1957NBA 1958
The Wapshot Chronicle
John Cheever · 1912–1982 · United States
Why it matters
Two brothers leave their decaying New England seaport and its proudly eccentric family behind to make their way in the world, in Cheever's first novel. A comic, elegiac chronicle of a vanishing WASP world that won the National Book Award.
At a glance
family sagacomedy
Difficulty 5/10medium pace307 pagesEpisodic, digressive structure loosely strings together a family's fortunes.
Deep dive
How Cheever turns the settling of a rich, controlling relative's inheritance conditions into an occasion for chronicling the last generation of an old New England seafaring family — and what the family's decrepit ferry boat is doing carrying so much of the book's feeling.
Where to go next
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