Cheever: a Life

For the first time: the full and unforgettable life of John Cheever (1912-1982), written with unprecedented access to essential sources--including Cheever's massive journal, only a fraction of which has ever been published. Blake Bailey shows us a soul in conflict: a proud Yankee who flaunted his lineage while deploring the provincialism of his Quincy, Massachusetts, family circle; a high school dropout who published his first story at eighteen; a pioneer of suburban realist fiction who continually pushed the boundaries of realism; a dire alcoholic who recovered to write the great novel Falconer; a secret bisexual who struggled with his longings and his fierce homophobia in a revolving door of self-loathing and hedonism. We see a man who concealed his anxieties behind the mask of the genial Westchester squire; the paterfamilias in Brooks Brothers clothes whose world was peopled by legendary writers and beautiful women (Malcolm Cowley, Saul Bellow, William Maxwell, Hope Lange, and John Updike, among them); whose groundbreaking work landed him on the covers of Time and Newsweek; who believed in the power of family love and sexual pleasure; a man whose desperate loneliness was never wholly offset by his faith in the joy of creation. Blake Bailey has written a luminous biography, a revelation of a writer of timeless fiction and of the man behind the work.

About the Author :
Blake Bailey is the editor of a two-volume edition of Cheever's work, published in 2009 by The Library of America. His last book, "A Tragic Honesty, " was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2005, and his articles and reviews have appeared in "Slate, ""The New York Times, "the "New York Observer, " and elsewhere. He lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.

Review :
"A definitive, Dickensian rendering of a complete and complicated life, addictively readable and long overdue . . .Mr. Bailey, with uncommon grace and evenhandedness, tracks Cheever's artistic brilliance amid chronic self-delusion and paranoia." "-The New York Times" "[An] expansive, wonderfully written biography. . . . Unstinting. . . . Bracing. . . . To read Bailey on Cheever is to arrive at a much fuller appreciation of a deeply gifted chronicler of American life." -"Christian Science Monitor"" " "A portrait of the man drawn judiciously but compellingly and in harrowing detail . . . . [a] fine biography." -"Time " "A biography of monumental heft . . . that certifies Cheever's enduring relevance." -"Vanity Fair" "Elegant. . . An insightful, clear-eyed life of the man." -"The Economist " "Bailey's meticulously researched and eminently readable biography of almost 800 pages reveals with great sensitivity and clarity all the details of Cheever's troubled life." -"The Oregonian ""Bailey manages to write with infectious engagement ... A little more than two months prior to his death, Cheever had received the National Medal for Literature, remarking in his acceptance speech that 'A page of good prose remains invincible.' Bailey's biography comes close to that invulnerability."-"New York Post" "Quite successfully sorts out the facts, masks and contradictions of this unique American life." -"Chicago Sun-Times " "Masterful." -"Slate ""Impressive. . . . Finely written. . . . Bailey has done a near-perfect job of making the connections between the man and his masterpieces." -"The Seattle Times" " ""The appearance of Bailey's poised, thorough biography is both timely and corrective . . . Bailey presents his subject in all his contradictory fullness . . . "Cheever: A Life "succeeds by balancing insight, judgment, empathy, and clarity." -"Philadelphia Inquirer" "Fascinating . . . powerfullye "Perhaps a Cheever renaissance of sorts will result from this magnificently understanding and understandable biography based on copious research and destined to be the definitive life treatment . . . Riveting from page 1, this is the literary biography of the season and will be talked about for years to come; it will also, it is hoped, guide readers once again to his distinctive fiction, especially his short stories." -"Booklist" (starred review) "A comprehensive treatment of the tormented but artful life of one of fiction's modern masters . . . Bailey plunges deeply into the murky, sometimes fetid stew of John Cheever's life. . . Superb work that shows Cheever wrestling with dark angels, but wresting from these encounters some celestial prose." -"Kirkus "(starred review) "[An] always entertaining biography, composed with a novelist's eye . . . [Cheever] has probably yet to find a definitive position in American letters among academicians. This thoroughly researched and heartfelt biography may help redress the situation." -"Publishers Weekly " "The most exquisite, compelling and heartbreaking life I've yet encountered. Blake Bailey doesn't merely write like an angel, he "is" an angel-he seamlessly resuscitates the past to make it live and breathe in the present, and he writes with all the power and authority of our finest novelists." -T.C. Boyle, author of "Drop City" "John Cheever was a shopkeeper's son and self-styled aristocrat, a bisexual suburban dad, a legendary drunk, and one of the greatest short story writers of all time. Blake Bailey's masterful and poignant biography reveals the connection between the tormented, perpetually disappointed man and thebrilliant, intuitive artist who illuminated the terrors and yearnings lurking beneath the prosperous surface of Cold War America. Here is Cheever in all his complicated, heartbreaking glory." -Tom Perrotta, author of "Little Children" "An extraordinary book. Bailey captures the man inside the man, perhaps the hardest thing to do. John Cheever lives in this book-the whole complicated, bottomless mess of lonely good cheer and the pain of him . . . And the larger story is here too, that of the terrible price one pays for one's art. It both sustained Cheever and destroyed him. I stayed up all night reading this biography. I couldn't put it down." -Philip Schultz, author of "Failure" "Like Bailey's fine biography of Richard Yates, "Cheever" is full of intelligence, clarity, and kindliness toward its subject, without losing an ounce of judiciousness. It is also deeply and utterly readable, even eloquent. It honors its subject with grace and candor and subtle understanding. A richly rewarding treatment of one of our very best." -Richard Bausch, author of "Peace" "This is pitch-perfect biography-merciless and deeply compassionate in equal parts, psychologically and literarily acute to the nth degree, and beautifully written, without a whiff of cant or pretension. Like its subject, it's by turns heartrending and laugh-out-loud funny." -James Kaplan, author of "Two Guys from Verona"