New Cheever Story
At the L.A. Times book blog, Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg reports that a long-neglected short story by John Cheever is being republished online this week, at Five Chapters. “Of Love: A Testimony” was originally released in 1943, but has not been anthologized or reprinted since. Here is its opening line:
He was as good a representative of his class as you could find, born in a staid suburb, educated in mediocre schools, firmly grounded in the cynicism of his class and education.
In its aim to immediately situate the protagonist within a specific class and education level, it reminds me a bit of the opening line to another Cheever story, “The Enormous Radio”:
Jim and Irene Wescott were the kind of people who seem to strike that satisfactory average of income, endeavor, and respectability that is reached by the statistical reports in college alumni bulletins.
At any rate, any Cheever story is a treat, so I look forward to reading this one. It will appear in five installments. Here is the first.
