Drinking: Vintage Minis

by John Cheever

What’s the worst another drink could do? In this dispiritedly sobering book, John Cheever pours out our most sociable of vices, and hands it to us in a highball. From the calculating teenager who raids her parents’ liquor cabinet, only to drown her sorrows in it, to the suburban swimmer withering away with every plunge he takes, these are stories suffused with beauty, sadness, and the gathering storm of a bender well-done. Seen through the gin-lacquered looking glass of Cheever’s writing, your next drink may have you reaching for a lime and soda instead.

Selected from the book Collected Stories by John Cheever

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

Also in the Vintage Minis series:
Death by Julian Barnes
Eating by Nigella Lawson
Psychedelics by Aldous Huxley
Calm by Tim Parks

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics

ebook

First published June 1, 2017

About the author

John 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.

Reviews

[Beth Bonini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate that hackneyed expression 'It does exactly what is says on the tin', but it seems to apply here. As stated in the title, drinking - and in most cases, this means gin; and in all cases, way too much of it - is the subject matter of this beautifully curated selection of John Cheever stories. Classic Cheever, but also classic examples of how to construct a neat short story and sew it up tightly at the end.

Cheever, like his contemporary John Updike, was associated with post-war New York City and its suburbs. The New Yorker magazine, commuting into the city, martini lunches, tennis, golf and sailing, the moneyed middle classes. Nostalgia and melancholy with just a whiff of introspection, like a splash of vermouth in your gin. Cheever is more than aware of that nostalgia, and despises it even though he seems to venerate it, too.

I had read most of these stories before, although long ago - and by long ago, I mean 30 years ago. They still seemed crisply familiar, especially 'The Sorrows of Gin' and 'Swimming', and so tightly constructed. It's been a while since I've read any Cheever and I admired his clarity and simplicity - especially when compared to his far more verbose contemporaries (Updike, Roth, Bellow).

Of course these stories explore a fairly narrow range, but as stated in the title, they are supposed to.
3.5 stars

[Alyssa Shapland · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Cheever is a very interesting character and I do genuinely enjoy his writing. This collection of short stories had the general theme of drinking. Somewhere in each story was a reference to how alcohol can change things, whether that be relationships or personalities. Given Cheever's own addiction to alcohol, these stories felt very personal and I really enjoyed them.

[Jeff Swystun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Minis are clever packaging for a new series from PenguinRandomHouse. A way for the PRH to recycle, expose and re-introduce their titles to a broader audience. The books and contents are indeed tiny by most standards. Cheever’s ode to drinking is six stories covering 118 pages. Other in the series include Marcel Proust on Jealousy, Salman Rushdie on Home, Virginia Woolf on Liberty, Joseph Heller on Work, and William Styron on Depression.

Suffice it to say, this is not necessarily an uplifting series given the topics. However, the quality and value are undeniable. The authors and their work is superlative and the price is equivalent to a latte at Starbucks…or a Happy Hour cocktail.

I had read all of these tales before in other Cheever collections. Yet, I appreciated the editor’s choice for inclusion. Most of his tales involve drinking in liberal amounts so winnowing it down would have taken effort (and a couple of scotches, no doubt).

The Sorrows of Gin – where one finds home is both comfort and hell in equal measure. Cheever nails the fact that America and its families have been lubricated by booze for decades making the act and ritual of drinking hard to avoid. It has become a socialized form of personal armour, a means of fending off all that ails, while all the time, creating new ails.

Goodbye My Brother – covers the conflict in family and the danger of reveling in nostalgia and tradition. It also shows the strange power of family to drag all down to the lowest common denominator rather than lifting the collective to shared heights.

Reunion – ah, Reunion. My favourite short story. Just 821 words, it packs a punch in its exploration of our inability to choose family and how we insulate ourselves from disappointments that happened or may happen. I have read it perhaps 30 times (and listened to podcast readings of the story). Sympathies and identification flow to the son in the tale but I challenge you to read it from the father’s perspective.

The Swimmer – is dark and no doubt plumbed from the depths of Cheever’s own despair over success, money, standings, and trappings. The main character is nearly mythological in his quest while the ending skewers the plastic world of suburban America.

The Scarlet Moving Van – I have known a few Gee-Gees in my time (I hope that I never become one). There is a fine-line between jovial and entertaining drunk and an embarrassing mess. That line may be one more vodka martini. It is a story of how drink can make you a nomad.

O Youth and Beauty – here Cheever explores the loss of potential or the perception that one should be doing better in life. It is a lesson for those holding to past glory or those that possess entitlement or unreal expecation (how many of you have your hand up, right now?). Kudos to anyone who can explain why he chose “O” over “Oh” in the title.

This is a smart series from PRH but cooler would have been picking a topic like Drinking but then take stories from different authors on the subject. Richard Yates and John Carver have more than a few intoxicating stories that could have fit nicely into such a collection.

Shameless plug - I wrote a short story called, A Day with John Cheever. It is drawn from his own works and biography. Give it a read and an honest review. Cheers!

[diario_de_um_leitor_pjv · Rating 4 out of 5]

COMENTÁRIO
⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Drinking"
John Cheever

Este é um bom livro para alertarmos para um tema difícil: o alcoolismo e efeitos na saúde pessoal e nas interacções sociais.
Na sociedade portuguesa o consumo excessivo de bebidas alcoólicas é um problema grave. É também um exemplo de um país em que determinadas práticas sócio-culturais mascaram o real problema do alcoolismo.

Bem, a verdade é que este pequeno volume de contos, editado na coleção Vintage Minis da Penguin, da autoria de John Cheever nos apresenta um curioso conjunto de textos que problematizam de de modo diverso está temática.

Partindo da descrição, muitas vezes detalhada, do quotidiano dos subúrbios do nordeste do EUA, Cheever mostra o efeitos do alcoolismo nas relações familiares e sociais. Os contos "Goodbye, my brother" e "The scarlet moving van" são exempos paradigmáticos de família e comunidades destruídas pelo consumo excessivo de álcool.

Gostava de destacar o primeiro conto do volume "The sorrows of gin", história em que uma jovem adolescente qual heroína deita fora o álcool das garrafas tentando evitar que o país se embebede.

Na verdade este pequeno volume é um exemplo magistral do trabalho como contista de John Cheever. Mas é também um exemplo interessante em que o autor fala de si próprio e da sua longa luta contra o alcoolismo, batalha que venceu definitivamente quando em 1975 deixou de consumir.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d read The Swimmer before, because it’s one of those classic great short stories everyone is supposed to have read. These are all good stories, and the alcohol content of all of them is clear and, mostly, negative. Goodbye, My Brother is the one I keep thinking about. All the characters over the various stories are quite similar, as are their settings for the most part. Good stories, though, still very different from each other and the prose, of course, is masterfully high quality.

[Merve Kondu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this book 4 stars because of the two stories called the swimmer and the scarlet moving van. I like them both. And this book is one of the best among those vintage minis that I’ve read so far.

[Matthew Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I acquired this book, but the about the author on the inside cover tells me he won many literary awards and his story The Swimmer was turned into a film staring Burt Lancaster. Cheever struggled with alcohol his whole life, first with an alcoholic father and then his own alcoholism.

The short stories in this vintage mini explore the relationships that suburban people have with alcohol, when used as an escape from life, a way to self medicate or when it becomes an addiction and the effects, stresses and strains and consequences it has upon their lives and the lives of those around them.

I think it's strange to say I enjoyed this, as it's definitely very dark and morbid in parts but each story is curious and intriguing in it's own way and I think most people who enjoy a tipple will find at least one story they relate to if only slightly.

Cheever has a unique ability to create empathy for his characters in the shortest of spaces, and a consistent melancholy overtone which encouraged me to keep going til the end. Definitely an experience.

[Paarth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drinking by John Cheever is a novel exploring drinking and how it affects us. Throughout the book, there are different stories all of which have people who enjoy the occasional or sometimes more, drink.


In my opinion, this book was informative and is definitely going to keep me from drinking. Having said that, I am 14 and not of legal drinking age. Furthermore, while reading the book I discovered that the novel was for people recovering from being an alcoholic or trying to get sober. Personally, I believe I enjoyed the last story the best because I love it when a book ends with someone dying. In conclusion, the book is pretty great if one is struggling to quit or is trying to recover from an addiction to alcohol but not for someone who wants to read something entertaining and exciting.

[Praveen SR · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first taste of John Cheever was through the story 'The Swimmers' which I listened to in the New Yorker fiction podcast. Now, as someone with quite a bad memory, I tend to forget stuff that I have read even yesterday. But the imagery from 'Swimmers' still remains fresh in mind. It is not just due to my own swimming addiction and the occasional habit of drinking, both of which are part of the story, but the rush of feelings that it evokes.

A man sitting by the swimming pool of one of his friends, with a hand around a glass of gin, thinks that he could reach his home by water by swimming through a string of swimming pools. "He was not a practical joker nor was he a fool but he was determinedly original and had a vague and modest idea of himself as a legendary figure," Cheever tells the readers perplexed by this outlandish idea. The journey through the pools turns into quite an odyssey, with him passing the hedges and sheds between the pools and getting caught up in parties or invitations from neighbourhood friends to stay for a drink, with him getting anxious not to get stuck in conversations that would delay his voyage.

He keeps getting drinks on the way, just like the people in all stories in this collection, written around the art and helpless habit of drinking. The man swims across the county, finds one of the pools emptied and dry and wonders when was the last time he got an invitation to a party from the family, gets stuck at a traffic signal, gets jeered at and even wades through a chlorine-filled public pool. The joyful swim gets sadder with every passing pool, revealing bits and pieces of his broken life and ends with a gut-wrenching revelation. I happened to read the whole book, swimming in the air, on a long flight across parcels of lands owned by people of various colours and languages and across countries, while holding a drink in my hand. On a re-read of this story, I felt that 'The Swimmers' is probably one of the pinnacles of the art of short story writing.

The stories in this collection do not necessarily celebrate drinking, but some are even cautionary talks against its excesses. For instance, in 'The Sorrows of Gin', young Amy is faced with her father's drinking problem. In 'The Scarlet Moving Van', a family which has moved eight times in eight years due to the drunkard husband's antics lands in a township, where life is too comfortable and tranquil. The man's unusual calmness and friendliness during the daytime confounds the victims of his drunken antics. "I've got to teach them," he says every time he is about to unleash his destructive behaviour of breaking things, stripping down or singing. His long suffering wife who still soldiers on in the memory of their great early days. The drunkard used to be an advocate for the lame, the diseased, the poor, for those who through no fault of theirs live out their lives in misery and pain. To the happy and the wellborn and the rich, he had this to say- for all their privileges, they would not be spared the pangs of anger and lust and the agonies of death. He only meant for them to be prepared when the blow fell.

The fact that Cheever as well as his father struggled with alcoholism lends this story an added emotional depth. Reunion is another of the standout stories in the collection, in which an underage boy is meeting his father after a long time and for the last time at a train station. Both of them go in and out of bars in the area as they refuse to serve due to the father's irritable behaviour. 'O youth a beauty' has a unique drinking game, in which two friends would after drinking rearrange all the furniture in whichever house they are drinking, to organise a hurdle race.

Drinking is a relatively slim volume, but holds within itself profound stories of humans whose time worn faces and whiskey-worn eyes peer at us from the pages.

[Nakshatra · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙗𝙮 𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣 𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 - is an interesting take on the human sociable vice of 'drinking' through 6 humorous yet heart-touching stories. Through tales that smell of bourbon, are gin laced, and have a touch of sherry and wine - Cheever poses a question to the readers,
What's the worst, another drink could do?

The titles in the book are -
🥃 The Sorrows of Gin - Little Amy has seen her father get all cheerful after a round of gin. Will Amy understand and resolve Mr. Lawton's relationship with gin!

🍸Goodbye, my Brother - Lawrence has some sort of estrangement with his family. Is it because of a past episode or is it just his saturnine nature.

🥂 Reunion - Charlie met his father in a long while and a little treat of two Gibson Beefeaters was quite a circus for him.

🍺 The Swimmer - Neddy Merrill decides to swim across the county one day. But his act of swimming is a metaphor for life.

🍷 The Scarlet Moving Van - Marple house has new residents Gee Gee and Peaches. Who are they and what's with Gee Gee's boozy guardian angel!

🍹 O Youth and Beauty - Through the lives of the Bentleys, the reader is faced with the crisis of middle- years in life.

My favourite has to 'The Swimmer'. It's a beautiful story that represents the act of swimming as a metaphor for the journey of life, and a choice between reality and fantasy.

[tee]

dnf @ 30% I just can’t carry this into the new year even though I did like what I read of it. Saving my best paragraph—
“The girl […] touched him as it was in her power to touch him only when she seemed helpless or when she was very sick. Someone had walked over his grave! He shivered with longing, he felt his skin coarsen as when, driving home late and alone, a shower of leaves on the wind crossed the beam of his headlights, liberating him for a second at the most from the literal symbols of his life – the buttonless shirts, the vouchers and bank statements, the order blanks, and the empty glasses. He seemed to listen – God knows for what. Commands, drums, the crackle of signal fires, the music of the glockenspiel – how sweet it sounds on the Alpine air – singing from a tavern in the pass, the honking of wild swans; he seemed to smell the salt air in the churches of Venice. Then, as it was with the leaves, the power of her figure to trouble him was ended; his gooseflesh vanished. He was himself. Oh, why should she want to run away? Travel – and who knew better than a man who spent three days of every fortnight on the road – was a world of overheated plane cabins and repetitious magazines, where even the coffee, even the champagne, tasted of plastics. How could he teach her that home sweet home was the best place of all?”

[Janelle Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

70: Drinking...by John Cheever. I picked up this book in the wonderfully full Borri Books, the international bookstore in Rome, Italy's Termini. I was on a mission to buy a few meaningful books in each country on this summer's tour, and by the time we got to Rome I had to truly budget size and space and weight that any purchases would take up in my suitcase for the ride home. So I picked up this little volume, a small collection of literarily trusted John Cheever's works, these all connected to drinking, which was also connected widely to John Cheever. In fact, reading this collection prompted me to do further research on Cheever, as it made me wonder whether these stories had other autobiographical elements. That prompted my reading a lengthy excerpt from Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey detailing the real sadness of Cheever's drinking troubles and its cause of his teaching career spiraling. I cannot say that this was--any part of it, really--a feel-good read of any kind. However, I'm not disappointed to have read it.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

What we have here is a collection of short stories about drinking by an alcoholic, so perhaps it’s no surprise that I enjoyed them. John Cheever’s writing style doesn’t necessarily feel unique, but it does wash over you and it greets you like an old friend.

My only real quibble here is that a few of the stories seemed to meander on for too long without having any real end goal in sight. But then, in many ways that reflects what it’s like to be a drunk, I guess. And the man could write, so it’s hard to grumble too much. And overall, I definitely liked it.

[Haya Dodokh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s no doubt that Cheever is a good writer and have extraordinary skills but the most of the stories seemed to meander on for too long without having any real end goal in sight, but maybe that’s the point, because it reflects what it’s like to be drunk?!
I don’t know, I’m lost!
So if that’s what he tried to accomplish  he deserves 5 stars, if not then it’s not my cup of tea .
But I definitely loved the reunion and the swimmer.

[Juan Pinilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quality literature in a time when many lost for clues American made drinking a necessary complement in their living. These days I have also reread some Carver short stories. Same time, same references, and drinking also very present, but of course Carver and Cheever write in different styles, even if characters and the surrounding world are quite similar. In this Minis collection, a very easy, but dense with content and style, reading.

[Batool · Rating 3 out of 5]

John once wrote “write what you know” and who would know about drinking and Gin than the man who struggled with alcoholism?
Short stories all centered around drinking and a lot of problems to accompany it.
The last two stories were the best, i like the the most.
Overall was a good introduction to John’s writings.
And it’s kind of an irony that i read this book sitting in a bar.

[Rosa Brunbauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must start by saying that I enjoy Cheevers writing tremendously. It has a sober (pun intended) tone and beautifully displays frustrated characters. However, this book was quite repetitive, which might even add to the sentiments of frustration. Good start to his writing, won't read this one again, but I might pick up a more elaborate novel of his soon.

[Carol Masciola · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short book of short stories about drinkers, drinking, and at the agony of it all. My favorite was the swimmer, about a man (an alcoholic, in fact) who decides to go home from a party by swimming through all the neighbors' pools between where he is and his home. Great prose.

[Suad Shamma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were good, some stories were confusing, some stories I couldn't quite make the connection with the topic of the book - drinking.

There's no denying Cheever's extraordinary writing skills, but it was a bit of a toss up for me with this collection of stories.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a lovely set of Vintage Minis years ago, forgot about them, and finally found them again during the move last year. Given the state of things, "Drinking" seemed an appropriate start. I haven't read Cheever in years, but it was a welcome reminder of what a near-perfect story can be.

[Cliodhna Ni Ghadhra · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may not feel like picking up the bottle during this one.

[bedejong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminded me a bit of John Irving's books. I liked it! What a pleasure to read. Will look up more from this author.

[William Weir · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Swimmer is a wonderful short story. The others in this collection are a mixed bag.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooh, I am glad I quit drinking before I read it.

[Ikembe Brew Har-Har · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, dripping with gregarious characters, gin and sorrow. Cracking read.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad stories of alcohol drinking.

[Kiyoko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weirdly, I kinda like these short stories, maybe because I felt the similar when seeing someone I known look hateful, stupid in their druken state

[Nick Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

[Ludovico Sforza]

Una selección de cuentos de Cheever con el alcohol como tema principal o secundario. Cheever (como buen alcohólico) no se interesa en crear escenarios especialmente crudos o personajes especialmente destruidos, sino que pone el foco en comunidades pudientes que juegan al tenis, en matrimonios felices que celebran fiestas en clubes náuticos los fines de semana; y en cómo el alcohol se va colando entre sus rituales, cómo va ganando espacio en sus vidas conforme su ficción del American way of life se empieza a resquebrajar.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories by Cheever focusing on the element of drinking in some case or another was a real treat that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. I thoroughly enjoyed each story and the varying length for each was also refreshing. Unlike other reviews, I did not feel that these stories dragged on but that's maybe because the longest of the stories ("Goodbye, My Brother") was my favorite.

Don't get me wrong, this book will make you want to set down the bottle for a bit and is a bit of a bummer, but each story was interesting and different in their approaches to the damages that drinking can cause and it never felt stale. This coupled with the knowledge of Cheever's own alcohol struggles made each story a bit more poignant.