Product Description

An old man falls violently in love and does valiant battle against unscrupulous polluters in John Cheever's ineffably joyful last novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #554061 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-15
• Released on: 1992-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From the Inside Flap
An old man falls violently in love and does valiant battle against unscrupulous polluters in John Cheever's ineffably joyful last novel.

Customer Reviews

oh what a good start to reading john cheever
This book is only a 100 pages and their is so much in a few words. "She was as women go relatively punctual and He had come to believe that punctuality in engagements was an infallible gauge of sexual spontaneity. He had observed that,without exception, women who were tardy for dinner engagements were unconsciously delayed in their erotic transports and that women who were early for lunch or dinner would sometimes climax in the taxi on the way home." IF you like that passage you will enjoy this book. Read more John Cheever.

Poignant, Beautiful, Truthful ... a bit Preachy
This is lovely Cheever. So few pages, and yet so much substance. A book of great truths told through small details. Understanding the difference between those who would or wouldn't stop to pick blackberries on the shoulder of a massive interstate highway ...

I would often pause and reread a paragraph - amazed that something so insightful could be so relatively insignificant within the context of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in this read of an old man, feuding neighbors, love, dissapointment, insecurity, greed ... and American life.

It's not my place to be glad for Cheever, but I felt a sense of satisfaction for him - for the fact that he got this wonderful work done before he died.

My only critique is that the environmentalist message gets a little too preachy and loses the subtlety a message embedded in a novel should have. Mind you - I have no issue with the message - only with the way it is presented towards the end of the story. But like his main character - Cheever was an old man with a purpose. And if he was desperate for his cause - such that he stepped slightly over the line between fiction and nonfiction ... well for that he should be forgiven.

A worthwhile read, which I read on a rainy evening as suggested. It is now 2:00 am, and the book is back on my shelf. I am only saddened that Cheever left no more stories after this one.

A finely crafted novel by an American master.
Oh, What A Paradise It Seems is John Cheever's last novel, published just before his death in June 1982. It differs from his previous works, which mainly focused on suburban commuters, as it tells the story of an older man, but it still retains Cheever's wit and surrealness. The astonishing thing about this book is how deep the story goes, and yet it is only 100 pages long. It would take other authors 400 pages to write this story. It is, as the first sentence says, "A story to be read in bed in an old house on a rainy night."