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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Time and Place in John Cheever's Stories


Slowly coming to the end of the long journey that has been the Stories of John Cheever. Cheever takes his readers to a unique place in space and time that may feel incredibly foreign to New Mexico readers-- a land of servants, summer houses, elite boarding schools and malcontent, stay-at-home wives.

It's been fun imagining how these stories were told if they were about New Mexicans instead of New Yorkers. What would be different? A cabin in the Jemez would have such a different feel than the rental in "The Seaside Houses" but it's just as easy to imagine how such a cabin would embody the failed hopes and dreams of the family that owned it.

What would be different in these stories if the characters and settings were New Mexican? Would they be more hopeful overall or are the kinds of people and situations that Cheever writes about more universal?

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