Cheever, Susan

Cheever, Susan "Home Before Dark: A Biographical Memoir of John Cheever by His Daughter" Houghton Mifflin:1984

When John Cheever was popular I was very young. There was not a lot of young adult fiction to read, so I read adult fiction as well. I did not understand his books. To me, his books were about suburbia and I hated it. My family had moved there when the house that the government owned was condemned to make way for a new housing project for officer and non-commissioned officers in Southern California. I liked the house where we moved but not the families that lived there.

I was emerging into my teenage years. I did not like what was happening to the families of the kids I played with. Everyone seemed so unhappy. I think I saw that it in Cheever's books. No one knew what to believe in anymore. Maybe, this is a reflection of what I saw in my own family. For some reason I felt as if the books of John Cheever, John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemingway stood for that way of life.

I have found out since then I was wrong about Steinbeck. He is now a favorite of mine. I also read everything by Hemingway. I did read "The Wapshot Scandal" or maybe it was the "Wapshot Chronicle" by Cheever but I may have been too young to read a novel about adultery and not paying one's taxes. I know that I had to look up the difference between adultery and fornication and could not find it. I ended up asking someone who luckily told me. The whole thing seemed so dull to me. I think I read more science fiction in those days than I do now.

I have read other books of Susan Cheever and wonder if she was related to John Cheever and this book makes it very clear that she is. It is a biography of her father with her part in it. It is a fascinating read. She does not leave anything unflattering out. It is evident that she loves her father but it is also evident that she is aware of his faults. From her description of her life, it was evident he loved her too. He was a very confused man.

I love biographies of writers. Susan Cheever is a good writer and easy to read. I got into this book and never fell out. There was a lot about John Cheever that I did not know. For example, I had no idea he had a serious drinking problem and a problem with sexual addiction as well as a problem with homosexuality. It was a problem since it was a time when homosexuality was not accepted. It was hard on his family. John Cheever was raped as a child by his brother who he adored and admired. He never got over that. Again, everything is in this book because it is part of who he was; yet other loving and warm things about him are in here too.

There are other biographies of John Cheever, but no one could have written this particular one but his daughter. I think it is well worth reading. As for reading Cheever, I don't know. I may someday. I will definitely read another book by Susan Cheever to be sure.



Name of author: Susan Cheever

Dates of birth and death (if applicable): born July 31, 1943

Place of birth: New York City

Education: graduated Brown University in 1965. She teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program and at The New School.

Literary movement associated with author: She is a biographer and writes about addiction as well as novels. Her essay "Baby Battle," in which she describes immersion in early motherhood and subsequent phases of letting go of her primary identity as a mother, was included in the 2006 anthology Mommy Wars by Washington Post writer Leslie Morgan Steiner.

Nationality: United States of America

Notable award(s) or ideas (s): She is also a member of the Corporation of Yaddo and serves on the Author's Guild Council.


Books and years when published:

Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction "In a provocative and deeply personal look at the least acknowledged of all addictions, Cheever examines the ways in which sexually obsessed people confuse lust with love and the damage they do to themselves and those around them as they distort affection and desire with abuse and deception." --Booklist American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau Even the most devoted readers of nineteenth-century American literature often assume that the men and women behind the masterpieces were as dull and staid as the era's static daguerreotypes. Susan Cheever's latest work, however, brings new life to the well-known literary personages who produced such cherished works as The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Walden, and Little Women. Rendering in full color the tumultuous, often scandalous lives of these volatile and vulnerable geniuses, Cheever's dynamic narrative reminds us that, while these literary heroes now seem secure of their spots in the canon, they were once considered avant-garde, bohemian types, at odds with the establishment. My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous In this definitive and groundbreaking biography, acclaimed author Susan Cheever offers a remarkably human portrait of a man whose life and work both influenced and saved the lives of millions of people. Drawing from personal letters, diaries, AA archives, interviews -- and Cheever's own experiences with alcoholism -- My Name Is Bill is the first fully documented, deeply felt account of Bill Wilson and Alcoholics Anonymous. As Good As I Could Be "Cheever's honest, realistic approach to the difficulties of parenting is refreshing, as is her optimistic belief that people can be good parents despite their own unhappy childhoods." --Publishers Weekly Home Before Dark In Home Before Dark, Susan Cheever, daughter of the famously talented writer John Cheever, uses previously unpublished letters, journals, and her own precious memories to create a candid and insightful tribute to her father. While producing some of the most beloved and celebrated American literature of this century, John Cheever wrestled with personal demons that deeply affected his family life as well as his career. In this poignant memoir of a man driven by boundless genius and ambition, Susan Cheever writes with heartwrenching honesty of family life with the father, the writer, and the remarkable man she loved. Note Found in a Bottle "A memoir that floats like a sad song, with its themes the effervescence of champagne and the flatness of the morning after... A poignant and fortright tale of a rugged journey by an extraordinarily gifted writer." --Kirkus Reviews Treetops "Engrossing... moving... Treetops is Susan Cheever's... most satisfyingly realized work to date." --The Washington Post Book World "This smooth, articulate, inviting book takes us into the lair of a celebrated family. Susan Cheever, with keen observation and incisive character sketches, offers a tantalizingly spare memoir." --Houston Chronicle "Because it's such a fascinating family, it's a fascinating book, but it's not always a pretty story, and one has to admire Susan Cheever's courage in telling it... Her greatest gifts come across in her memoirs... Home Before Dark and Treetops have established her as a very accomplished writer." --New York Daily News Elizabeth Cole "The heroine... is a 30-year-old New York graphic designer whose father is a famous artist. When first met, Elizabeth is involved in an intense affair with Sebastian Smith, a successful, married art dealer; she is still haunted by memories of her former lover, journalist Patrick Casey..." --Publishers Weekly Doctors and Women Clarkson N. Potter, 1987 The Cage Houghton Mifflin, 1982 (hardcover) Random House, 1983 (paperback) A Handsome Man Publicist Hannah Bart goes to Ireland with her older lover, Sam Noble, to meet his estranged son, Travis, and finds herself in competition with the young man for his father's love. Looking for Work Simon & Schuster, 1980. Paperback: Fawcett, 1982.

Selected Works Addiction "Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction" "A short, steamy read." --New York Post "Literary History American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau Transcendentalism--the story behind the scenes." Biography "My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous" "As a biography of one of the most humane and beneficial Americans who ever lived, it is a national treasure." --Kurt Vonnegut "Memoir As Good As I Could Be Raising wonderful children in a difficult world" "Home Before Dark A poignant memoir of a man driven by boundless genius and ambition" . "Note Found in a Bottle" "Engrossing and remarkably devoid of self-flagellation." --Seattle Weekly "Treetops" "Ms. Cheever's. . . coolly intelligent perspective. . . provides a clear, hard-edged picture of the snobbery, sexism, Antisemitism adultery, alcoholism, and emotional dishonesty that were part and parcel of those swimming pools and tennis courts." --Wall Street Journal Novels "Elizabeth Cole" Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1989 Doctors and Women Clarkson N. Potter, 1987 "The Cage" Houghton Mifflin, 1982. Paperback: Random House, 1983. A Handsome Man Simon & Schuster, 1981. Paperback: Ballantine Group: 1982. "Looking for Work" Simon & Schuster, 1980. Paperback: Fawcett, 1982.