s money, packs her things and says she is going to stay with her grandmother – when Coverly calls that house, the old woman is hilarious as she retorts to the demand , why, if you want to talk to Betsy, you are her husband, talk to her, what do you call me for’…
As Coverly Wapshot is abandoned by his wife – though he has tried to cook, understand her, take the tray and offer her food in bed, showing patience, resilience – a manager shows interest in him – we have been warned at the beginning of this chapter that it would involve homosexuality and if we find it does not interest us, we can skip – and it is known that the manager is special, but Coverly is so lonely, depressed and without any entertainment, escape and means to channel his frustrations, that he accepts the ride home, then the invitation to dinner and takes some walks with the fellow that is clearly interested in and attracted to him.
Deprived of intimacy and coital interaction with his wife for a long time – even before her departure, there had been no Carnal Knowledge as in the Jack Nicholson Candice Bergen film - between the two spouses – and maybe like John Cheever himself – author who has been described as homosexual or bisexual – Coverly feels an attraction for the other male, but ultimately refuses the offer to travel with him to England, on official business…then there is the complex, also amusing and tragic life of Moses, who has to climb over roofs to meet with his lover and would be wife, in a Gothic, palace like setting…
10 out of 10
Judging from the long list of his works that the under signed has enjoyed thoroughly – there would be about 25 more links aside from http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/05/f... - John Cheever is not just one of his favorites, but one of the top five, the one with most titles in the personal archive and The Wapshot Chronicle http://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/w... has been read once before and this note refers to the latest encounter with a magnum opus that is listed on the Modern Library Top 100 novels compilation.
This chef d’oeuvre is infinitely complex, in spite of the approachable, readable style and it covers an immense territory, offering ample portraits of figures that are just passing through the narrative…take the example of the clergy who is on the base in the middle of the Atlantic, where Coverly Wapshot is sent – this in itself is a glorious episode that has humor and drama mixed in the perfect combination, with Coverly trying to get a job and decent position that would entitle him and his parents to aspire to the legacy of rich Honora, their bizarre relative that would only transmit her fortune to her relatives if they prove potent – literally and figuratively – applying to be a civilian, yet working with the Army.
Coverly gets married to Betsy and he is almost immediately sent to San Francisco, hoping to be assigned to a base in Oregon, or Alaska, where his spouse might join him, only instead, he is packed to an island – an atoll really – in the middle of the Pacific, where he will have to spend the next nine month, with a break of only two weeks – his choice if he travels to a nearby place, for he is not allowed to return to the states – and life here is confined to a very limited space and almost no entertainment…I might be wrong there, what entertainment to speak of, unless one is a Buddhist and/or stoic and needs nothing more than he already has, which is indeed the definition of Nirvana, the state in which you want nothing.
At one point, he gets a message from home, stating that his father is dying and he takes it to a military official – though he is a civilian, the latter expects him to salute – and incidentally, another humorous gem is the statement of the author that ‘the assignment is so secret, we cannot get into the details of it, as if John Cheever is bound to respect the secrecy acts for his fictional character’ who says there is nothing that he can do, but invites the man to go see the clergy and when he does, we have yet another peculiar personage, who has built a hut with bamboo and palm leaves – presumably they do not have much else to use there, unless it is brought with great effort form long distances – that serves as a church.
The clergy talks a lot – well, we have maybe twenty sentences in all for this passage, brilliant as the rest of them – about how he has placed Welcome signs all over the place, he also has moldy magazines and whenever his wife sends cookies – and they are so sublime that she would make a fortune if she were to open a bakery shop – he places a tray for people to eat…only this is as far as he would go to entice service men and civilians to come to the service and he complains that he only has five coming on Sundays, whereas another priest can get thirty and fill in the church, but that is the result of making a pact ‘no service attendance, no whiskey’, which the clergy with a small audience sees as close to blasphemy…
Eventually, Coverly Wapshot gets shipped away on special transportation and reunites with Betsy, but there are many troubles ahead, for the woman seems to be quite unstable – if that is not the case for all of us, and it would be especially so if confines within a military base – and she resents the fact that they have no friends – and positive psychology studies have demonstrated that the happiest people on the planet have one thing in common and no, it is not money, but strong bonds with family and friends – tries hard to find someone to socialize with, and when they have drinks with a couple, the man not only tries to kiss her, makes a pass, but tears her dress and Coverly punches him down.
The abuser is then crying for understanding, stating that this is the way he is, has been considering suicide, but he has this kid brother who depends on him and has to send money to keep in college, he has these urges and then his wife keeps spending to the point where he cannot pay the bills and owes money all over America…a long speech that is not emotional and ludicrous at points, followed by another soliloquy from the spouse who is also unhappy that the brother gets all, now a jacket, then something else and she has to see that her man does not think of her, but only of that spoiled relative…
Betsy is infuriated when she prepares for a special evening, forgiving the assault, with a lot of time and energy dedicated to a very elaborated meal, with everything in order, only to have the ‘friends’ say they are not able, the husband is sick, when in fact they are just visiting another neighbor…Betsy has a breakdown, takes her husband’s money, packs her things and says she is going to stay with her grandmother – when Coverly calls that house, the old woman is hilarious as she retorts to the demand , why, if you want to talk to Betsy, you are her husband, talk to her, what do you call me for’…
As Coverly Wapshot is abandoned by his wife – though he has tried to cook, understand her, take the tray and offer her food in bed, showing patience, resilience – a manager shows interest in him – we have been warned at the beginning of this chapter that it would involve homosexuality and if we find it does not interest us, we can skip – and it is known that the manager is special, but Coverly is so lonely, depressed and without any entertainment, escape and means to channel his frustrations, that he accepts the ride home, then the invitation to dinner and takes some walks with the fellow that is clearly interested in and attracted to him.
Deprived of intimacy and coital interaction with his wife for a long time – even before her departure, there had been no Carnal Knowledge as in the Jack Nicholson Candice Bergen film - between the two spouses – and maybe like John Cheever himself – author who has been described as homosexual or bisexual – Coverly feels an attraction for the other male, but ultimately refuses the offer to travel with him to England, on official business…then there is the complex, also amusing and tragic life of Moses, who has to climb over roofs to meet with his lover and would be wife, in a Gothic, palace like setting…
July 20, 2017
A wonderful, perceptive, poetic, and honest book about the American Dream, in all its guises: a Christmas morning in New England, a perfectly clean, upper-middle class house where groceries are delivered by attractive young men, a government job with housing provided, to be so rich as to be a benefactress, golden eggs buried for Easter Sunday. This is also a book about flights, continental flights, trans-Atlantic flights, flights of fancy, ski-run flights. For the Wapshots, their family, and the others who are ensnared in their world, the American Dream is not a privilege, but a right, a kind of standing in society which elevates them from depressing and sordid things. Cheever's writing is both empathetic yet firm, and the book has balances a satisfying narrative with well-written observations on human nature, frailty, and hunger.
August 1, 2017
The Wapshot Scandal is a sequel to the Wapshot Chronicles. I have not read the latter and I do not think I will be interested in it after what I have expreienced with the current novel. John Cheever writes almost always about the American life. His characters are troubled in their marriages, house, or with the law. Their struggles are what some of us go through in real life.
The Wapshot Scandal was not different. It focuses on the Wapshot family as they struggle to live. We all have sorrows which if given a choice we would rather do without. To some of us we find that the only means of dealing with our troubles is to escape from them. That is what most characters in this book tend to do. And, in the process we get to learn, symoathise, and mostly wish we never fall on the same lane as them. But, life is unpredictable. If we do, we must pray to have the inner strength to overcome our problems.
The Wapshot Scandal was not different. It focuses on the Wapshot family as they struggle to live. We all have sorrows which if given a choice we would rather do without. To some of us we find that the only means of dealing with our troubles is to escape from them. That is what most characters in this book tend to do. And, in the process we get to learn, symoathise, and mostly wish we never fall on the same lane as them. But, life is unpredictable. If we do, we must pray to have the inner strength to overcome our problems.
December 13, 2014
This is a continuation of Cheever's earlier book - The Wapshot Chronicle & it flows almost seamlessly, so it makes sense to read both in succession. The list of primary characters is reduced with the death of the boys' parents, but the important people are still here.
Once again, this is a novel about the times, in this case the late 50s & early 60s. Satire is high, but done well that it isn't always comedic & I liked that. The military committees removing security status at Coverly's missile base is a wonderful snark towards the McCarthy trials. Completely nonsensical and producing outcomes that destroys everyone, including the military. Such paranoia.
There are comments regarding the changes in women's lifestyles, from learning to use a vacuum cleaner, to equality of sexes (Betsey's role reversal daydream) and the changes in shopping habits and marketing. The skills women had to liberate themselves is politely discussed using the two wives as examples. I suspect both fail due to their upbringing. Betsey's increased obsession of watching TV as a direct result of loneliness, is interesting, as too the parties of the 50s & 60s. Thank goodness that style of dreary party is now dead & buried. The backgrounds of these women & men also fail them with stress & failure, and alcohol is the common cure leading to disastrous results for the person concerned.
For me the one failure of this novel is the back story of Melissa. I remember her to be the ward of Aunt Justina, but here she suddenly acquires siblings, aunts & uncles. It didn't make sense, altho this becomes pivotal for at least one scene to happen.
I loved the last chapter - making it come full circle with the church scene at Christmas Eve. So much has happened in this period (probably just 1 year, but discussing at least a decade of change in America) from choristers walking the streets, to only 4 people attending Midnight Mass. Change has come to St Botolphs & it isn't good change.
This sentiment of the old days being better - which Cheever clearly thought so - is an age old one. I think it is a misnomer and although the sentimentality is lovely, the actuality is very different. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that the negatives and positives of any era, be it 10 years ago, 50 or 100 years, cancel each other out. All that happens is the struggle changes. So: for Mrs Gaskell it is the emancipation of women and the reduction of drudgery; today it is dealing with the bombardment of information & making decisions that give us quality of life, but doesn't overwhelm us. Really, both are major issues, and both feel overwhelming: right now today: be it Dec 1854 or Dec 2014.
Once again, this is a novel about the times, in this case the late 50s & early 60s. Satire is high, but done well that it isn't always comedic & I liked that. The military committees removing security status at Coverly's missile base is a wonderful snark towards the McCarthy trials. Completely nonsensical and producing outcomes that destroys everyone, including the military. Such paranoia.
There are comments regarding the changes in women's lifestyles, from learning to use a vacuum cleaner, to equality of sexes (Betsey's role reversal daydream) and the changes in shopping habits and marketing. The skills women had to liberate themselves is politely discussed using the two wives as examples. I suspect both fail due to their upbringing. Betsey's increased obsession of watching TV as a direct result of loneliness, is interesting, as too the parties of the 50s & 60s. Thank goodness that style of dreary party is now dead & buried. The backgrounds of these women & men also fail them with stress & failure, and alcohol is the common cure leading to disastrous results for the person concerned.
For me the one failure of this novel is the back story of Melissa. I remember her to be the ward of Aunt Justina, but here she suddenly acquires siblings, aunts & uncles. It didn't make sense, altho this becomes pivotal for at least one scene to happen.
I loved the last chapter - making it come full circle with the church scene at Christmas Eve. So much has happened in this period (probably just 1 year, but discussing at least a decade of change in America) from choristers walking the streets, to only 4 people attending Midnight Mass. Change has come to St Botolphs & it isn't good change.
This sentiment of the old days being better - which Cheever clearly thought so - is an age old one. I think it is a misnomer and although the sentimentality is lovely, the actuality is very different. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that the negatives and positives of any era, be it 10 years ago, 50 or 100 years, cancel each other out. All that happens is the struggle changes. So: for Mrs Gaskell it is the emancipation of women and the reduction of drudgery; today it is dealing with the bombardment of information & making decisions that give us quality of life, but doesn't overwhelm us. Really, both are major issues, and both feel overwhelming: right now today: be it Dec 1854 or Dec 2014.
January 2, 2018
Continuing the story begun in The Wapshot Chronicle (a fantastic book, and one I liked a sight better than this one), author Cheever uses the Wapshot "boys," Moses and Coverly and their aging dowager cousin, Honora, to track the progress of postwar America and its social norms. Married life for each of the lads is tumultuous, particularly concerning Moses's wife, Melissa, who ends up being more sharply drawn in this novel than her husband is. Each unhappy family may be unhappy in its own way, but here excessive drinking is a common bond. Even prim cousin Cousin Honora starts hitting the sauce after running afoul of the IRS.
Coverly's involvement with computer programming and missile bases occasions some sideways commentary on the military-industrial complex and its heartless technocrats, with results that feel like naive, oversimplified caricature, not the sensitively detailed characters Cheever is justly famous for.
We see too little here of St. Botolph's, the New England everytown that spawned the Wapshots. The point seems to be that the young men (and even tax-refugee Honora) can't go home again. But the irrevocable changes time wrought on the town were palpable and compelling in "The Wapshot Chronicle," and we could've done with more of them here, I think. At the end of "The Wapshot Scandal," we get hints of additional changes in the town -- the once-grand municipality continuing its decline. I found myself wishing the novel had focused more of that, and less on scientific conferences and ocean cruises.
Coverly's involvement with computer programming and missile bases occasions some sideways commentary on the military-industrial complex and its heartless technocrats, with results that feel like naive, oversimplified caricature, not the sensitively detailed characters Cheever is justly famous for.
We see too little here of St. Botolph's, the New England everytown that spawned the Wapshots. The point seems to be that the young men (and even tax-refugee Honora) can't go home again. But the irrevocable changes time wrought on the town were palpable and compelling in "The Wapshot Chronicle," and we could've done with more of them here, I think. At the end of "The Wapshot Scandal," we get hints of additional changes in the town -- the once-grand municipality continuing its decline. I found myself wishing the novel had focused more of that, and less on scientific conferences and ocean cruises.
August 16, 2019
This is a brilliant cornucopia of depression, desperation, loneliness, and boredom, all infused with a most satisfactory tincture of comedy.
September 21, 2020
I loved it. Great writing. Written in the late fifties. Lots of scandals.
February 10, 2025
A wonderful book. Having finished reading the Scandal right after the Chronicle, I can now safely say that this is my first experience of reading a sequel that is better than the first.
The Wapshot Scandal provides a continuation of life of the Wapshot boys, Coverly and Moses, into middle age. Through the good and bad of life, their little seaside hometown of St Botolphs sat quietly and resiliently as dying towns do, although for likely not much longer after the conclusion of the book.
I read that the books were semi-autobiographic in nature, and I could completely believe this. Cheever wrote with such a vivid clarity, a clarity that I don't think he would have without the creative and mystic vision he developed through a childhood in his hometown.
Like the plot, life is complex, strange, good, and bad. And I would say that the two books, when taken together, are the perfect representation of lives lived, in all the complexity of shared experiences both together with family, and apart.
The Wapshot Scandal provides a continuation of life of the Wapshot boys, Coverly and Moses, into middle age. Through the good and bad of life, their little seaside hometown of St Botolphs sat quietly and resiliently as dying towns do, although for likely not much longer after the conclusion of the book.
I read that the books were semi-autobiographic in nature, and I could completely believe this. Cheever wrote with such a vivid clarity, a clarity that I don't think he would have without the creative and mystic vision he developed through a childhood in his hometown.
Like the plot, life is complex, strange, good, and bad. And I would say that the two books, when taken together, are the perfect representation of lives lived, in all the complexity of shared experiences both together with family, and apart.
February 8, 2025
Los Wapshot son una familia de clase alta venida a menos. La imagen irónica y ridícula de una vida que se consiguió gracias al sueño americano y que este mismo ideal lo quita con creces.
John Cheveer incursionó en la novela con estas dos obras recopiladas (Crónica de los Wapshot, 1957; El escándalo de los Wapshot, 1964), denotando un humor más ácido y directo, incluso sombrío por el lazo que existe entre los hechos de su obra y la vida íntima de su familia.
Ambas novelas extensas son un retrato íntimo del autor hacia un pasado que se suele pintar de colores cálidos, pero que en realidad solo ha sido tergiversado por aquellos que piensan que “el pasado siempre fue mejor”.
La maduración de los personajes y su pleito familiar solo se modifica y oculta año a año mientras que el apellido que los une se desgasta y pasa a formar parte de aquellas palabras sin contenido, que alguna vez significaron algo para las demás personas.
La enfermedad, el alcoholismo, la homosexualidad y las aficiones frustradas, son algunas de las manifestaciones que Cheveer recuerda y surgiere que fue la causa de la desintegración familiar. Aunque desde un comienzo, como suele suceder, hay familias que están predispuestas a fracasar y extinguirse.
Al fin de cuentas, el relato de toda novela familiar es solo la excusa inmolada del integrante sobreviviente.
John Cheveer incursionó en la novela con estas dos obras recopiladas (Crónica de los Wapshot, 1957; El escándalo de los Wapshot, 1964), denotando un humor más ácido y directo, incluso sombrío por el lazo que existe entre los hechos de su obra y la vida íntima de su familia.
Ambas novelas extensas son un retrato íntimo del autor hacia un pasado que se suele pintar de colores cálidos, pero que en realidad solo ha sido tergiversado por aquellos que piensan que “el pasado siempre fue mejor”.
La maduración de los personajes y su pleito familiar solo se modifica y oculta año a año mientras que el apellido que los une se desgasta y pasa a formar parte de aquellas palabras sin contenido, que alguna vez significaron algo para las demás personas.
La enfermedad, el alcoholismo, la homosexualidad y las aficiones frustradas, son algunas de las manifestaciones que Cheveer recuerda y surgiere que fue la causa de la desintegración familiar. Aunque desde un comienzo, como suele suceder, hay familias que están predispuestas a fracasar y extinguirse.
Al fin de cuentas, el relato de toda novela familiar es solo la excusa inmolada del integrante sobreviviente.
Read
May 27, 2017 To me, more satisfactory than I will try to delineate. Perhaps it's the engagement of a 1970s America. In any case, the second novel works for me far better than did the first .
September 29, 2018
I found this book unbearably moving by the end. Cheever has an astonishing ability to oscillate between the ribald or the lewd, the surreal and the lyrical. This is also gentle social satire underpinned by a real fondness for those he satirises and sympathy for their weaknesses and caprices.
September 13, 2025
A step down from the first one, but not a huge one. Still worth reading for Cheeverheads
August 3, 2012
This was a brilliant satire on the early 1960s in the USA, as it began to throw off the innocence (assumed) of the 1950s. The Wapshot family degenerates into many scandals, even though it still means well in some cases.
Cheever also captured the paradoxical angst and hope left over from the 1950s, with which I grew up and keenly remember: "Like everyone else who reads the newspapers he had come to hold in his mind a fear that some drunken corporal might incinerate the planet and to hold in another part of his mind the most passionate longings for a peaceful life among his generations." That is how the antihero of this book felt, the object and recipient of the main scandal. To me, that seemed very fitting.
Cheever also commented tellingly on the period's penchant for advertising jingles. A family sits at a table and recites popular jingles. I thought this passage was utterly hilarious: " 'Winstons taste good,' piped the baby in his high chair, 'like a cigarette should. Winstons have flavor.' "
Cheever also captured the paradoxical angst and hope left over from the 1950s, with which I grew up and keenly remember: "Like everyone else who reads the newspapers he had come to hold in his mind a fear that some drunken corporal might incinerate the planet and to hold in another part of his mind the most passionate longings for a peaceful life among his generations." That is how the antihero of this book felt, the object and recipient of the main scandal. To me, that seemed very fitting.
Cheever also commented tellingly on the period's penchant for advertising jingles. A family sits at a table and recites popular jingles. I thought this passage was utterly hilarious: " 'Winstons taste good,' piped the baby in his high chair, 'like a cigarette should. Winstons have flavor.' "
Read
March 13, 2013After reading The Wapshot Chronicle, The Wapshot Scandal was a bit of a disappointment. However, Cheever can craft a sentence like nobody's business and for that reason, the book was still a pleasure to read. While the Chronicle was a beautiful and poignant story that was also madcap and down right strange, it somehow hung together. The Wapshot Scandal come across as more of a slice of life from the late 50's - early 60's - without ever feeling like a "story". It touches on everything from a plane hi-jacking to an Easter egg pay-off gone awry. Cheever covered every stereotypic situation from a housewife chasing after the grocery boy to the elitism of a scientific community isolated in the desert Southwest. The book was funny or ridiculous - depending on your mood. There was a lot of pontificating about sexual mores and moral behavior. Thankfully, Cheever's ability to write saves the day. Read the Wapshot Chronicle. The Wapshot Scandal is optional in my opinion
January 20, 2020
Not bad but much preferred the first installment. The quirky characters occassionally behave in quite gruelling ways. While I do not mind, as such, mixing the fun with the serious/downright depressive, the specific mix was rather grating. Seemed over-the-top in some of the descriptions of transgressions. Eg the scene where Cameron - director of the scientific facility at which Coverly is employed - is being questioned at a Senate hearing and is confronted with his mentally handicapped son. The damage stems from abuse (mental more than physical), but the facts come off as truly unbelievable, basically ruining the episode. The chapters feel somewhat disjointed (but then that did diminish the effects of those chapters that I disliked).
August 7, 2016
John Cheever lezen is als het beluisteren van een celloconcert van Bach, je laten overmeesteren en meeslepen door het mysterie en door woordelijke zinnelijkheid. Opnieuw krijgen we in dit boek de menselijke tragiek voorgeschoteld in een afwisseling van drama, slapstick en de mooiste natuurbeschrijvingen. Als lezer zweef je over het boek heen op een grote wolk. Cheever kan vertellen en neemt je als lezer mee en stuwt je vooruit. Dit vervolg op 'Kroniek van de familie Wapshot' is heerlijke lectuur. Het reveleert het antiburgerlijke in elk van ons, het schopt tegen de schijnheilige moraal zonder belerend te zijn, het legt de menselijke ziel bloot op een bijzonder intieme manier.
February 11, 2020
This was a very strange reading experience (I probably should have read The Wapshot Chronicle first). The chapters seemed to have no connection to each other, and I could hardly keep the characters straight. I couldn't tell you what the themes were or what Cheever was trying to communicate. However, it was still vaguely enjoyable because I just love his writing so much. It was like reading lovely sentences with only the barest of context.
April 8, 2017
Habría sido mejor leer primero "Crónica de los Wapshot", que inicia la saga, y en libro de toda la vida, por ahorrarme confusiones propias de una historia coral, repleta de personaje. Aun así "El escándalo de los Wapshot" me pareció una gran novela. Una panorámica de la sociedad estadounidense de los sesenta entre naíf, pop y expresionista.
August 23, 2017
Una radiografía de una familia y casi de un pueblo. La prosa de Cheever me recuerda a un escalpelo que va hurgando tanto el interior como el exterior de las personas. Siempre encuentro imágenes o situaciones que me hacen cerrar la novela para saborearlas y pensar en ellas. Como el final. Una pega sería algunos secundarios que no me aportaron nada.
October 1, 2011
Yes, it rambles all over the place (just like life), but it has some wonderful laughs.
August 24, 2017
Details the members of a dysfunctional family. Just ok. I enjoy JC's short stories more.
December 5, 2022
A la altura de "Crónica de los Wapshot".
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