Reunion

John Cheever was born into a middle-class family on May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Massachusetts. His father worked in the shoe industry, which was booming in New England at the time of Cheever’s birth. However, by the time he reached his teenage years, both his father’s career and his parents’ marriage were suffering. Not only was the failure of the shoe industry a humiliation for the family, but it also propelled them into poverty. These events contributed to a tumultuous adolescence for Cheever, resulting in his expulsion from the prestigious Thayer Academy at age 17. This singular event served as fodder for Cheever’s first short story, “Expelled,” published in 1930 in The New Republic. Furthermore, his strained relationship with his dad may have influenced the writing of “Reunion” and the portrayal of Charlie’s father.

After finishing his schooling, Cheever worked as a writer and editor along the East Coast and married Mary Winternitz in 1941. They had three children. In 1942, he enlisted in the US Army. After returning from war, the family moved out of New York City and into the suburbs. This move influenced his writing a great deal as many of Cheever’s stories addressed the day-to-day aspects of suburban family life. In fact, he is often referred to as “the Chekhov of the suburbs” because, like the great Russian dramatist and author Anton Chekhov, Cheever adeptly portrays the significance of seemingly mundane aspects of life. Although “Reunion” does not take place in the suburbs, it recounts a lunchtime meeting between father and son. At first glance, this common occurrence would hardly seem worthy of a story, yet Cheever reveals in the details the lasting impact this short encounter had on Charlie.

Cheever published over 200 stories during his lifetime for various publications, but he was most associated with The New Yorker. Many of these tackled the drama enveloped in suburban, middle-class America. One of his most well-known narratives, “The Enormous Radio” (1947), details how a new radio transforms the lives of a young couple living in an apartment building. After discovering that the radio reveals the secret lives of their neighbors, the wife becomes obsessed with others’ problems, yet the couple fails to resolve their own issues.

Cheever also published several novels, the first of which, The Wapshot Chronicle (1957) won the National Book Award. He followed this up with The Wapshot Scandal (1964), The Falconer (1977), and Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982). In 1979, Cheever won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his collection The Stories of John Cheever.

Despite this success professionally, Cheever struggled with alcoholism, depression, and coming to terms with his bisexuality. His struggles greatly impacted his marriage and family life, and glimpses of this struggle are evident throughout his writing and even in the story “Reunion.” Cheever died on June 18, 1982, in Ossining, New York, six months after being awarded the National Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.