Lighting Candles in the Vale of Tears

John and Mary Cheever

John Cheever once flippantly stated that "Everything I write is autobiographical." While this is clearly not true, he does draw deeply from his own troubled life, from his childhood to his "intolerable" marriage. 

Even if you haven't read Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey, take the time to read this fantastic article from the London Review of Books. The puzzles of the stories become clear, from the desperation of the husbands afraid of intellectual wives to the pettiness of suburbanites competing for social status, not to mention the alcoholism, the uncaring sexuality, and the cold relationships between parents and their children (of his own son Federico, Cheever wrote, "I have no freedom from him").

After reading this article, you may be inspired to pick up his biography after all. Can it be possible that the story of John Cheever is even more compelling than the Stories of John Cheever?

Click here for Colm Toibin's review