Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos (no less) and we can accomplish this only by the most vigilant exercise of choice, but in a world that changes more swiftly that we can perceive there is always the danger that our powers of selection will be mistaken and that the vision we serve will come to nothing.

" Cheever's son Benjamin was born on May 4 1948. Cheever spent the summer of 1934 at Yaddo which would serve as a second home for much of his life.

Botolphs in the Wapshot novels) characterized by abiding cultural traditions and a profound sense of community as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia. A compilation of his short stories The Stories of John Cheever won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award and its first paperback edition won a 1981 National Book Award.