Oh What a Paradise It Seems

Quite short, but you still feel like you're getting a full story with well-developed characters. This is the first Cheever I read, and I know it's his last book, so I wonder if his narrative style was always this unique: a certain ironic wit, with an almost staccato delivery of events at surprising paces. I use the plural 'paces' intentionally: You may spend an entire chapter in one moment, or an entire life may flash by in a paragraph. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I like the style, but I definitely noticed it!

Oddly eco-friendly and pro-gay for being written before I was born. Also oddly optimistic considering the whole book is about how getting old sucks and progress just leads to death, but worth a perusal for sure!

Sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs", I had never read anything by celebrated American author John Cheever (1912-1982) before OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS. This is his last published work (1982) and Cheever is perhaps best known for his dozens of short stories.

I picked this novella up because it was recommended by British actor Bill Nighy on his podcast, Ill-advised by Bill Nighy. Nighy read a portion of the book's beginning aloud and I was enchanted by the beautiful way this author manufactured detail, creating a rich mental picture in my mind. To me, that is the book's great strength and I recommend you try reading the book aloud. However, by the end, I awarded the book three stars though 3.5 feels more accurate.

OH WHAT A show more PARADISE IT SEEMS is a short book (112 pages) whose main character is Lemuel Sears, an older twice-widowed technology executive. There are multiple story threads. Sears romantically pursues a beautiful but elusive real-estate agent, Renee. There's an investigation of pollution in a small pond in a Connecticut suburb. Also a conflict between two women neighbors. Having read the wikipedia article on Cheever's troubled life, I imagine at least some of this book is autobiographical. Particularly Sears' conflicted sexuality.

One theme of the novella, according to Rhoda Koenig of THE BOSTON PHOENIX is "the profound sadness of trying to return to the spring of life and being reminded of the futility of trying to stop death and time."* While Sears often reminisces about earlier experiences in his life, I can't say this theme is what I was left with after finishing the book.

While I found Cheever's writing exceptional, it was not enough to keep me enthralled throughout. I found the characters well-drawn and deeply human. But Cheever flits around from character to character in a way that, for me, never quite unified the overall book. I readily acknowledge this is most likely MY issue; I like story! Especially because Cheever won so many awards** for his writing.

Reading OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS will make you feel like you are reading great, classic literature from an earlier era. And for that reason alone, I recommend trying either this book or something else by Cheever. His style is distinctive and his talent is indisputable. show less

"Oh What a Paradise It Seems," published shortly before John Cheever's 1982 death, is his fifth and final novel. It follows his previous novel, "Falconer," by five years and marks a return in tone and style to that of the earlier Cheever novels. If "Falconer" can be said to be Cheever's "prison novel," "Oh What a Paradise It Seems" is his "environmental novel."

Lemuel Sears may be fast approaching old age but his interest in women, especially those younger than him, is as passionate as it has ever been. Always on the make, even when he finds himself standing in a long bank teller's line, Sears manages to strike up a brief conversation with an attractive, much younger, woman that leads him into a rather one-sided love affair. As with so show more many previous male characters created by Cheever, Lemuel is at a disadvantage in the relationship because Renee remains as big a mystery to him throughout the relationship as she was the moment he first spotted her waiting in line ahead him.

Lemuel is a man of means who still enjoys some of life's simpler pleasures and he looks forward to the hours he spends ice-skating on little Beasley's Pond when it freezes over every winter. When he discovers that the pond is being purposely filled in and polluted by illegal dumping at the profit of the local mafia, Lemuel hires his own lawyer and scientist to fight those responsible for destroying the pond and endangering the health of everyone living near it.

Even though, at barely 100 pages, "Oh What a Paradise It Seems" is technically more a novella than a novel, Cheever, always the master short story writer, includes in it an interesting subplot or two to more fully flesh out his characters. As is so often the case in Cheever's novels, too, one of the main characters is a reluctant, but active, bisexual male who struggles to control the guilt he feels about his hidden sexual nature. This is such a common theme in Cheever's work that it is a wonder that the truth about his own sexual nature remained a well-kept secret until after his death.

Cheever barely lasted long enough to complete "Oh What a Paradise It Seems" before he died of cancer, and he may have intended it to be longer than it turned out to be. However, he packs so much into the novel's 100 pages that readers will find that it truly does read more like a novel than a novella. show less

A short but potent novel, featuring the ever-masterful writing of John Cheever.

There's nothing like John Cheever at his best...and this is John Cheever at his best. Spare yet elegant.

A perfect little novel. Nothing wasted.