there's a terrific Seinfeld subplot where George's fiancé Susan Ross's father had a clandestine affair with Cheever...Larry David was ahead of the curve on this one
Susan's father's cabin burnt down when Kramer left a lit cigar on the mantle above the fireplace. amongst the salvaged remnants were love letters from Cheever to Susan's father, which revealed the tryst
It’s interesting to me that you get through an entire long piece about New Yorker fiction without mentioning Tom Wolfe‘s withering — and hilariously funny — two-part take down of the famous magazine. This is from the collection, “Hooking Up.”
NEW YORKER AFFAIR
Foreword: Murderous Gutter Journalism
Tiny Mummies! The True Story of the Ruler of 43rd Street’s Land of the Walking Dead!
The New Yorker - iconic and in the mid century years the absolute apogee of American-ness. My battered copy of Stories from the New Yorker 1950-1960 contains many of the best. It has survived a recent cull due to downsizing and reminds me of my teenage self over 50 years ago when the world (and these stories) all seemed new.
Btw, have you read "The Trip to Echo Spring" by British writer Olivia Laing.
About six of these famous American writers and their relationship with alcohol and creativity.
Very interesting. I've never read Cheever, except for "The Enormous Radio" -- I'll have to try him.
What was the Shirley Jackson story Angell was rejecting? I know that one of my favorite Jackson stories, "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts", was published in F&SF instead of the New Yorker. (And I know F&SF readers who complain that it's not fantastical!)
I don't keep up as well with the New Yorker's fiction these days as I used to, but I will say that a recent(ish) writer I've enjoyed is Tessa Headley, and I think you could say her stories are Cheeverish -- or New Yorkerish -- except that they're set in England.
I've only read one of those other 1964 New Yorker stories -- "The Vane Sisters", which I think is great. But I love Nabokov in general. I did start "Hapworth 16, 1924" but didn't get very far. I'll probably try it again just to be finished with Salinger. But I subscribe more or less to a common notion, that Salinger started great and got steadily worse. (Maybe not wholly steadily -- the "Franny" part of Franny and Zooey is pretty good. And I should say that Salinger remained pretty readable, at least until "Hapworth".)
Lovely to see such a heartfelt Cheever appreciation. I've read that collection several times. "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well" is probably my favorite. Like Alice Munro, Cheever writes stories that are as expansive as novels. "Goodbye, My Brother" and "Artemis the Honest Well Digger" and "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill" are favorites also. (The first and last ones in that list are first person stories that shine as bright as his typically exquisite third person constructions.) I also love the crazy "The Country Husband."
Just a process question (and maybe I'm missing something obvious or missing a joke)-- why ask ChatGPT to possibly hallucinate a list of stories when you already had a spreadsheet of every story, and could just scroll to the year in question? Is it some kind fo SEO or algorithm thing, where mentioning AI might put the piece in front of more readers?
Apologies for replying to the wrong reply, but substack won't let me see the earlier comment that was linked in the email to this piece. Concerning the size of the dataset, I can see how that would be daunting. I imagine you must not be using excel to open the spreadsheet; when I open it, it's already sorted by date, making it trivial to scroll down to 1961.
Anyway, thank you for the reply. Interesting that people are now attempting to use the Chatbots like real data analysis tools. Perhaps in the next few years, OpenAI will get there in functionality.
Lovely piece on a great, always interesting writer. Still, when I think of a New Yorker story, William Trevor often comes to mind. Trevor published a staggering 46 stories in the magazine during his lifetime, all of them elegant and memorable.
there's a terrific Seinfeld subplot where George's fiancé Susan Ross's father had a clandestine affair with Cheever...Larry David was ahead of the curve on this one
I vaguely remember this episode. It had something to do with one of Cheever's notebooks or journals right?
Susan's father's cabin burnt down when Kramer left a lit cigar on the mantle above the fireplace. amongst the salvaged remnants were love letters from Cheever to Susan's father, which revealed the tryst
Larry David used to date Richard Yates's daughter. One episode featured Elaine's dad, who is supposedly based on Yates.
It’s interesting to me that you get through an entire long piece about New Yorker fiction without mentioning Tom Wolfe‘s withering — and hilariously funny — two-part take down of the famous magazine. This is from the collection, “Hooking Up.”
NEW YORKER AFFAIR
Foreword: Murderous Gutter Journalism
Tiny Mummies! The True Story of the Ruler of 43rd Street’s Land of the Walking Dead!
Lost in the Whichy Thickets: The New Yorker
fine…but tom Wolfe is far and away the most celebrated awful American author from the last century
The novels are a very mixed bag. Bonfire was terrific, others less so. I think the New Journalism stuff is great. Radical Chic, Mauve Gloves etc
The two essays are called:
“Tiny Mummies! The True Story of the Ruler of 43rd Street’s Land of the Walking Dead.”
And
“Lost in the Whichy Thickets”
The New Yorker - iconic and in the mid century years the absolute apogee of American-ness. My battered copy of Stories from the New Yorker 1950-1960 contains many of the best. It has survived a recent cull due to downsizing and reminds me of my teenage self over 50 years ago when the world (and these stories) all seemed new.
Btw, have you read "The Trip to Echo Spring" by British writer Olivia Laing.
About six of these famous American writers and their relationship with alcohol and creativity.
"The novels just feel like...like...like a guy was trying to write a novel."
This line made me laugh so hard for some reason. Alright, I'll read his stories and give the novels a pass. You've sold me on this guy.
i have not read much Cheever, but you and Chabon's recent mentions of him have me convinced I'm missing out.
i read a short story by him recently and I see a lot of myself in it. and the middle class themes you've described are really my whole thing.
this will sound gauche but if you like Cheever, check out my stuff. it's clear to me i'm a sort of Millienial-ized Cheever without an editor.
Very interesting. I've never read Cheever, except for "The Enormous Radio" -- I'll have to try him.
What was the Shirley Jackson story Angell was rejecting? I know that one of my favorite Jackson stories, "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts", was published in F&SF instead of the New Yorker. (And I know F&SF readers who complain that it's not fantastical!)
I don't keep up as well with the New Yorker's fiction these days as I used to, but I will say that a recent(ish) writer I've enjoyed is Tessa Headley, and I think you could say her stories are Cheeverish -- or New Yorkerish -- except that they're set in England.
I've only read one of those other 1964 New Yorker stories -- "The Vane Sisters", which I think is great. But I love Nabokov in general. I did start "Hapworth 16, 1924" but didn't get very far. I'll probably try it again just to be finished with Salinger. But I subscribe more or less to a common notion, that Salinger started great and got steadily worse. (Maybe not wholly steadily -- the "Franny" part of Franny and Zooey is pretty good. And I should say that Salinger remained pretty readable, at least until "Hapworth".)
Lovely to see such a heartfelt Cheever appreciation. I've read that collection several times. "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well" is probably my favorite. Like Alice Munro, Cheever writes stories that are as expansive as novels. "Goodbye, My Brother" and "Artemis the Honest Well Digger" and "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill" are favorites also. (The first and last ones in that list are first person stories that shine as bright as his typically exquisite third person constructions.) I also love the crazy "The Country Husband."
Just a process question (and maybe I'm missing something obvious or missing a joke)-- why ask ChatGPT to possibly hallucinate a list of stories when you already had a spreadsheet of every story, and could just scroll to the year in question? Is it some kind fo SEO or algorithm thing, where mentioning AI might put the piece in front of more readers?
I thought the AI would use my spreadsheet as a source. Whoops! Still have to learn more about prompt engineering.
Apologies for replying to the wrong reply, but substack won't let me see the earlier comment that was linked in the email to this piece. Concerning the size of the dataset, I can see how that would be daunting. I imagine you must not be using excel to open the spreadsheet; when I open it, it's already sorted by date, making it trivial to scroll down to 1961.
Anyway, thank you for the reply. Interesting that people are now attempting to use the Chatbots like real data analysis tools. Perhaps in the next few years, OpenAI will get there in functionality.
Richard Yates never published in The New Yorker. Dr. Jack-O-Lantern appeared in his collection "eleven Kinds Of Loneliness."
Lovely piece on a great, always interesting writer. Still, when I think of a New Yorker story, William Trevor often comes to mind. Trevor published a staggering 46 stories in the magazine during his lifetime, all of them elegant and memorable.
Naomi-
Have you read Mavis Gallant? Big New Yorker author with a terrific collection. Some great stuff there.