Status Updates From Wykształcona Amerykanka

Finished "A Vision of the World."... you know when an author thinks very highly of themselves and writes a story that they think is the key to solving everything but ends up being complete nonsense... I never thought I'd say this but I miss the infidelity.

Finished "Marito in Citta." I'm not sure what it is about Cheever with his fascination with the Italian or adultery in this book, but damn there's sure a lot of it in here.

Finished "Just One More Time." Short, nothing really to talk about; it was what it was.

Finished "The Seaside Houses." I can see why this is considered one of his most well-acclaimed ones. I'll let this one sit with me a bit before I ultimately rank it, but it's good.

Finished "The Music Teacher." So I'm to understand this is one of Cheever's more collected stories, along with "The Swimmer." I think the latter is better; this one had an air of chauvinism that I couldn't abide by.

Finished "Chaste Clarissa." It was a nice little story, not much more to say otherwise.

Did a twofer tonight: "A Woman Without a Country" and "Reunion." Neither one are particularly cheerful, though that's not necessarily a detractor. I liked "Woman Without Country" more than "Reunion;" the latter rubbed me the wrong way, adhering close to themes I find in my own work.

Finished "Clementina." A bit of an odd one, it felt very fairytale-like.

Finished "The Bella Lingua." I definitely felt for Kate Dresser with this one, she's probably the most sympathetic character in any of these Cheever stories.

Finished "Metamorphoses." This one might be my favorite so far, but that could be that I'm a sucker for modernized reimaginings of classic tales (these being all from Ovid's Metamorphoses. I think, in order, the stories were Actaeon and Diana, Orpheus and Eurydice, Daphne? (this one I'm not as sure of, I know it sounds familiar, someone being turned into a pond), and Midas. Good stuff though!

Finished "An Educated American Woman." This one just kinda depressed me, I dunno about it.

Finished "The Angel of the Bridge." This was a bit of a surprise for me, but I quite liked this one. Maybe the character's eccentricities appealed to me--being somewhat prone to irrational fears myself--but whatever the reason, it was fun.

Finished the title story, "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow." I have to imagine this was some sort of satire on cold war sensibilities but it's covered in a surreal haze.

Doing these a bit out of order at the moment, finished "The Swimmer", as the film version's on WatchTCM right now... what the hell did I just read?