The John Cheever Audio Collection

Here are twelve magnificent short stories from acclaimed author John Cheever, read by an incredible cast of celebrity narrators, as well as Cheever himself. As Cheever writes in his preface, "These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat."

John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1912. He is the author of seven collections of stories and five novels. His first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle, won the 1958 National Book Award. In 1965 he received the Howells Medal for Fiction from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1978 The Stories of John Cheever won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Shortly before his death, in 1982, he was awarded the National Medal for Literature from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

The preface is read by Benjamin Cheever, John Cheever's son and author of The Plagiarist, The Parisian and Famous after Death. The stories in this collection include:

• The Enormous Radio read by Meryl Streep
• The Five-Forty-Eight read by Edward Herrmann
• O City of Broken Dreams read by Blythe Danner
• Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor read by George Plimpton
• The Season of Divorce read by Edward Herrmann
• The Brigadier and the Golf Widow read by Peter Gallagher
• The Sorrows of Gin read by Meryl Streep
• O Youth and Beauty! read by Peter Gallagher
• The Chaste Clarissa read by Blythe Danner
• The Jewels of the Cabots read by George Plimpton
• The Death of Justina read by John Cheever
• The Swimmer read by John Cheever

Love John Cheever !

I love John Cheever.His stories are set in his native territory of New York and its suburbs. He captures the challenges of his and his parents generation. From the upper middle cpas to their help, he is empathic. He has a sense of humor as well.
I liked the choice of narrators as well.

All Stars Deliver

One wonders how it would be possible that an Audiobook of John Cheever's stories read by the likes of Ms. Streep and Mr. Plimpton could disappoint. Be calmed dear listener... no such disillusionment will be found here.

Great readers - fabulous stories

John CHeever's stories are sharp, surreal, funny, touching but always immediate. This fantastic collection covering his long writing life is presented by a phenomenal group of readers ... Meryl Streep, Blythe Danner, George Plimpton. Well done Caedmon!

Ballads for the Broken

The beauty of reading John Cheever is in getting to know so many damaged characters. Each story weaves a web of hope and folly, deceit and yearning. Many of the men in these stories take solace outside their marriages, but none for the same reasons and none of those reasons is sexual. Also, Cheever has a tendency to glorify youth through similar metaphors in these stories, though it comes across more as a genuine affinity for the young rather than lazy writing. These are tales of a forgotten American past, though their settings are as mundane and tried as many novice writers. Cheever's gifts are not in his creation of a world, but instead of a worldview. His is a world filled with confusion and good intentions.

Hilarious, dark, sometimes disturbing

Cheever’s short stories quickly and vibrantly come alive with the narrators readings. The stories are full of a dark, humorous take on life in the Northeast.