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Elmalar Diyarı
Elmalar Diyarı’ndaki kahramanlar, tıpkı bundan önceki Cheever öykülerinde olduğu gibi, küçük dünyalarında yaşamaya devam ediyor. Kimi saf, kimi eski kafalı, kimi alabildiğine şaşkın... Başlarına garip mi garip, olmayacak haller geliyor. Nezakete, genel ahlaka, sağduyuya, hatta gerçeğin ta kendisine bile mesafe alıyor, güvenmemeyi öğreniyorlar. Afallıyor, tökezliyor, sarsılıyor ama yaşamaya devam ediyorlar.
Amerikan edebiyatının klasiklerinden John Cheever’ın öyküleri basılır basılmaz çoksatar oldu ve yazar 1979’da Pulitzer Ödülü'ne layık görüldü. Elmalar Diyarı, Roza Hakmen çevirisiyle Cheever'ın toplu öykülerinin son cildi olarak dizideki yerini alıyor.
“Pek çok kişi banliyö üzerine yazdı, fakat sadece Cheever ondan bir arketip yarattı.”
John Updike
Amerikan edebiyatının klasiklerinden John Cheever’ın öyküleri basılır basılmaz çoksatar oldu ve yazar 1979’da Pulitzer Ödülü'ne layık görüldü. Elmalar Diyarı, Roza Hakmen çevirisiyle Cheever'ın toplu öykülerinin son cildi olarak dizideki yerini alıyor.
“Pek çok kişi banliyö üzerine yazdı, fakat sadece Cheever ondan bir arketip yarattı.”
John Updike
320 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1966
12 people are currently reading
1554 people want to read
About the author
John Cheever
297 books1,069 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 38 reviews
August 7, 2025
"The World of Apples" is a collection of short stories that were originally published as single stories in "The New Yorker," "Esquire," "The Saturday Evening Post," or "Playboy." It was an enjoyable book with many of the stories exhibiting Cheever's humor.
In the title story, Asa Boscomb is an elderly poet and American expatriate living in the mountains of Italy. When he accidentally sees a couple making love in the forest, it sets off pornographic thoughts. Boscomb finds himself unable to write his usual style of poems, and fills pages with obscenities which he burns. He eventually visits a shrine, and later cleanses his soul in an act of purification. His next poem is one of dignity and beauty that he could share with his readers. This was a well-written story that had me thinking about how we have definite expectations from our favorite writers.
I reviewed the other nine stories individually as I read through the book.
List of stories in "The World of Apples":
"The Chimera" (The New Yorker, July 4, 1961)
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" (The New Yorker, April 27, 1963)
"Montraldo" (The New Yorker, June 6, 1964)
"The Geometry of Love" (Saturday Evening Post, January 1, 1966)
"The World of Apples" (Esquire, December 1966)
"Percy" (The New Yorker, September 21, 1968)
"The Fourth Alarm" (Esquire, April 1970)
"Artemis, the Honest Well-Digger" (Playboy, January 1972)
"The Jewels of the Cabots" (Playboy, May 1972)
"Three Stories" [as "Triad"] (Playboy, January 1973)
In the title story, Asa Boscomb is an elderly poet and American expatriate living in the mountains of Italy. When he accidentally sees a couple making love in the forest, it sets off pornographic thoughts. Boscomb finds himself unable to write his usual style of poems, and fills pages with obscenities which he burns. He eventually visits a shrine, and later cleanses his soul in an act of purification. His next poem is one of dignity and beauty that he could share with his readers. This was a well-written story that had me thinking about how we have definite expectations from our favorite writers.
I reviewed the other nine stories individually as I read through the book.
List of stories in "The World of Apples":
"The Chimera" (The New Yorker, July 4, 1961)
"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" (The New Yorker, April 27, 1963)
"Montraldo" (The New Yorker, June 6, 1964)
"The Geometry of Love" (Saturday Evening Post, January 1, 1966)
"The World of Apples" (Esquire, December 1966)
"Percy" (The New Yorker, September 21, 1968)
"The Fourth Alarm" (Esquire, April 1970)
"Artemis, the Honest Well-Digger" (Playboy, January 1972)
"The Jewels of the Cabots" (Playboy, May 1972)
"Three Stories" [as "Triad"] (Playboy, January 1973)
February 20, 2014
I'm ashamed to say that as a 24 year old Writing, Literature and Publishing Major I had never read a complete book of John Cheever's short stories. I actually ended up buying this book on Amazon after hearing it mentioned in a movie. Odd way to hear about a book, I know. But I'm so glad I picked it up. I'm not normally a short story girl but the imagination, characters, intriguing often a bit random storylines were captivating. Though I loved the title story, "A World of Apples" I was also really taken with "Artemis, The Honest Well Digger" and "Three Stories".
I felt the tone of the book to be a little Death of a Salesman-esk. It's not a light read, that's for sure. I would highly recommend this to anyone who was looking for a creative collection of thought-provoking, sometimes dark short stories.
I felt the tone of the book to be a little Death of a Salesman-esk. It's not a light read, that's for sure. I would highly recommend this to anyone who was looking for a creative collection of thought-provoking, sometimes dark short stories.
December 30, 2024
ya doğru ana denk gelmedi ya da genel anlamda hiç benlik değil. uzun uzun anlatacak bile mecalim yok. geçen sene carver’a bayılınca bu kanala gireyim diye düşündüm ama cheever’la öyle anlaşamadık. ileride başka bir kitabıyla tekrar deneyeceğim. 2024’ü böyle kapatmış olalım bakalım.
December 31, 2017
O melhor contista, ao lado de Tchekhov. E Borges (tudo bem).
December 14, 2021
See above! There appears to be something wacky going on with Goodreads. Wouldn't be the first time. Well, this is a mess. A team effort = me and Goodreads. Any way, I've read the first three stories and I recognized two of them. The most recent was "Percy," whose title was familiar though the story didn't ring any bells until the last page.
Nearing the end now. the majority of the stories continue to be re-reads, which I'm happy to read again. Once again I note the similarity between these and the stories of Raymond Carver. They were drinking buddies and then sober buddies(is this true? I know that both got sober late in their lives) from the Iowa writer's workshops.
And thus to the ending story, a meditation on letting go and living life in one's declining years. Helps to have a villa in Italy I think.
- "You see" alert = Cheever uses that saggy, baggy, boring phrase a couple of times - yechhh!
Nearing the end now. the majority of the stories continue to be re-reads, which I'm happy to read again. Once again I note the similarity between these and the stories of Raymond Carver. They were drinking buddies and then sober buddies(is this true? I know that both got sober late in their lives) from the Iowa writer's workshops.
And thus to the ending story, a meditation on letting go and living life in one's declining years. Helps to have a villa in Italy I think.
- "You see" alert = Cheever uses that saggy, baggy, boring phrase a couple of times - yechhh!
May 26, 2020
Otro cuento donde el protagonista está instalado en Italia, en este caso se trata de Ada Bascomb, un laureado poeta, obsesionado con ganar el premio Nobel. Es de las pocas veces que le he leido a Cheever hacer una alusión más o menos directa a la homosexualidad, el protagonista parece que vive la vida realmente a través de sus sueños, que es quizás cuando puede ser él mismo.
"¿Por qué él -provinciano y famoso por su sencillez- había decidido abandonar Vermont para ir a Italia? ¿Había sido una decisión de su bienamada Amelia, muerta hacia diez años? Ella solía adoptar muchas de las decisiones del matrimonio. Él, hijo de un campesino, ¿era tan ingenuo que creía que la vida en el extranjero podía agregar cierto color a sus severos comienzos? ¿O se trataba sencillamente de una actitud práctica, una evasión de la publicidad que en su propia patria había sido fastidiosa?"
"¿Por qué él -provinciano y famoso por su sencillez- había decidido abandonar Vermont para ir a Italia? ¿Había sido una decisión de su bienamada Amelia, muerta hacia diez años? Ella solía adoptar muchas de las decisiones del matrimonio. Él, hijo de un campesino, ¿era tan ingenuo que creía que la vida en el extranjero podía agregar cierto color a sus severos comienzos? ¿O se trataba sencillamente de una actitud práctica, una evasión de la publicidad que en su propia patria había sido fastidiosa?"
August 5, 2014
Cheever is a modern American writer with calm insight into the middle-class suburban life. He address themes similar to John Updike and John Irving: shadowy desires amid Victorian morals that won't seem to die, normal people who cope with routine life through unsavory fantasies, and alienation from living inauthentic lives dictated to characters by the wider American culture. Cheever has far less comical, and outsider characters facing bizarre circumstances than Irving. His characters are ordinary people, living uneventful plotlines with unique internal tensions. His characters are positively more agreeable than Updike's.
Of the ten stories included, "The Fourth Alarm", "Artemis, the Honest Well Digger", and "The Chimera" were the top performers.
Of the ten stories included, "The Fourth Alarm", "Artemis, the Honest Well Digger", and "The Chimera" were the top performers.
June 7, 2025
Only two short years later I’ve finally finished this collection of short stories. Really fell out of reading in general and am trying to rekindle the hobby. There are several stories here (The Chimera, Three Stories, The Geometry of Love and The World of Apples) that I really really enjoyed amidst a few others that were sort of in and out of my brain pretty quickly. While nothing here quite knocked me out the way The Swimmer did many years ago (probably my favorite short story), Cheever’s wry and pointed observations on his characters and on life in general consistently make for an enjoyable style. Thumbs up to this collection overall.
June 7, 2007
These are subtly absurd, well-written short stories that, oddly enough, frequently took exactly 17 minutes-- the length of my train rides to and from work-- to read.
August 9, 2025
Picked this up at the Powell's warehouse sale when I was looking for anything vaguely readable. I'd read his classic story The Swimmer in undergrad but nothing else. Sure enough, he is a master of the short story format. I was half expecting the book to be all dry, domestic dramas—which there is plenty of, there's a lot of husbands being mystified by their wives—but the stories are all pretty unique, some a little goofy or surreal, and generally very enjoyable. Will I seek out anything else by Cheever? Probably not. Would I be mad about reading something else? Also no.
December 5, 2020
"The prophets of doom are out of work. All one can do is to pick up the pieces."
October 9, 2024
Highlights ~ "The Chimera" "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin" "The World of Apples" "Percy" "Artemis, the Honest Well Digger" and "The Jewels of Cabots".
August 10, 2025
The World of Apples by John Cheever
Complex, intriguing, funny and sad at times
- Is Asa Bascomb a source of inspiration for Richard Ford?
As I started reading on the World of Apples I was just wondering if there is a connection between the hero of this story and Frank Bascombe, the one who travels through The Sportswriter, Independence Day and two other novels…
Asa Bascomb is a writer, but unlike Frank Bascombe, not a Sportswriter, and he has won a series of prizes.
He did not win the Nobel Prize, but the fact that this is even in question gives him a high profile and name recognition.
He has prizes and gifts from Kiev, Oslo and the Soviet Union, with two presidents- of the USA and Italy- wiring congratulations.
The eighty two years old lives in Monte Carbone, near Rome, like a surprisingly big number of heroes of John Cheever.
As Richard Ford mentions Cezanne, so does Cheever and we learn that Bascomb was called the Cezanne of poets.
I know the French painter as one of the last Impressionists, who in fact detached from their style and opened the way for abstract and modern painting, but I hardly see a poem to look like one of his canvases, this being one reason why I am no writer.
Bascomb has moved to Italy coming from Vermont, just like two odd characters from Independence Day, clients of another Bascombe.
Life in a small Italian town- or for that matter, on a Greek island- must be exquisite and I would move there in a hurry.
The author writes with humor, or is it just sarcasm or plain insight, that Bascomb has taken precautions to avoid an abrupt end
“Carefully kept out of the villa all firearms, suitable lengths of rope, poisons, and sleeping pills.”
We are the given access to the secret of the art of poetry, at least in what this poet laureate is concerned-
“He did not seem to choose his words at all but to recall them from the billions of sounds that he had heard since he first understood speech.”
The poet has very demanding exercises, which are meant to check that his memory is still apt, until he cannot remember Lord Byron’s name- first name that is- and that almost anywhere, the lord is not listed with his Christian name- George.
It is funny nevertheless to read about the options- was it Sydney, Percy?
On a trip with a Scandinavian admirer, Bascomb stumbles upon an event that would affect him for a while-
“Bascomb went into the woods to relieve himself and stumbled on a couple who were making love. They had not bothered to undress and the only flesh visible was the stranger’s hairy backside.”
And later takes a rather bleak view of things-
“Obscenity—gross obscenity—seemed to be the only factor in life that possessed color and cheer.”
The poet takes a bus to Rome, where he meets a male whore- an expression I am unaccustomed with.
Then he takes in a concert, where he starts imagining that he undresses the soprano, with zipper and slip over her head.
And will stop at this scene, which is not the last in this short story that acts somehow like a fresco, since we mentioned plastic arts earlier…
“A man, his wife, and three carefully dressed daughters got out of the car and Bascomb stopped to watch them when he saw that the man carried a shotgun. What was he going to do? Commit murder? Suicide? Was Bascomb about to see some human sacrifice? He sat down, concealed by the deep grass, and watched. The mother and the three girls were very excited. The father seemed to be enjoying complete sovereignty. They spoke a dialect and Bascomb understood almost nothing they said. The man took the shotgun from its case and put a single shell in the chamber. Then he arranged his wife and three daughters in a line and put their hands over their ears. They were squealing. When this was all arranged he stood with his back to them, aimed his gun at the sky, and fired.”
John Cheever proves constantly that a short tale is more than enough space to paint so many details and even shorter stories, somewhat in the manner of Brueghel, who has a series of paintings called after the seasons and where various people do all kinds of things- feed animals, skate on the ice, one is even taking a dump out of the window of a house- which was kind of the habit back then
Complex, intriguing, funny and sad at times
- Is Asa Bascomb a source of inspiration for Richard Ford?
As I started reading on the World of Apples I was just wondering if there is a connection between the hero of this story and Frank Bascombe, the one who travels through The Sportswriter, Independence Day and two other novels…
Asa Bascomb is a writer, but unlike Frank Bascombe, not a Sportswriter, and he has won a series of prizes.
He did not win the Nobel Prize, but the fact that this is even in question gives him a high profile and name recognition.
He has prizes and gifts from Kiev, Oslo and the Soviet Union, with two presidents- of the USA and Italy- wiring congratulations.
The eighty two years old lives in Monte Carbone, near Rome, like a surprisingly big number of heroes of John Cheever.
As Richard Ford mentions Cezanne, so does Cheever and we learn that Bascomb was called the Cezanne of poets.
I know the French painter as one of the last Impressionists, who in fact detached from their style and opened the way for abstract and modern painting, but I hardly see a poem to look like one of his canvases, this being one reason why I am no writer.
Bascomb has moved to Italy coming from Vermont, just like two odd characters from Independence Day, clients of another Bascombe.
Life in a small Italian town- or for that matter, on a Greek island- must be exquisite and I would move there in a hurry.
The author writes with humor, or is it just sarcasm or plain insight, that Bascomb has taken precautions to avoid an abrupt end
“Carefully kept out of the villa all firearms, suitable lengths of rope, poisons, and sleeping pills.”
We are the given access to the secret of the art of poetry, at least in what this poet laureate is concerned-
“He did not seem to choose his words at all but to recall them from the billions of sounds that he had heard since he first understood speech.”
The poet has very demanding exercises, which are meant to check that his memory is still apt, until he cannot remember Lord Byron’s name- first name that is- and that almost anywhere, the lord is not listed with his Christian name- George.
It is funny nevertheless to read about the options- was it Sydney, Percy?
On a trip with a Scandinavian admirer, Bascomb stumbles upon an event that would affect him for a while-
“Bascomb went into the woods to relieve himself and stumbled on a couple who were making love. They had not bothered to undress and the only flesh visible was the stranger’s hairy backside.”
And later takes a rather bleak view of things-
“Obscenity—gross obscenity—seemed to be the only factor in life that possessed color and cheer.”
The poet takes a bus to Rome, where he meets a male whore- an expression I am unaccustomed with.
Then he takes in a concert, where he starts imagining that he undresses the soprano, with zipper and slip over her head.
And will stop at this scene, which is not the last in this short story that acts somehow like a fresco, since we mentioned plastic arts earlier…
“A man, his wife, and three carefully dressed daughters got out of the car and Bascomb stopped to watch them when he saw that the man carried a shotgun. What was he going to do? Commit murder? Suicide? Was Bascomb about to see some human sacrifice? He sat down, concealed by the deep grass, and watched. The mother and the three girls were very excited. The father seemed to be enjoying complete sovereignty. They spoke a dialect and Bascomb understood almost nothing they said. The man took the shotgun from its case and put a single shell in the chamber. Then he arranged his wife and three daughters in a line and put their hands over their ears. They were squealing. When this was all arranged he stood with his back to them, aimed his gun at the sky, and fired.”
John Cheever proves constantly that a short tale is more than enough space to paint so many details and even shorter stories, somewhat in the manner of Brueghel, who has a series of paintings called after the seasons and where various people do all kinds of things- feed animals, skate on the ice, one is even taking a dump out of the window of a house- which was kind of the habit back then
September 12, 2023
Most of the stories were pretty boring and even though it was a small book it was difficult to get through.
I picked it up in the first place because it was mentioned in the movie Stuck in Love and honestly, I think the book fits perfectly into the storylines of the characters lives. It resembles to plot of the movie as well as the individual characteristics of the characters and how they view each other.
Most of stories basically had the same set up: the main character was a man, you see the story through his POV. He is seen as rational and calm and then the women in these men’s lives are seen as the bad guy and the ones that ruin everything. Of course you never get the women’s sides of the stories but they are short stories not a complete novel.
It works so well with how this book is mentioned in the movie, Stuck in Love, because, if you haven’t seen it, the mother is seen as the bad guy for ruining her marriage to her husband but as the story progresses, you find out how they are both at fault for the things that went wrong. And of course, you only see her story through the other characters POVs and all her big moments happen off screen.
The placement of this book in the movie was so clever and probably the only reason I gave this book any stars lol. Maybe it was just me but the book itself was just not it.
I picked it up in the first place because it was mentioned in the movie Stuck in Love and honestly, I think the book fits perfectly into the storylines of the characters lives. It resembles to plot of the movie as well as the individual characteristics of the characters and how they view each other.
Most of stories basically had the same set up: the main character was a man, you see the story through his POV. He is seen as rational and calm and then the women in these men’s lives are seen as the bad guy and the ones that ruin everything. Of course you never get the women’s sides of the stories but they are short stories not a complete novel.
It works so well with how this book is mentioned in the movie, Stuck in Love, because, if you haven’t seen it, the mother is seen as the bad guy for ruining her marriage to her husband but as the story progresses, you find out how they are both at fault for the things that went wrong. And of course, you only see her story through the other characters POVs and all her big moments happen off screen.
The placement of this book in the movie was so clever and probably the only reason I gave this book any stars lol. Maybe it was just me but the book itself was just not it.
July 19, 2022
Yazarla tanışma kitabım bu toplu öyküleri oldu. Bir de romanını almıştım ama okur muyum ne zaman okurum bilemiyorum. Bazı hikâyelerin içine girmekte çok zorlandım. Çevirmenin diğer çevirilerini beğenerek okuduğum için bu kötü hissi yazara bağlıyorum.
Bazen de çok hoşuma giden bir hikâyeyi olmadık şekilde bitiriveriyordu sanki eksik sayfalar kalmış gibi. 19 öyküden 7'sini beğenmişim yine de iyi bir oran.
Ben insan hikâyelerini okumayı seviyorum, bunu daha iyi anladım. Basit ve sıradan da olsa başkalarına dair bir şeyler okumak hoşuma gidiyor.
"Rüya gören herkes gibi ben de âlim-i mutlaktım; hem onlarla birlikteydim hem dışarıdaydım."
"Bir dünyayı terk edip bir başkasına gelmekle her iki dünyayı da kaybetmişti."
"Mrs. Pastern kırılmıştı, kırgınlığı ta çocukluğundan yankılanıyordu sanki; çocukken yağmurlu günlerde evine gelen arkadaşların ondan hoşlandıkları için değil, kurabiye yemek ve oyuncaklarıyla oynamak için geldiklerini keşfettiğinde kalbi kırılmıştı."
"Bradish, kadının büyüleyici bir gülümsemesi olduğunu ve gülümseme amacına ulaştıktan sonra tıpkı ipliği dişleriyle koparan bir terzi gibi onu dudaklarından koparıp attığını fark etti."
Bazen de çok hoşuma giden bir hikâyeyi olmadık şekilde bitiriveriyordu sanki eksik sayfalar kalmış gibi. 19 öyküden 7'sini beğenmişim yine de iyi bir oran.
Ben insan hikâyelerini okumayı seviyorum, bunu daha iyi anladım. Basit ve sıradan da olsa başkalarına dair bir şeyler okumak hoşuma gidiyor.
"Rüya gören herkes gibi ben de âlim-i mutlaktım; hem onlarla birlikteydim hem dışarıdaydım."
"Bir dünyayı terk edip bir başkasına gelmekle her iki dünyayı da kaybetmişti."
"Mrs. Pastern kırılmıştı, kırgınlığı ta çocukluğundan yankılanıyordu sanki; çocukken yağmurlu günlerde evine gelen arkadaşların ondan hoşlandıkları için değil, kurabiye yemek ve oyuncaklarıyla oynamak için geldiklerini keşfettiğinde kalbi kırılmıştı."
"Bradish, kadının büyüleyici bir gülümsemesi olduğunu ve gülümseme amacına ulaştıktan sonra tıpkı ipliği dişleriyle koparan bir terzi gibi onu dudaklarından koparıp attığını fark etti."
August 25, 2019
Don't ask me why I was reading Cheever at age 13. This is, again, probably one of those books I read at too young an age to thoroughly appreciate it. I was interested in writing my own short stories (and had some of my writing published and had a short story take an "honorable mention" in a national contest by this point) and probably already knew that Cheever is considered a writer's writer. I'm sure that's why I picked this up. I should go back and read more Cheever as an adult, I think.
December 17, 2021
This is the first John Cheever short story that leaves a bad taste or really my mind seems to need to breath some clean air of literature. I am not one that enjoys modern reads and thinks is full of distaste through and through. Story is about a poet who is having some type of crisis. This is all I can say except this is my first 2 stars in ages. I see many gave this high marks, it just shows differences in taste.
May 1, 2025
jbrekkie fmbasw reading list binge 1
theres a very specific style of classic all-american short story that i just cannot click with. im sure theres a lot of merit here and i tended to end each story on a higher note than i spent reading it. save for the last and eponymous story though, which was a clear cut above the rest and and also very obvious what would have been taken and given to the album.
anyway, fine but not sure how tempted ill be to revisit cheever in the future.
theres a very specific style of classic all-american short story that i just cannot click with. im sure theres a lot of merit here and i tended to end each story on a higher note than i spent reading it. save for the last and eponymous story though, which was a clear cut above the rest and and also very obvious what would have been taken and given to the album.
anyway, fine but not sure how tempted ill be to revisit cheever in the future.
August 22, 2025
The Fourth Alarm ~ ★★★★
The Jewels of the Cabots ~ ★★★
Percy ~ ★★★★
Artemis, the Honest Well Digger ~ ★★★
The Chimera ~ ★★★
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin ~ ★★★
Montraldo ~ ★★★★
Three Stories ~ ★★★
The Geometry of Love ~ ★★★
The World of Apples ~ ★★★
The Jewels of the Cabots ~ ★★★
Percy ~ ★★★★
Artemis, the Honest Well Digger ~ ★★★
The Chimera ~ ★★★
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin ~ ★★★
Montraldo ~ ★★★★
Three Stories ~ ★★★
The Geometry of Love ~ ★★★
The World of Apples ~ ★★★
April 30, 2018
Sort of like Raymond Carver crossed with James Thurber. Not at the level of either, but that sets an awfully high bar
June 19, 2021
2 1/2 stars.
March 24, 2024
i guess this is a collection of his stories i'm posting to.
my rating is for the story by that name only.
i didn't like it much. i don't like poetry.
my rating is for the story by that name only.
i didn't like it much. i don't like poetry.
August 13, 2025
i wonder what my belly would have to say
November 3, 2025
S/M Uhoria Cornfield 99CCFF
August 9, 2014
I first read these stories over fifteen years ago as part of The Stories of John Cheever(1980) and I remember being struck by their muted strangeness and a melancholy and pervading sense of middle-class New England alienation and otherness.
Rereading them now, I find myself struggling between giving them three or four stars. I agree with Goodreads´ reviewer Diane Dunning in that the best thing in these stories is Cheever´s prose, which flows serenely on and seems to carry you along effortlessly. Some of these stories now seem to me flimsy and the psychological insights or hintings quite shallow (The World of Apples). Looked at more closely, some of the stories show signs of having been cobbled together from disparate ideas or images (Montraldo) and his half-mocking but stinging studies of unhappy marriages a bit too smug and one-sided (The Chimera, The Geometry of Love). I rather liked his tongue in cheek and quirky Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin with its absurd and almost surreal fantasy about an alienated american expatriate who finds graffiti in the U.S. to be turning from obscenity to sentimentality. I also find one of the editorial reviews to be spot on:
Rereading them now, I find myself struggling between giving them three or four stars. I agree with Goodreads´ reviewer Diane Dunning in that the best thing in these stories is Cheever´s prose, which flows serenely on and seems to carry you along effortlessly. Some of these stories now seem to me flimsy and the psychological insights or hintings quite shallow (The World of Apples). Looked at more closely, some of the stories show signs of having been cobbled together from disparate ideas or images (Montraldo) and his half-mocking but stinging studies of unhappy marriages a bit too smug and one-sided (The Chimera, The Geometry of Love). I rather liked his tongue in cheek and quirky Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin with its absurd and almost surreal fantasy about an alienated american expatriate who finds graffiti in the U.S. to be turning from obscenity to sentimentality. I also find one of the editorial reviews to be spot on:
Innocent, old-fashioned, self-aware, Cheever's people are summoned by strange and improbable events to ponder the values they have been taught to trust...decency, common sense, nostalgia, even truth. Stunned by these encounters, they nevertheless survive.as is Jeffrey Howard´s identification of themes:
He address themes similar to John Updike and John Irving: shadowy desires amid Victorian morals that won't seem to die, normal people who cope with routine life through unsavory fantasies, and alienation from living inauthentic lives dictated to characters by the wider American culture.. In short , in the dappled world of Cheever´s fiction, what you get out of his stories depend a great deal on your vantage point and experience. In the end, still wavering between three and four stars, I tend to endorse Gina´s recommendation:
I would highly recommend this to anyone who was looking for a creative collection of thought-provoking, sometimes dark short stories...
June 17, 2020
1st reading, 2011 or 2012:
Having only read Cheever's The Swimmer (and spurred only by the movie which starred Burt Lancaster), I couldn't resist another bite out of this here apple. One can't help noticing Cheever's consistent choice of adjectives: bellicose, puerile; then there's his constant reference to water and rain. And once again, these pathetic, disillusioned suburban husbands to harridans.
2nd reading, June 2020:
Literally have thousands of books, and maybe a hundred I would love to read again in this lifetime. But I couldn't resist another bite of these apples. It's an eclectic mix of what to me are his favored locales: suburbia (discounting his characters' uncomfortable to hellish situations, his descriptions of the suburbs make me want to live there), plane rides, Italian countryside villas, and the minefield that is his protagonist's mind. Two untitled short stories stand out here, one for its prescience to Stephen King and present-day brand of terror, and the other for its nifty conclusion to an unrequited flirtation onboard a 707.
Having only read Cheever's The Swimmer (and spurred only by the movie which starred Burt Lancaster), I couldn't resist another bite out of this here apple. One can't help noticing Cheever's consistent choice of adjectives: bellicose, puerile; then there's his constant reference to water and rain. And once again, these pathetic, disillusioned suburban husbands to harridans.
2nd reading, June 2020:
Literally have thousands of books, and maybe a hundred I would love to read again in this lifetime. But I couldn't resist another bite of these apples. It's an eclectic mix of what to me are his favored locales: suburbia (discounting his characters' uncomfortable to hellish situations, his descriptions of the suburbs make me want to live there), plane rides, Italian countryside villas, and the minefield that is his protagonist's mind. Two untitled short stories stand out here, one for its prescience to Stephen King and present-day brand of terror, and the other for its nifty conclusion to an unrequited flirtation onboard a 707.
April 24, 2014
Shoulda won an award for highest occurrences of the words "harried" and "demesne" in the space of 150 pages.
Also, "The Geometry of Love," while not necessarily one of Cheever's best stories, does possess one of his best opening lines, maybe one of THE best opening lines to a short story (complete with one of those "one of those"s of which Cheever was so fond):
"It was one of those rainy late afternoons when the toy department of Woolworth's on Fifth Avenue is full of women who appear to have been taken in adultery and who are now shopping for a present to carry home to their youngest child."
Also, "The Geometry of Love," while not necessarily one of Cheever's best stories, does possess one of his best opening lines, maybe one of THE best opening lines to a short story (complete with one of those "one of those"s of which Cheever was so fond):
"It was one of those rainy late afternoons when the toy department of Woolworth's on Fifth Avenue is full of women who appear to have been taken in adultery and who are now shopping for a present to carry home to their youngest child."
December 25, 2016
A friend gave me this book years ago, soon after the collection was published. For some reason I never got around to it until now. I wavered between rating it three stars or four. In the end, I'm giving it four stars, primarily for the quality of Cheever's prose. The stories themselves are uneven, I think. My favorites are probably "Artemis, the Honest Well Digger" and "The Fourth Alarm." From the latter: "I asked for a divorce. She said she saw no reason for a divorce. Adultery and cruelty have well-marked courses of action but what can a man do when his wife wants to appear naked on the stage?" What indeed? But just a typical dilemma for Cheever's characters.
August 14, 2008
A great little book. Of the short stories, my favorites included Artemis, the Honest Well Digger, The Chimera and The World of Apples. I discovered Cheever through a friend who on a road trip was kind enough to share his work with me by graciously reading while I drove one of his short stories entitled The Swimmer.
November 30, 2007
A witty and charming collection of short stories. I bought this from a used book store and found two four-leafed clovers in it. I have read this collection over and over and never tire of the stories.
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