We are a family that has always been very close in spirit.
July 17, 2022 1:19 PM Subscribe
Goodbye, My Brother is a short story by John Cheever. ""What are the realities?" he said. "Diana is a foolish and a promiscuous woman. So is
Odette. Mother is an alcoholic. If she doesn't discipline herself, she'll be in a hospital in a year or
two. Chaddy is dishonest. He always has been. The house is going to fall into the sea." He looked at me and added, as an afterthought, "You're a fool."
"You're a gloomy son of a bitch," I said. "You're a gloomy son of a bitch.""
Family strife can be distilled into a single question asked by one (or more) family members to another: "Why are you such a asshole?" In this story, who the asshole is seems clear on first reading, but on subsequent readings, may not be. Instead the question distills itself further into a sadder one: "Why can't you be like the rest of us?" When that question turns into a demand, it's shattering.
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Although family dynamics is at the core of the story, there's a lot of other things going on, Cheever has added layers of religious, political and historical themes and references.
Family strife can be distilled into a single question asked by one (or more) family members to another: "Why are you such a asshole?" In this story, who the asshole is seems clear on first reading, but on subsequent readings, may not be. Instead the question distills itself further into a sadder one: "Why can't you be like the rest of us?" When that question turns into a demand, it's shattering.
---
Although family dynamics is at the core of the story, there's a lot of other things going on, Cheever has added layers of religious, political and historical themes and references.
As a former New Englander, I have always appreciated Cheever for the atmosphere of dissolution and wistfulness he creates. Thanks for posting.
posted by missinformation at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by missinformation at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I cannot read Cheever without thinking about my mother's family and how differently I think of them as I get older and they are all gone.
"[W]e and our friends and our part of the nation, finding ourselves unable to cope with the problems of the present, had, like a wretched adult, turned back to what we supposed was a happier and a simpler time."
posted by Peach at 2:23 PM on July 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
"[W]e and our friends and our part of the nation, finding ourselves unable to cope with the problems of the present, had, like a wretched adult, turned back to what we supposed was a happier and a simpler time."
posted by Peach at 2:23 PM on July 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
Recently I read The Trip to Echo Spring, about writers and drinking, which I recommend. It can't possibly cover the breadth of that topic, so it focuses on a few writers, and Cheever is one of them. Really sheds light on his use of alcohol and swimming in his stories. (Also it reveals that he wasn't as big a WASP as all that and had to hold on tight.)
posted by Countess Elena at 2:32 PM on July 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Elena at 2:32 PM on July 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Recently I read The Trip to Echo Spring, about writers and drinking
Whoa, dunno how that slipped my radar but now must read - after all, it was my father's choice of cheap bourbon before he turned, as almost everyone going down does, to vodka.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:48 PM on July 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Whoa, dunno how that slipped my radar but now must read - after all, it was my father's choice of cheap bourbon before he turned, as almost everyone going down does, to vodka.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 4:48 PM on July 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I hope that Cheever was just extremely adept at characterization and that he was writing the protagonist's prejudices and not his own. But the classism was hard to take, especially the offensive nonsense about the cook being so one dimensional and happy in her place.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 6:19 PM on July 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 6:19 PM on July 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
(Also it reveals that he wasn't as big a WASP as all that and had to hold on tight.)
I'm about a third of the way through the collected Cheever short stories at the moment and this doesn't surprise me at all; I can't imagine someone who's secure in their social position having as deep a level of consciousness, observation & detail about the society they're depicting, compared to someone who must observe constantly in order to learn enough to imitate what needs to be imitated and to weather subtle shifts in the stratum without falling off.
I've also been reading Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith, vile old anti-semite that she was, and was struck by her observation early on that "a suspense story is one in which the possibility of violent action, even death, is close all the time." I wouldn't instinctively categorise Cheever as a suspense writer from the mood or prose style of his stories, but it's there, from the narrator of this story's urge to hurt his brother, to the gun in the handbag in 'The Five-Forty-Eight' and the literal Chekhov's gun in 'O Youth and Beauty!'. It's an interesting and slightly unexpected direction for stories with settings that are less hard-boiled and more like "I'm wistful about my life and family and place in society, and also drinking heavily".
posted by terretu at 2:29 AM on July 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'm about a third of the way through the collected Cheever short stories at the moment and this doesn't surprise me at all; I can't imagine someone who's secure in their social position having as deep a level of consciousness, observation & detail about the society they're depicting, compared to someone who must observe constantly in order to learn enough to imitate what needs to be imitated and to weather subtle shifts in the stratum without falling off.
I've also been reading Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith, vile old anti-semite that she was, and was struck by her observation early on that "a suspense story is one in which the possibility of violent action, even death, is close all the time." I wouldn't instinctively categorise Cheever as a suspense writer from the mood or prose style of his stories, but it's there, from the narrator of this story's urge to hurt his brother, to the gun in the handbag in 'The Five-Forty-Eight' and the literal Chekhov's gun in 'O Youth and Beauty!'. It's an interesting and slightly unexpected direction for stories with settings that are less hard-boiled and more like "I'm wistful about my life and family and place in society, and also drinking heavily".
posted by terretu at 2:29 AM on July 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
Rich WASPS were never secure. That's why they drank so much. Yes, they were entitled, and yes, their troubles were rarely connected to having enough money, but that didn't make them secure.
posted by Peach at 6:36 AM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Peach at 6:36 AM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
What is most surprising is how completely opaque Tifty is. We know absolutely nothing about what makes him tick - only that the narrator hates/fears/does not understand why he has made the choices he has. And so he clubs him in the head! Fucking Cheever - I never think he knows anything beyond the Wasp-y, stifling mid-century America but he digs out the heart most times and throws it out on the kitchen table.
posted by From Bklyn at 8:00 AM on July 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by From Bklyn at 8:00 AM on July 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
he digs out the heart most times and throws it out on the kitchen table.
God yeah! I remember the first time I read the story, and I thought, ok Tifty's stuck-up and kinda deserved it. Then later I realized, hold on a second, the narrator is an asshole. Namely (Spoiler alert!)
* Tifty explicitly asks him not to call him by that name, but he continues to do so, over and over again.
* Has open contempt for Ruth and Tifty's kids.
* Dismissive of hired help
* Tries to physically force Tifty to join them at the party
* Not only does he club Tifty he does it while his brother's back is turned
* feels no remorse at any of it, and in fact feels euphoric at the end.
What I love about the story is how Cheever manages to make the narrator sympathetic but leaving hints that things aren't quite so tidy, it made me reflect on my own family situation. We have an estranged sister and there are some parallels which make me wonder if I am the narrator-asshole. Oh boy.
posted by storybored at 8:42 AM on July 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
God yeah! I remember the first time I read the story, and I thought, ok Tifty's stuck-up and kinda deserved it. Then later I realized, hold on a second, the narrator is an asshole. Namely (Spoiler alert!)
* Tifty explicitly asks him not to call him by that name, but he continues to do so, over and over again.
* Has open contempt for Ruth and Tifty's kids.
* Dismissive of hired help
* Tries to physically force Tifty to join them at the party
* Not only does he club Tifty he does it while his brother's back is turned
* feels no remorse at any of it, and in fact feels euphoric at the end.
What I love about the story is how Cheever manages to make the narrator sympathetic but leaving hints that things aren't quite so tidy, it made me reflect on my own family situation. We have an estranged sister and there are some parallels which make me wonder if I am the narrator-asshole. Oh boy.
posted by storybored at 8:42 AM on July 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
Cheever's work moves me so, all the time, even though the world he writes about is totally alien to me. A favorite quote is actually in my profile: “The village hangs, morally and economically, from a thread. But it hangs by its thread in the evening light.”
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:51 AM on July 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:51 AM on July 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
As an aside
I've also been reading Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith, vile old anti-semite that she was,
In case you didn't know - as I didn't! - that the Author of the" Talented Mr Ripley" series, amongst others, was a captial-A-no-questions-asked-rabid-antisemite, read this. You learn something new every day.
posted by lalochezia at 11:29 AM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I've also been reading Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction by Patricia Highsmith, vile old anti-semite that she was,
In case you didn't know - as I didn't! - that the Author of the" Talented Mr Ripley" series, amongst others, was a captial-A-no-questions-asked-rabid-antisemite, read this. You learn something new every day.
posted by lalochezia at 11:29 AM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like Cheever, he feels more accessible to me than a lot of other Dead Great Whites of the mid-20th American century. I couldn't take my eyes off this one, it pulled me right back into a few long, tense, alcoholic family dinners I went through as a kid. I liked Lawrence and I was so nervous for him throughout this whole story, glad he lived.
LMAO at the lines about painting the doors/facades to make them seem picturesquely old, and also everyone at the dance going as brides and football players. 'Merica!!!
posted by coffeeand at 11:34 AM on July 18, 2022
LMAO at the lines about painting the doors/facades to make them seem picturesquely old, and also everyone at the dance going as brides and football players. 'Merica!!!
posted by coffeeand at 11:34 AM on July 18, 2022
Not only does he club Tifty he does it while his brother's back is turned
It’s also not the first time he’s struck his brother in the head with something (as he references very casually).
everyone at the dance going as brides and football players
This revelation is really funny and in a way one of the details that most makes me start to feel like Lawrence has got a point.
posted by atoxyl at 1:59 PM on July 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
It’s also not the first time he’s struck his brother in the head with something (as he references very casually).
everyone at the dance going as brides and football players
This revelation is really funny and in a way one of the details that most makes me start to feel like Lawrence has got a point.
posted by atoxyl at 1:59 PM on July 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
* Tifty explicitly asks him not to call him by that name, but he continues to do so, over and over again.
Not only that, but Tifty is a name that almost only appears in dialogue (except for the initial etymology and in the one-off "Everyone went to the beach but Tifty and Ruth.")--the narrator steadfastly refuses to refer to his brother by anything other than the name Lawrence, wallowing exuberantly and repeatedly to his reader in a simple courtesy he will never deign to speak aloud.
posted by Earthtopus at 5:03 PM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Not only that, but Tifty is a name that almost only appears in dialogue (except for the initial etymology and in the one-off "Everyone went to the beach but Tifty and Ruth.")--the narrator steadfastly refuses to refer to his brother by anything other than the name Lawrence, wallowing exuberantly and repeatedly to his reader in a simple courtesy he will never deign to speak aloud.
posted by Earthtopus at 5:03 PM on July 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
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