The Stories of John Cheever Review

He seems to have foremost sought to create intricate snapshots of complicated emotions and the situations that make them possible rather than stories portraying sequences of events. Every word, image, and stylistic choice is part of a perfect balance between the appropriately evocative and the necessarily sterile, and nowhere but in Joyce is there an author with symbolism that is as complicated yet intuitive, illustrative yet original, and effective but accessible as in Cheever's short stories.