784 pages of homosexuality, alcoholism and solipsism: how could “Cheever: A Life” get any better?
The New Yorker reviews the Cheever bio (written by Blake Bailey) under the condemning-by-faint-praise title “Basically Decent,” which serves for both man and book, I suppose. Also, the byline is John Updike. Perhaps his last review?
Harper’s Magazine (behind a subscriber wall) attacks the reductionary reading that Cheever was protesting against the conformity of suburban life.
BookForum: “Cheever took out a mortgage on a life he could never repay.”
The Los Angeles Times offers a summary of complaints about Cheever:
Norman Mailer dismissed him as apolitical; John Updike, perhaps too politely, admired him as a stylist. It was the younger writers like Moody who twisted themselves into paroxysms of isms, using Cheever to prove their cleverness.
One thought on “Cheever Mania”
I’ve read that this is Updike’s last contribution to the New Yorker.