John Cheever's last novel is a fable set in a village so idyllic it has no fast-food outlet and having as its protagonist an old man, Lemuel Sears, who still has it in him to fall wildly in love with strangers of both sexes. But Sears's paradise is threatened; the pond he loves is being fouled by unscrupulous polluters. In Cheever's accomplished hands the battle between an elderly romantic and the monstrous aspects of late-twentieth-century civilization becomes something ribald, poignant, and ineffably joyful.
Oh What a Paradise It Seems
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"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 is perfect Cheever—it is perfect." —The New York Times Book Review
"A luminous epiphany of life.... A charming fable of old age, nostalgia, and loss...engaging and complex...vivid and alive." —The Washington Post Book World
"Beautiful...graceful...winning...both upbeat and true to life.... Oh, what a literary paradise is John Cheever!" —San Francisco Chronicle
"Filled with the master's wonderful word magic.... There simply isn't another writer like him...a delight." —Chicago Tribune
"This is perfect Cheever—it is perfect." —The New York Times Book Review
"A luminous epiphany of life.... A charming fable of old age, nostalgia, and loss...engaging and complex...vivid and alive." —The Washington Post Book World
"Beautiful...graceful...winning...both upbeat and true to life.... Oh, what a literary paradise is John Cheever!" —San Francisco Chronicle
"Filled with the master's wonderful word magic.... There simply isn't another writer like him...a delight." —Chicago Tribune
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.
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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,
By Rebecca N (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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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