John Cheever’s CollectedStories, first awarded thePulitzer Prize for Fiction in1979, is a magnificent,inspiring collection, andone that has resolutelystood the test of time.Spanning from his earliestwritings in the mid 1940s to the late1970s,* Collected Stories* features Cheever’smost iconic works, including ‘TheSwimmer’, ‘The Enormous Radio’, and‘The Country Husband’. These storiesplumb the depths of human experienceand have rightfully earned Cheever thetitle ‘Chekhov of the suburbs.’ And yet,for all his accolades, John Cheever(1912–82) faded from critical attentionafter his death. It wasn’t until 1991, withthe publication of the scandalous TheJournals of John Cheever (also available inVintage Classic, PB, $12.95) that his reputationunderwent significant revision.Here, his public persona was so brutallycontrasted with his private – hithertodepicted as wry, conservative and monogamousman; the journals instead portrayedCheever as plagued by chronic alcoholism.He struggled, too, with acceptance of hisbisexuality, for which he consistentlyblamed his long-suffering wife, Mary.

All this biographical stuff naturally complicatesthe way you read him. Was hean essentially good yet brooding chap, oran adulterous, misogynous tyrant? You’llneed to read The Journals to decide on thatyourself – and ultimately, it would be ashame if it clouded your opinion. Becausethe man, as horrible as he sounded, canwrite, and there remains such a thrillingsense of anticipation when cracking openthe Cheever spine – as if delving intosomething fresh and cool and profound.Never has a writer so poignantly capturedthe tedium of the American suburbs.Like his contemporary Richard Yates,Cheever’s fiction dwells largely in thedomestic, exploring life in mid-twentiethcentury America, and it is located mostlyin the Upper East Side and the suburbs ofWestchester. We read about families holidayingin ski lodges, home renovations,servants and parties; characters recur. Theyare ordinary folk, with ordinary feelings –yet something larger and more damagingfesters in them: loneliness and helplessness.There is such aching beauty in thesetales, so sad and authentic. And beneaththe surface of sparse, neat prose seethesother kinds of compelling desire: forescape, for the more generous times in thepast, and for the climax of confined rageand corruption.

For me, the stand-outs are ‘The Sorrowsof Gin’ and ‘The Swimmer’. ‘The Sorrowsof Gin’ is a short tale, told fromthe perspective of a little girl, Amy. Herparents are upper-middle class and like toattend parties – they both enjoy a tipple.The family employs a cook, Rosemary,who it later transpires has a severe drinkingproblem. Amy’s father has a drinkingproblem of his own – he needs severaldrinks in the evening before he softens:‘At last,’ Amy thinks, relieved, ‘he ishappy.’ And ‘The Swimmer’, Cheever’smost famous and most anthologised story,remains awe-inspiring in its casual, cruelcritique of bourgeois America, chroniclingthe Narcissus-like Neddy Merrill’s bizarrequest to swim across all the swimmingpools in his neighbourhood.

Rebecca Starford is editor of Kill YourDarlings