Sunday, May 03, 2020

The Swimmer

The Swimmer is a 1964 short story by John Cheever. It was adapted for film in 1968 with Burt Lancaster starring. You can read the story online here. It begins,
It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, "I drank too much last night." You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium, heard it from the golf links and the tennis courts, heard it from the wildlife preserve where the leader of the Audubon group was suffering from a terrible hangover. "I drank too much," said Donald Westerhazy. "We all drank too much," said Lucinda Merrill. "It must have been the wine," said Helen Westerhazy. "I drank too much of that claret."

This was at the edge of the Westerhazys' pool. The pool, fed by an artesian well with a high iron content, was a pale shade of green. It was a fine day. In the west there was a massive stand of cumulus cloud so like a city seen from a distance—from the bow of an approaching ship—that it might have had a name. Lisbon. Hackensack. The sun was hot. Neddy Merrill sat by the green water, one hand in it, one around a glass of gin. He was a slender man—he seemed to have the especial slenderness of youth—and while he was far from young he had slid down his banister that morning and given the bronze backside of Aphrodite on the hall table a smack, as he jogged toward the smell of coffee in his dining room. He might have been compared to a summer's day
John Cheever will read it to you:

18 comments:

  1. ...I wonder if there will be a swimming season this year!

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    1. I don't expect our community pool to open any time soon, and we're a small community with a pool that's never crowded.

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  2. Another where I've seen it but haven't read it. I don't think I realized it was a short story

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    1. Cheever used to be everywhere. That red edition of his short stories was seriously everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stories_of_John_Cheever

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  3. He certainly writes well. His imagery has be envisioning the entire scene.

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  4. In my younger days-probably in my 20s I really liked Burt Lancaster allot-I vaguely remember this one Happy Sunday

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    1. He had such a looong career! And he played a wide variety of characters.

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  5. I like John Cheever. I am off to read, no listen to this story. It is always great when the author reads their work. Happy new week!

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    1. I love when the author reads their own work :)

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  6. This sounds good, will hear it later! Have a great week, Valerie

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  7. Thanks for the link. I've never read any Cheever and this sounds good. (I am familiar with the film but it's been decades since I saw it!)

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  8. I remember the movie--well, the basics of it where he traveled the neighborhood pool by pool. Seems to me you learned more about the neighbors than about him, if I recall--LOL!

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    1. I haven't seen the movie. The short story surprised me.

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