Cheever and Updike ...

... Updike's posthumous review of the new Cheever bio: Basically Decent. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

...this biographer’s zeal makes a heavy, dispiriting read, to the point that even I, a reader often enraptured by Cheever’s prose and an acquaintance who generally enjoyed his lively company, wanted the narrative, pursued in methodical chapters that tick past year after year, to hurry through the menacing miasma of a life which, for all the sparkle of its creative moments, brought so little happiness to its possessor and to those around him. The biography’s valedictory pages are rather stunningly anticlimactic.

Edward Byrne comments and reminisces: John Updike and John Cheever.

Just a few years before Cheever’s death ... I had an opportunity for a brief conversation with the author.... The conversation occurred exactly three decades ago and lasted not more than five minutes; it still remains a vivid memory. I recall Cheever’s uncertainty as he spoke to me in that rather unusual but striking accent of his, confiding that he hoped he’d opened doors for others, and how he felt a bit optimistic some of the younger writers might find acceptance and publication as a result. He mentioned a couple of emerging fiction writers whose work he admired and encouraged. The important thing, he advised, was that one must continue to write as well as one can, produce innovative and imaginative stories with a regard for integrity in the way one presents the plot or portrays the characters, without too much worry of eventual publication or recognition by others.

You know, if I had a kid who wanted to study English literature, I would seriously look into Valparaiso University, judging by what I see coming out of there.