Personal Heroes

If you only have a passing acquaintance with John Cheever and would like to know more, this:

The First Suburbanite, Before John Updike and Richard Yates, There Was John Cheever. By CHARLES McGRATH, New York Times, February 27, 2009, is a well-written review of the biography soon to be/or just published by Alfred Knopf. There is also a teaser for Blake Bailey's biography at Vice Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 5

Perhaps you're not as interested in him as I am - that's understandable - but I really think he's one of the most important American authors of the Twentieth Century, all too often neglected for complex reasons of perceived lack of profundity, coupled with residual homophobia. But I think no one since Chekhov has found as much poignant beauty in the ordinary, or plumbed such depths of human complexity.

(Via Band of Thebes.)