Treetops: A Memoir About Raising Wonderful Children in an Imperfect World [Paperback]

Susan Cheever (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

In this compelling companion volume to her acclaimed memoir Home Before Dark, Susan Cheever once again gives readers a revealing look into her famous family, whose secrets and eccentricities parallel their genius and successes. Set against the backdrop of Treetops, the New Hampshire family retreat where the Cheevers still summer, and going back several generations, this powerful remembrance focuses on Susan Cheever's mother's family, and includes portraits of her great-grandfather, Thomas Watson, who invented the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell, and her grandfather Milton Winternitz, a brilliant doctor who built Yale Medical School. And of course there is her beloved and talented father John Cheever, the accomplished author who became one of the most well-known writers of the century, often using his family as material. Perhaps most riveting about Susan Cheever's second biographical masterpiece is its exploration of the lives of the Cheever women. At once a unique family portrait and the tale of every family, Treetops draws us effortlessly into a fascinating yet endearingly familiar world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This measured, absorbing reminiscence by the daughter of John Cheever and the great-granddaughter of Thomas Watson--who with Alexander Graham Bell devised the telephone--explores what her family's myths "reveal and what they hide." One revelation is the link among the family's famous men--the talent, determination and timing that made successes of Watson, his son-in-law Milton Winternitz, (former dean of Yale Medical School), and John Cheever himself. What the myths do not reveal are the lives of the women--stubborn, gifted and seemingly strong, yet shaped by the men they "happened to end up with." Helen Watson Winternitz graduated from medical school, but never practiced medicine. Elizabeth Kimball Watson is reduced to a line in her husband's autobiography. Mary Winternitz Cheever is the only female in the clan to have prevailed, maintaining both her family and a career as a college teacher. From the cluster of New Hampshire family cottages called Treetops, Cheever ( Home Before Dark ) sheds light on an American dynasty and on the very different lives of its men and women--the former self-directed and linear, the latter social and mosaic-like. The book's shortcoming: Cheever's reflections are less deep than the family would appear to call for. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In Home Before Dark ( LJ 11/15/84), the author produced a very readable and often poignant telling of the life story of her father, John Cheever. Unfortunately, here she achieves none of the poignancy and very little of the readability. The story, which is about the "myths" on her mother's side of the family, is a dull, agonizingly slow-paced history of a group of people about whom the reader has a hard time caring. The story revolves, both spiritually and physically, around Treetops, the family's homestead in the New Hampshire hills. The book opens with the life story of the author's great-grandfather and ends with musings by the author on her own life. While some of the anecdotes interjected to liven up the story are amusing, many of them fall flat, giving little relief from the dry, uneven quality of the writing. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/90.
- Jessica Grim, Univ. of California at Berkeley Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671028510
• ISBN-13: 978-0671028510
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,247,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in New York City and have lived here on and off my entire life--in fact I went to nursery school a few blocks from where I write this. It took me a long time to admit I was a writer--I had a career as a teacher and I loved it. When I was married I couldn't get a teaching job so by an amazing stroke of luck I went to work for my local small town newspaper. After a long time as a newspaper and magazine journalist, I took off to write a novel when I was 35 and I haven't looked back.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking, July 7, 2011

By 

Tess Hall "Tess" (Bainbridge Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treetops: A Family Memoir (Hardcover)

As a former New Englander, there is so much here that culturally defines characteristics and attitudes that stay in the East. I was brought back into a world I left 30 years ago and the memories although not specifically mine, were vivid.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quietly Moving Memoir tells of America's Changing Century, May 31, 2000

By 

Thomas F. Scahill (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treetops: A Memoir About Raising Wonderful Children in an Imperfect World (Paperback)

"Treetops," while telling of one family in particular, speaks to the ever changing family unit in the 20th century where the roles began firmly established in 1900 and careened on to a helter skelter order in 2000. The role of women, children, and siblings in a man's world is dissected in "Treetops" --all through the eyes of one family child as she looks at the past. I found the book quietly moving as I learned about the family and found it reflected in my own. "Treetops" is the place we all long to go back to and the place we all long to escape from at the same time.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Memoirs should be memorable, May 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Treetops: A Memoir About Raising Wonderful Children in an Imperfect World (Paperback)

I read this book hoping that Johm Cheever's daughter might possess a bit of his genius. Not so. This book is humdrum.