At the story's end Jack accuses Joan of being a crow, who comes into feed on the sick and dying. I read this story in American Fantastic Tales and it took me quite a few pages before I began to see how it fit into this book. Why was it a fantastic story because it many ways it read like a typical Cheever story about suburbia. By the end, I believed Joan was a carrion, feeding on such men. Or is she a vampire feeding on the blood of the men. Or possibly she is death itself, bringing illness to every man who comes home with her? A very interesting story and of course, wonderfully written. You can find it online, I think. The New Yorker published it too.
7 comments:
I must read more Cheever than I have, Patti. I often wonder why it is that we like an author's work a lot, and then just don't follow up on it...
So many books, so little time.
Nice one. I read his collection STORIES and this was definitely in it, but I don't really remember it other than vaguely.
I'm reading the Sarah Weinman-edited anthology you reviewed recently, TROUBLED DAUGHTERS, TWISTED WIVES. One chilling, nasty little story that even Weinman says doesn't really belong here because it is all about men, is Dorothy Salisbury Davis's "Lost Generation." There is an early, creepy Patricia Highsmith tale about a very needy nanny, "The Heroine," and "Everybody Needs a Mink," by Dorothy B. Hughes, among the stories I hadn't read before. I had previously read Shirley Jackosn's "Louisa, Please Come Home" and Margaret Millar's "The People Across the Canyon."
You are so right, Patti. There is just not enough time to read all the short stories (and other fiction) I want to read. I am pretty sure I have not read anything by Cheever. I can see that there are lots of collections of his short stories out there and I will be on the lookout for one.
I think you mean she is a carrion-eater, not carrion herself. I like Cheever in small doses and have a large collection I’ve been nibbling at for what seems like years. Thanks for the reminder.
I've read all of John Cheever's short stories and novels. The man was brilliant, but troubled.
This is a story that lingers with the reader for a long time. Joan is either an "angel of death," or perhaps the inverse of a "fair-weather friend." I think to some degree, many of us have known people like Joan. You start to ask yourself, "What is going wrong in my life, to bring them around?? This feels like a wake up call, to pick myself up and get going!" Perhaps Joan represents a mirror that is held up to show Jack what his life looks like.
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