{"id":71847,"date":"2014-05-27T16:38:38","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T20:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=71847"},"modified":"2014-05-27T16:38:38","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T20:38:38","slug":"the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Swimmer\u201d and <i>The Swimmer<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5I8_Jyp26Cg?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s John Cheever\u2019s birthday, and courtesy of 92Y, you can listen to a recording of the author reading his most famous story, \u201cThe Swimmer,\u201d in December 1977. It\u2019s easy to shrug off such a canonical piece of fiction, especially when its hero is named Neddy. But if you, like me, haven\u2019t glanced at it since it appeared on one syllabus or another, \u201cThe Swimmer\u201d is worth rereading; though its more surreal elements feel contrived to me, the prose still glitters and the dark humor survives:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It would storm. The stand of cumulus cloud\u2014that city\u2014had risen and darkened, and while he sat there he heard the percussiveness of thunder again. The de Haviland trainer was still circling overhead and it seemed to Ned that he could almost hear the pilot laugh with pleasure in the afternoon; but when there was another peal of thunder he took off for home. A train whistle blew and he wondered what time it had gotten to be. Four? Five? He thought of the provincial station at that hour, where a waiter, his tuxedo concealed by a raincoat, a dwarf with some \ufb02owers wrapped in newspaper, and a woman who had been crying would be waiting for the local.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I hadn\u2019t known, though Google suggests it\u2019s common knowledge, that \u201cThe Swimmer\u201d was adapted into a feature-length film, released in 1968, starring Burt Lancaster as Neddy. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/12842\/The-Swimmer\/articles.html\">a thorough assessment at Turner Classic Movies<\/a>, <em>The Swimmer <\/em>succeeds in adapting the unadaptable:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It succeeds brilliantly as a fascinating, enigmatic drama that ponders middle-age disillusionment and failure. It\u2019s one of those lucky accidents that occurred in the sixties when Hollywood was still open to experimentation because most studio executives were completely insecure in predicting commercial hits. After all, <em>Bonnie and Clyde<\/em> and <em>The Graduate<\/em> (both 1967) had blindsided the industry with their unexpected box-office grosses. So maybe audiences were ready for more challenging films like <em>The Swimmer<\/em>? Unfortunately, the film was a box-office flop, but part of its commercial failure was due to poor marketing by Columbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-71850\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318-674x1024.jpg\" alt=\"theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318\" width=\"209\" height=\"318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318-674x1024.jpg 674w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Poor marketing indeed. All of Columbia\u2019s efforts seem to have been built around an ominous, pseudointellectual slogan: \u201cWhen <em>you<\/em> talk about <em>The Swimmer<\/em>, will you talk about \u2026 <em>yourself<\/em>?\u201d Picture the average suburban moviegoer emerging from the cinema, running his mouth in enchantment\u2014\u201cHoly toledo, whatta crazy flick, glad I\u2019m not <em>that <\/em>guy\u201d\u2014only to realize the film was \u2026 <em>about him<\/em>! And his upper-middle-class <em>malaise<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>The trailer is especially heavy-handed in this regard, though it does give the movie a perverse appeal, by virtue of how poorly it\u2019s aged:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s6lvHyupiZI?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In spite of all that, the film collected a certain reluctant critical regard; in the <em>Times<\/em>, Vincent Canby wrote that it \u201chas the shape of an open-ended hallucination. It is a grim, disturbing and sometimes funny view of a very small, very special segment of upper-middle-class American life.\u201d And Cheever himself gave his imprimatur, in a way\u2014one of the film\u2019s party scenes features a cameo from the author, seen here inexplicably dubbed in Spanish.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TZGQzUsnPqo?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Then again, Cheever doesn\u2019t have many kind words for Hollywood\u2014the industry or the place\u2014in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/3667\/the-art-of-fiction-no-62-john-cheever\">his interview for the Art of Fiction series<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">CHEEVER<\/p>\n<p>Writers of my generation and those who were raised with films have become sophisticated about these vastly different mediums and know what is best for the camera and best for the writer. One learns to skip the crowd scene, the portentous door, the banal irony of zooming into the beauty\u2019s crow\u2019s-feet. The difference in these crafts is, I think, clearly understood, and as a result no good film comes from an adaptation of a good novel. I would love to write an original screenplay if I found a sympathetic director. Years ago Ren\u00e9 Clair was going to film some of my stories, but as soon as the front office heard about this, they took away all the money.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of working in Hollywood?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">CHEEVER<\/p>\n<p>Southern California always smells very much like a summer night\u00a0\u2026 which to me means the end of sailing, the end of games, but it isn\u2019t that at all. It simply doesn\u2019t correspond to my experience. I\u2019m very much concerned with trees\u00a0\u2026 with the nativity of trees, and when you find yourself in a place where all the trees are transplanted and have no history, I find it disconcerting.<\/p>\n<p>I went to Hollywood to make money. It\u2019s very simple. The people are friendly and the food is good, but I\u2019ve never been happy there, perhaps because I only went there to pick up a check. I do have the deepest respect for a dozen or so directors whose affairs are centered there and who, in spite of the overwhelming problems of financing films, continue to turn out brilliant and original films. But my principal feeling about Hollywood is suicide. If I could get out of bed and into the shower, I was all right. Since I never paid the bills, I\u2019d reach for the phone and order the most elaborate breakfast I could think of, and then I\u2019d try to make it to the shower before I hanged myself. This is no reflection on Hollywood, but it\u2019s just that I seemed to have a suicide complex there. I don\u2019t like the freeways, for one thing. Also, the pools are too hot\u00a0\u2026 eighty-five degrees, and when I was last there, in late January, in the stores they were selling yarmulkes for dogs\u2014my God! I went to a dinner and across the room a woman lost her balance and fell down. Her husband shouted over to her, \u201cWhen I told you to bring your crutches, you wouldn\u2019t listen to me.\u201d That line couldn\u2019t be better!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s John Cheever\u2019s birthday, and courtesy of 92Y, you can listen to a recording of the author reading his most famous story, \u201cThe Swimmer,\u201d in December 1977. It\u2019s easy to shrug off such a canonical piece of fiction, especially when its hero is named Neddy. But if you, like me, haven\u2019t glanced at it since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1539],"tags":[4033,5563,9158,14070,14071,1132,1810,81,7782],"class_list":["post-71847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-multimedia","tag-the-swimmer","tag-adaptations","tag-birthdays","tag-burt-lancaster","tag-cameos","tag-interviews","tag-john-cheever","tag-movies","tag-the-art-of-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy birthday, John Cheever!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Listen to the author read his most famous story, \u201cThe Swimmer.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThe Swimmer\u201d and The Swimmer by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 27, 2014 \u2013 It\u2019s John Cheever\u2019s birthday, and courtesy of 92Y, you can listen to a recording of the author reading his most famous story, \u201cThe Swimmer,\u201d in December\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-27T20:38:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1823\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cThe Swimmer\u201d and The Swimmer\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-27T20:38:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/\"},\"wordCount\":977,\"commentCount\":10,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/27\/the-swimmer-and-the-swimmer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/theswimmer_1968_mp_1sht_1200_102220130318-674x1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"\\\"The Swimmer\\\"\",\"adaptations\",\"birthdays\",\"Burt Lancaster\",\"cameos\",\"interviews\",\"John Cheever\",\"movies\",\"the art of fiction\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Video &amp; 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