In an idyllic American village, elderly romantic Lemuel Sears still has it in him to fall wildly in love with strangers of both sexes. But Sears' paradise is under threat; the pond he loves is being fouled by unscrupulous polluters involved in organised crime. Can Sears thwart the monstrous aspects of late-twentieth-century civilisation and save his beloved village? Cheever's wry fable of modern American is interlaced with musings on everything from the etiquette of supermarket queues to the evolution of the ice-skate.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
This delightful fable shows him at the height of his powers Observer John Cheever is an enchanted realist, and his voice, in his luminous short stories and in incomparable novels like Bullet Park and Falconer, is as rich and distinctive as any of the leading voices of postwar American literature Philip Roth This curious novella is Cheever's wry pastoral fable about the state of modern America Sunday Times Sheer pleasure...his prose is charged like Scott Fitzgerald's Listener John Cheever understood fallibility and that made for the greatness in his writing The Times Cheever is a pleasure to read San Francisco Chronicle
--This text refers to the
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From the Inside Flap
An old man falls violently in love and does valiant battle against unscrupulous polluters in John Cheever's ineffably joyful last novel.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
oh what a good start to reading john cheever,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oh What a Paradise It Seems (Paperback)
This book is only a 100 pages and their is so much in a few words. "She was as women go relatively punctual and He had come to believe that punctuality in engagements was an infallible gauge of sexual spontaneity. He had observed that,without exception, women who were tardy for dinner engagements were unconsciously delayed in their erotic transports and that women who were early for lunch or dinner would sometimes climax in the taxi on the way home." IF you like that passage you will enjoy this book. Read more John Cheever.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant, Beautiful, Truthful ... a bit Preachy,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Oh What a Paradise It Seems (Paperback)
This is lovely Cheever. So few pages, and yet so much substance. A book of great truths told through small details. Understanding the difference between those who would or wouldn't stop to pick blackberries on the shoulder of a massive interstate highway ...
I would often pause and reread a paragraph - amazed that something so insightful could be so relatively insignificant within the context of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in this read of an old man, feuding neighbors, love, dissapointment, insecurity, greed ... and American life. It's not my place to be glad for Cheever, but I felt a sense of satisfaction for him - for the fact that he got this wonderful work done before he died. My only critique is that the environmentalist message gets a little too preachy and loses the subtlety a message embedded in a novel should have. Mind you - I have no issue with the message - only with the way it is presented towards the end of the story. But like his main character - Cheever was an old man with a purpose. And if he was desperate for his cause - such that he stepped slightly over the line between fiction and nonfiction ... well for that he should be forgiven. A worthwhile read, which I read on a rainy evening as suggested. It is now 2:00 am, and the book is back on my shelf. I am only saddened that Cheever left no more stories after this one.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A finely crafted novel by an American master.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Oh What a Paradise It Seems (Paperback)
Oh, What A Paradise It Seems is John Cheever's last novel, published just before his death in June 1982. It differs from his previous works, which mainly focused on suburban commuters, as it tells the story of an older man, but it still retains Cheever's wit and surrealness. The astonishing thing about this book is how deep the story goes, and yet it is only 100 pages long. It would take other authors 400 pages to write this story. It is, as the first sentence says, "A story to be read in bed in an old house on a rainy night."
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