Cheever – Kit Stolz

Cheever on writing as sport

From an interview with his daughter in Newsweek late in his wondrous career: Writing is not at all a competitive sport. I don't think of myself as being less that Saul Bellow or more than Herbert Gold. The essence of literature is always the singularity of the writer. h/t: Al Filreis

Why Can’t Agnosticism Get a Break? Part II

Why can't agnosticism get a break? Is it our culture's insistence on certainty, either pro or con? Who knows, but here's another example of the obnoxiousness of so many atheists. As Charlotte Harris writes for the Los Angeles Times, atheists all too often turn off those they claim to want to convince with the obnoxiousnessContinue reading “Why Can’t Agnosticism Get a Break? Part II”

Misreading (and Misunderstanding) Cheever

The reviews of the first major biography of this country's greatest short story writer, Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey, have been a bit glum. The late John Updike, who greatly admired his work, and knew Cheever about as well as Cheever would allow him to, called the book "a heavy, dispiriting read." The ChristianContinue reading “Misreading (and Misunderstanding) Cheever”

How to Communicate with Anyone

Yours truly has become convinced that John Cheever, the short story writer often called "the American Chekhov," is vastly underappreciated as a wit, and even (much like Chekhov himself) as a thinker: Here's an example of his thinking…more to follow soon from Blake Bailey's spectacular biography: You can't expect to communicate with anyone if you'reContinue reading “How to Communicate with Anyone”