Cheever’s Dark Swim Through Suburbia

Once called “the Chekhov of the suburbs,” John Cheever’s most compelling works deal with middle-class

struggles. He was from a generation that grew up during the Great Depression but matured into

America’s post-war boom, with its picket fences, Coupe de Villes,

and backyard swimming pools. And it’s those very pools that factor into Cheever’s most

famous story. Ned Merrill is a respected member of his society in an affluent neighborhood.

One summer’s day, while lounging by his friend’s pool, he spontaneously decides to get home

by passing through every single swimming pool between there and his own house. The story quickly

grows surreal and dark. But under the strangeness of the conceit is the fraught connection