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Title: Falconer by John Cheever ISBN: 0-679-73786-3 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 15 January, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Picked The Wrong One To Start
Comment: It's difficult to argue that Mr. Cheever is not a writer of deserved renown. His work, "Falconer", is extremely well written and generally critically admired. The subject matter and the eyes belonging to Farragut through which we see this story held little appeal to me. I plan to try another of his books to see if this was the odd book out, or I am the odd reader out.
This is a not quite so typical prison story, which appears to be historically based predicated on the time periods and the names of prisons he uses. Why he chose to change them in this work of fiction I found puzzling, as they and there histories are well known even infamous. Farragut has been imprisoned for the crime of Fratricide. His version of the crime, and those related later in the work are so entirely different in detail and degree, the reader may reasonably ask what other events may fall into this category. Farragut's sexuality in and out of prison, his wife's and many of those we meet are discussed at length, and they compete on several levels none very pleasant. It may be that the haze or thread of a variety of addictions from sex to heroin blurs the message of this book. It may be the time he speaks of was so defined by what the Author emphasizes, that you either are absorbed in it, or feel that it is tired.
Mr. Cheever did not earn the repeated notice of his skills as a writer and the awards that followed without reason. So in the end it may have been my lack of interest in the self absorbed characters, and pieces of plot I found absurd, that doomed the book for me. Jody and his escape plan is pure farce, and Farragut's final act was also stretching credulity for me. Farragut's wife was the person he should have been imprisoned for harming, I cannot readily remember a more nauseating character.
Hopefully just the wrong book picked first, you will have to decide for yourself.
Rating: 5
Summary: Newsweek called Falconer "A Great American Novel" . . .
Comment: . . . and I agree! As implausible as it sounds, Cheever achieved literary greatness in a prison novel with its central character a college professor and murderer who is also a heroin addict and a guilty, closeted homosexual. "Oh Farragut, Farragut, why is you an addict?" asks his guard, and through flashback and reminiscence we learn how and why. One of those rare books that takes place largely in the mind but is truly gripping--and the Attica-like prison Farragut is confined to holds a few surprises of its own. It is hard to overpraise "Falconer." Honestly, if you don't like this book you don't like modern American fiction.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant novel!
Comment: Anyone who loves John Cheever will love this novel. I always thought his short stories were amazing, but his novels are even better. A must read.
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Title: The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever ISBN: 0060528877 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Bullet Park by JOHN CHEEVER ISBN: 0679737871 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 15 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever ISBN: 0375724427 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 16 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Wapshot Scandal by John Cheever ISBN: 0060528885 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Appointment in Samarra : A Novel by John O'Hara ISBN: 0375719202 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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