The Swimmer (1964) | Hacker News Reader

The Swimmer (1964)

newyorker.com

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Love that this appeared on HN! For context, this I think is Cheever’s (“the Checkhov of the suburbs”) most famous story. Another widely anthologized one is “The Enormous Radio” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enormous_Radio. Cheever’s collected stories won the Pulitzer Prize.

From https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/31/the-swimmer-by...:

“But as fun as it is to play spot-the-allusion – and as tempting as it is to view The Swimmer as a Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Man – Cheever’s greatest short story transcends its influences and any autobiographical frisson to emerge as a quietly devastating journey into one man’s heart of darkness. And as a piece of prose it is as near-miraculous as the journey it describes, standing as a perfect example of Cheever’s description of fiction as ‘the telling of lies … a sort of sleight-of-hand that displays our deepest feelings about life.’ “

If you like this style you may also want to read William Trevor’s stories, for the British equivalent.

Here's John Cheever reading the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I8_Jyp26Cg

Hadn't read anything by Cheever before. This was incredible.

Starts off with a real Ferris Bueller lightheartedness and takes a very moving turn.

If Cheever is the Checkhov of the suburbs, in whose historical company might John Updike fall?

The Country Husband is another classic https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/11/20/the-country-hu.... I believe it was the Cheever found in the Norton Compendium of Short Fiction last time I checked.

Happy to see Trevor mentioned here. He was one of the great short story writers, and deserves more attention. Also worth mentioning that while most known for his short stories, Trevor's novels (including The Story of Lucy Gault and The Children of Dynmouth) are also fantastic.

Also worth mentioning in the same breath is Alice Munro — the "Canadian William Trevor", perhaps?

This is a fantastic story. I hated all of the named characters just because of their names. I heard their east coast upper middle-class accents, I pictured their suburban homes and pools, their casual day-drinking.

In fact, I hated the writing because it reminded me of Salinger and felt almost like a rip-off of the same aesthetic. In many ways it felt like it would have fit in with Nine Stories.

But somehow it kept me reading and now that I'm done I see it as a really brilliant story. It is so obvious in retrospect, from a jaunty fantasy to a gut-punch stripping away of American life. It is just a fantastic idea from conception to execution.

I see a direct connection from this kind of story to David Foster Wallace and then onto Charlie Kaufman. It is surreal, cynical, and nihilistic. I now want to read more of this man's work.

The 1968 Burt Lancaster film of the story is superb

Can't agree more. When you read the plot, it looks really strange but the movie is really worth it.

Plot summary: a man swims in a series of other people's swimming pools while working through some personal issues.

The story is allegory. The movie uses cinematic techniques to enhance the presentation and the acting is of high quality.

I saw it when I was maybe 14 or 15, it blew my mind that a film could be like this, different, non-formulaic. I loved the twist at the end, when you get it, you want to start over, watch it with a new perspective.

The film is available for free at the Internet archive https://archive.org/details/the-swimmer-1968-1080p-blu-ray-x...

Here's to sugar on the strawberries!

I just learned about the film in the recent book “Connecticut in the Movies” by Ileana Douglas. Burt Lancaster referred to The Swimmer as “Death of a Salesman in swim trunks”.

Such a timeless story. There's literally a murder suicide case being tried right now less than ten miles away from where the movie was filmed, allegedly involving a somewhat similar scenario. (I don't want to give away the plot.)

Similar scenario to what? Most of the plot is so heavily interpretive that it's hard for two people to come away with the same understanding of the plot.

Just a guy who lost his job and couldn't replace it because of pride, cheated on his wife (maybe with multiple women?), and maybe became homeless?

Ileana Douglas is one of my favorite character actors. Not familiar with her work? You probably are without knowing it [1]. She was a stand out in Cape Fear particularly. I'd no idea she had written this. Will check it out. Thanks

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeana_Douglas#Film

I found my way to the story after watching the film recently. I came across the film on Criterion knowing nothing about it.

For anyone who doesn't already know the story, I think it's best to go in blind, but if you don't mind spoilers (and I guess this one has definitely reached the statute of limitations):

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-swimmer-1968

Haha, wow, shots fired.

"Cheever's swimmer is a tragic hero disguised as an upper-class suburbanite. There are a lot of tragic heroes hidden in suburbia, I guess, perhaps because so many of them subscribe to the New Yorker."

https://archive.is/JSj0R

How odd. I was just thinking of this story the other day. I'd heard it read on NPR maybe 25 years ago, and then just happened to think of it and look it up and read it last week. Now it's on HN. Whenever things like happen I wonder if there was something in the news that subtly reminded many folks of the same thing. I can't remember what brought it up for me, but there must have been something.

I happened across the movie adaptation on Criterion last night and watched it not knowing a thing about it. I was captivated immediately. Afterwards I found the short story. So seems like nothing more than coincidence in this case that you read it last week.

(I was surprised to see the upvotes this morning. I really don't ever have any idea what HN is going to find interesting.)

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