I got the sense of a man who has been very successful in business but that his carelessness has led to this collapse and the wife has left with the daughters. I love how Cheever slowly builds the story up and then marks the descent with the outbreak of the storm and we learn how he has fallen out of favour. He gets his comeuppance for his snobbery from the neighbours who he thought not good enough for his circle. The bartender has no time for him, neither the guards at the public pool. Having read the story I googled it and Cheever originally thought of it as a rendering of Narcissus. I enjoyed it. It fits with today's discourse of karma and rampant narcisscism.
Oh, that's an interesting thing to add into the mix, thanks for this.
There is a certain pleasure from the neighbours' responses to him - his lack of care really shines through, and you're right, he deserves what he gets in the end.
Film? Where? What title? I don’t drink alcohol very much so my thoughts through the whole thing was how the hell can he swim through all these pools when he’s had so much to drink? After reading your analysis, I find there is one big unanswered question, which is at the very beginning of the story. If all this tragic, bad stuff happened, how is it that he’s at a pool party? Am I missing something?
It's a very good point, and makes me question how much of the tale actually happened? Is he the one dead and is stuck in some kind of infernal loop?
Another way to look at it is his journey from Heaven to Hell. Did he actually do anything wrong at all and is just being tortured and broken apart for no reason. I've made a lot out of the fact that he can't remember anything, but what if there's nothing to remember.
I can see why people enjoy discussing this story as it refuses to give its secrets!
Think I might watch the film this week end - I've been meaning to for a while.
This is a story that requires a couple of reads and still leaves a lot of room for the reader to 'insert themselves' or come up with their own theories. I know not everyone likes open stories, and I can be hit and miss, but I think it works here. Did Ned scam people to keep up a lifestyle like his neighbours so his wife and children left & he had to sell the house? Did his wife die - he leaves her at the party - and he never faces up to it? So many possibilities.
I almost wish Cheever leaned into the surrealism more but the crossing the road scene was brutal. In the trailer for the film, it is quite anxiety inducing!
I didn't know there was a film - I'll have to check that out, too.
It's certainly a story that opens up a lot of interesting conversations, with everyone bringing a bit of themselves to the tale.
I hadn't considered that Lucinda might be dead. I had thought maybe our Neddy is dead, but not her. It does fit, though. Did she die, leaving him to look after the kids and finances, failing miserably and then spiralling into despair and borrowing money, etc?
I got the sense of a man who has been very successful in business but that his carelessness has led to this collapse and the wife has left with the daughters. I love how Cheever slowly builds the story up and then marks the descent with the outbreak of the storm and we learn how he has fallen out of favour. He gets his comeuppance for his snobbery from the neighbours who he thought not good enough for his circle. The bartender has no time for him, neither the guards at the public pool. Having read the story I googled it and Cheever originally thought of it as a rendering of Narcissus. I enjoyed it. It fits with today's discourse of karma and rampant narcisscism.
Oh, that's an interesting thing to add into the mix, thanks for this.
There is a certain pleasure from the neighbours' responses to him - his lack of care really shines through, and you're right, he deserves what he gets in the end.
Film? Where? What title? I don’t drink alcohol very much so my thoughts through the whole thing was how the hell can he swim through all these pools when he’s had so much to drink? After reading your analysis, I find there is one big unanswered question, which is at the very beginning of the story. If all this tragic, bad stuff happened, how is it that he’s at a pool party? Am I missing something?
The film, 'The Swimmer', is circa 1966 & currently available to rent in the UK on Amazon Prime. IIRC, Burt Lancaster stars.
Still not got round to watching it!
It's a very good point, and makes me question how much of the tale actually happened? Is he the one dead and is stuck in some kind of infernal loop?
Another way to look at it is his journey from Heaven to Hell. Did he actually do anything wrong at all and is just being tortured and broken apart for no reason. I've made a lot out of the fact that he can't remember anything, but what if there's nothing to remember.
I can see why people enjoy discussing this story as it refuses to give its secrets!
Think I might watch the film this week end - I've been meaning to for a while.
This is a story that requires a couple of reads and still leaves a lot of room for the reader to 'insert themselves' or come up with their own theories. I know not everyone likes open stories, and I can be hit and miss, but I think it works here. Did Ned scam people to keep up a lifestyle like his neighbours so his wife and children left & he had to sell the house? Did his wife die - he leaves her at the party - and he never faces up to it? So many possibilities.
I almost wish Cheever leaned into the surrealism more but the crossing the road scene was brutal. In the trailer for the film, it is quite anxiety inducing!
I didn't know there was a film - I'll have to check that out, too.
It's certainly a story that opens up a lot of interesting conversations, with everyone bringing a bit of themselves to the tale.
I hadn't considered that Lucinda might be dead. I had thought maybe our Neddy is dead, but not her. It does fit, though. Did she die, leaving him to look after the kids and finances, failing miserably and then spiralling into despair and borrowing money, etc?