Product Description

In a nightmarish prison a convict named Farragut struggles to remain a man. Out of Farragut's suffering and astonishing salvation, Cheever crafted his most powerful work of fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143181 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-15
• Released on: 1992-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Publisher
7 1-hour cassettes

From the Inside Flap
In a nightmarish prison a convict named Farragut struggles to remain a man. Out of Farragut's suffering and astonishing salvation, Cheever crafted his most powerful work of fiction.

About the Author
John Cheever (1912-1982) was born in Quincy, Massachussetts. During a writing career which spanned forty years, John Cheever won a National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and an American Book Award. His titles include The Stories of John Cheever and Oh What A Paradise It Seems. A.M. Homes is the author of several novels and a collection of stories. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, she also writes for Art Forum, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Among her many awards are Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships. She lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

Newsweek called Falconer "A Great American Novel" . . .
. . . and I agree! As implausible as it sounds, Cheever achieved literary greatness in a prison novel with its central character a college professor and murderer who is also a heroin addict and a guilty, closeted homosexual. "Oh Farragut, Farragut, why is you an addict?" asks his guard, and through flashback and reminiscence we learn how and why. One of those rare books that takes place largely in the mind but is truly gripping--and the Attica-like prison Farragut is confined to holds a few surprises of its own. It is hard to overpraise "Falconer." Honestly, if you don't like this book you don't like modern American fiction.

Not the Cheever you expect but fine for all that
I came to this book recently after a period of reading basically junk, so I may have liked it much better than otherwise because it was so superior to the low rent popular fiction I had been consuming. Much bleaker than I would have expected of Cheever, this story follows a man imprisoned for murder who must come to terms with how totally his life has changed. Slow paced and thorough, the 'plot' occurs more in the actions of the protagonist's mind than in the external world of the prison, yet maintains its hold on the reader.

One aspect of the story that stood out for me was the matter of fact way in which the protagonist takes a same sex lover, explaining how important real human contacts - physical and otherwise - were to maintaining sanity. I think these scenes are both believable and understandable to the most heterosexual of readers. A further testiment to Cheever's talent as a writer.

I can't say that this is a pleasant book. But it kept my interest till the end, and I haven't been able to really put the book behind me. On the other hand, I couldn't even tell you the titles of the other books I was reading at this time.

Dark story of modern punishment and redemption
For readers compeled by Cheever's recurring themes throughout his short stories probing dysfunctional suburban middle-class families this book won't disappoint. But here, Cheever turns his attention to a heroin-addict named Ezekiel Farragut imprisoned at Falconer, a grey obsolescent "correctional facility," for fratricide. Deeply critical of modern forms of punishment, and drawing on his own experiences as teacher at Sing-Sing in the 70s, Cheever depicts a plutonian world of iron and concrete and dripping pipes where the forgotten and forgettable are kept behind bars, their humanity supressed and marginalized. Ezekiel, or Zeke, comes from a genteel family fractured after a reversal of fortunes that closely resembles Cheever's own family and childhood. The story of Zeke's wayward brother, his gas attendant mother and disconnected father deftly weaves in and out of his year-long death in Falconer and finally his gripping and unexpected rebirth, somewhat reminiscent of a modern Crime and Punishment. In spite of the book's difficult subject matter, the dark sides of humanity and society and relentless dealings with hopeless characters and rather sordid scenes, Cheever succeeds in drawing in his captive reader and forces us to ask tough questions about ourselves and the retributive society we live in. An important read, but not for the fainthearted!