John Cheever was
suffering from the cancer that would take his life while he was writing
Oh What a Paradise It
Seems, and it is a shorter (only 100 pages) than he
planned. Perhaps that's why it seems somewhat disjointed, zigzagging
between protagonist Lemuel Sears's spring-fall romance and his attempt
to fight a pond's being turned into a landfill. For those seeking an
introduction to the writer, however, it does display Cheever's elegant
prose style, as well as a questing hero and a village somewhere on
the New York commuter train line, both typical of his
prize-winning short stories.
Although the two strains of Sears's story may not cohere for some
readers, Cheever clearly saw connection between a love affair and
political activism — both are means by which an aging man
seeks renewal. Indeed, as Sears strolls around the pond that ultimately
is rescued by someone else's action, his thoughts about nature merge
with his memories of his younger lover, bringing him to rhapsodies
about the privilege of living on the planet and renewing ourselves with
love.
Such lyrical passages weave through a plot that includes murder (of
both humans and a dog), organized crime, corrupt politicians, a
guiltless homosexual affair, an accidentally abandoned infant, and
terrorism with the "right" motivation. A continuous strain is
the despoilment of the environment by superhighways, big
retailers, and fast-food chains. It seems then somewhat surprising that
the pond is finally saved. Perhaps in his last book Cheever, best known
as a chronicler of suburban emptiness, was expressing a wish
that once pastoral villages could be restored to a state of
paradise.
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