Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey

In this monumental, masterful, and, at nearly 800 pages, mammoth biography, Blake Bailey (author of A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates) turns his attention to John Cheever, "the Chekhov of the suburbs," and his storied, celebrated, and deeply tortured life. Written with compassion and the full cooperation of Cheever's widow, Mary, and their three children, Cheever is rich with detail and chronicles the mournful arc of a lifetime struggling with a core duplicity that ached throughout his writing life--despite a 41-year marriage, Cheever was a closeted bisexual who simmered with self-loathing. With full access to Cheever's rich journals, Bailey covers the author's childhood, his time in the army, his life as a writer and his literary rivals (Salinger, in particular, seemed to irritate him), his alcoholism (he would struggle against taking that first "scoop" of gin from the pantry every morning while he was writing), and his struggle to play the role of suburban family man. The book is peppered with literary cameos: Updike, Bellow, and Roth are there, along with his Iowa Writers' Workshop students T.C. Boyle, Ron Hansen, and Allan Gurganus. (While at Iowa, Cheever made it a weekly ritual to watch Monday Night Football and eat homemade pasta with fellow instructor John Irving.) Bailey also edited two Library of America editions of Cheever's stories and novels, published to coincide with his biography. This literary hat trick is about to spark a well-deserved Cheever renaissance honoring his legacy as an American master. --Brad

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