When All the Men Wore Hats: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever
When All the Men Wore Hats: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever
When All the Men Wore Hats: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever
Description
Description
A sympathetic and illuminating account of the stories of John Cheever, and the intersecting life and work of the legendary writer John Cheever, as told by his eldest daughter.
The Stories of John Cheever, published in 1978, brought together some of the finest short fiction ever written. The collection won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, sold millions of copies, and went on to define the American short story and shape generations of writers. Cheever's chronicles of modern life both emerged from a distinctly American culture and created it--inspiring everything from Mad Men to a Raymond Carver story, from rock songs to a Seinfeld episode. Growing up, Susan Cheever, John Cheever's eldest child and only daughter, read what he read, heard what he heard, bantered and gossiped with him and her brothers and mother at the dinner table, and later watched her father type on the cheap yellow paper he favored. A daughter much like Susan appears in many of Cheever's stories, and a family much like theirs is at the center of his writing. In When All the Men Wore Hats, Susan Cheever looks back on her father's work and seeks to understand the connections between art and life. How did a bit of local gossip, a slice of Greek myth, or a new translation of Madame Bovary somehow work its way into a brilliant gem like "The Country Husband" or "The Swimmer"? In her 1984 book Home Before Dark, published two years after her father's death, Cheever wrote movingly about her father and the secrets he kept, but here, years later, she tells the story of the remarkable stories themselves, six of which appear in full in the book's appendix.
About the Author
About the Author
Susan Cheever is the author of many books on American history, the most recent of which is Drinking in America. She is also the author of numerous novels; a biography of the Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson; and Home Before Dark, a memoir about her father, John Cheever. She teaches in the MFA programs at Bennington College and the New School.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Since 1978, The Stories of John Cheever, the C swooping grandly over its red cover, has been a crown jewel of American publishing. Now John's daughter, Susan, has pried some of its precious contents loose, like one of the Louvre burglars, and put them under a loupe . . . Part memoir, part college seminar . . . and all wry, twinkling delight . . . Pull me up a chair."
--Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times
--Adam Begley, The Atlantic
"When All the Men Wore Hats is most affecting when [Susan Cheever] describes how her relationship with her father has deepened since his death. Examining his stories has led her to understand him in ways that weren't available to her when he was alive."
--Donna Rifkind, The Wall Street Journal "Using six of John Cheever's stories as points of reference, Cheever serves as a masterful captain, urging When All the Men Wore Hats to deftly navigate the murky boundaries between biography, memoir, criticism, and craft lesson."
--Stephen Patrick Bell, Bomb "Illuminating."
--Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
"Readers encountering John Cheever's brilliant short stories for the first time will find When All the Men Wore Hats an illuminating companion, while longtime admirers rediscovering them with the benefit of Susan Cheever's astute, revealing commentary will enjoy reading them with fresh eyes."
--Harvey Freedenberg, BookPage
"By turns affectionate and admiring but also clear-sighted and unsparing . . . An eloquent and fully immersive portrait of a renowned author."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Simultaneously a tribute to her father and an exposé of his failings, Cheever's narrative offers bittersweet grace to a man whose life was a kind of fiction and whose fiction drew mercilessly from his life. It's equal parts wrenching and edifying."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Lively, provocative memoir. Susan Cheever . . . moves fluidly between jaunty literary analyses and charged memories of a father."
--Margaret Quamme, Booklist
"Remarkable . . . Sui generis . . . This illuminating book fills in many blanks about a troubled and troubling life."
--Ellen Gilbert, Library Journal (starred review)
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pub date:
2025-10-28
Length:
400 pages
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