'The Stories of John Cheever'
Fri, Sep 25, 2026, 2pm
The September selection for Book Club II is The Stories of John Cheever, a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever.
Cheever is celebrated as a master of short story writing, famously dubbed the “Chekhov of the suburbs.” For the most part, the stories in this collection are character studies of individuals facing a moral dilemma or a psychological crisis.
"Cheever’s crowning achievement is the ability to be simultaneously generous and cynical, to see that the absurd and the profound can reside in the same moment, and to acknowledge both at the detriment of neither." (The Guardian)
“By writing about any of us, Mr. Cheever writes about all of us, our ethical concerns and our failures of nerve, our experience of the discrepancies and our shred of honor.” (John Leonard, The New York Times)
The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1979, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award in 1981.
For those who enjoy reading at bedtime but would like to avoid the temptation to read “just one more chapter,” these stories provide the advantage of a complete narrative arc that can be fully enjoyed and finished in a single setting.
Our discussion will focus on several of Cheever’s most famous stories, including "The Enormous Radio", "Goodbye, My Brother," and "The Swimmer."
We read an eclectic variety of books, suggested by members, covering award-winning fiction, informative non-fiction, and books you should have read as an undergraduate.
Future Book Club II 2026 dates and selections: October 23, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and December 4, Custodians of Wonder by Eliot Stein.
If interested in giving our group a try, please contact Bob Bache at [email protected] or Dorothy Marden at [email protected].
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