One man's experience of a continuing drug habit and the experience of facing his own thoughts, memories and dreams inside 'Falconer' prison. An easy to read, hard to put down, darkly humorous book. ( )

The intensity and bluntness of 'Falconer,' John Cheever’s fourth novel, will almost certainly surprise those who have read his other novels. The author’s tendency to write darker and darker novels over the years is not nearly enough to prepare his readers for the shock that is 'Falconer.'

'Falconer' is Cheever’s famous “prison novel,” the story of 48-year-old Ezekiel Farragut, a genteel professional who, in a drugged fit of rage, one night murders his own brother. Now, Zeke Farragut is just another inmate in a maximum security prison called Falconer, a man still fighting his drug addiction and trying to maintain his sanity in an environment for which nothing in his old life could have prepared him.

Prison is, of course, an environment in which homosexual acts are common, a world in which sexual violence and intimidation simply cannot be controlled by those in charge of the system. Cheever often included homosexual or bisexual characters in his previous novels but, before 'Falconer,' he never described the men or their sexual activity in the frank terms he uses to describe Farragut’s day-to-day existence inside the Falconer system.

John Cheever novels particularly appeal to readers who enjoy short stories because of the way that he allows his characters to tell stories seeming to have little to do with the main plots of his novels. In this way, Cheever creates some of the most memorable characters of recent decades and builds detailed environments for his novels. Often, in fact, readers will become so immersed in a Cheever side-plot that they return to his main plot with a jolt. 'Falconer' is no exception because of the way Cheever allows many of Falconer’s prisoners to explain to Farragut just how they ended up in the prison.

The strength of "Falconer" is its cast of characters: prisoners, guards, and visitors, alike. Cheever is not as successful, however, in creating a totally believable prison environment because the novel touches so lightly on the racial and gang violence common in prisons even in the 1970s. Some of what he describes inside Falconer is more surrealistic than realistic, a choice that somewhat lessens the impact of this terrific character-study.

That said, "Falconer" made a huge splash when it was first published and it is a major literary achievement that deserves to be read today, some three decades after its publication.

Rated at: 4.0 ( )

This was a most vulgar book that I only finished due to my desire to finish books that I have started. Offensive from start to finish, the author's perverseness drips out of every page. If ever there was a book not worth the ink it is this one. Sickening. ( )

Supposedly one of the great literary works of contemporary America, I found it like one of those 70’s prison films. A suburban guy goes to prison, has trouble fitting in, has lots of same-sex relationships (even falls in love), there’s a riot (actually it’s kind of dull as they only listen to news of a riot at another prison on a hand-made radio), and the main character escapes. I guess it’s a bit more literary than that—kind of in that surreal, kooky Catch-22 way—but so many of the characters, names and incidents seem so blatantly symbolic as to be pretentious. At any rate, it taught me my lesson not to be a heroin-addict and fratracide in Connecticut.

“He missed his youth, missed it as he would miss a friend, a lover, a rented house on one of the great beaches where he had been a young man. To embrace one’s self, one’s youth, might be easier than to love a fair woman whose nature was rooted in a past that he could never comprehend . . . To love oneself would be an idle, an impossible, but a delicious pursuit. How simple to love oneself! ( )

it's very rare that i can't finish a book. typically, just the fact that i've already invested time & money into one is enough to drive me to keep reading. with this book... well, i tried. i really did. i gave up at p. 124 out of 226.

cheever's writing style is reminiscent of faulkner; very stream of consciousness, an emphasis on screwed up, out there characters. the difference is, cheever doesn't seem to have the story-telling ability needed to make this work. more than halfway through the book, and i still don't have anything invested in the main character or any of his disturbed/disturbing cohorts. there is absolutely nothing in this book that the reader can relate to, because there's no emotion. picking this book up to read at night was like forcing myself to spend my leisure time at the dentist. how this book could ever have been a #1 bestseller is beyond me. ( )