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| Swimmer (short story) | |
|---|---|
| Name | "Swimmer" |
| Author | John Cheever |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story |
| Published | 1964 |
| Publication | The New Yorker |
| Preceded by | "Brimmer" |
| Followed by | "The Scarlet Moving Van" |
Swimmer (short story) is a short story by John Cheever first published in The New Yorker in 1964. The narrative follows an Everyman protagonist as he undertakes a symbolic journey across suburban pools, invoking echoes of Homeric odyssey, Arthurian literature, and mid‑20th century American social critique. The work has been widely anthologized, translated, and adapted, becoming emblematic of postwar American fiction alongside works by Richard Yates, John Updike, and Flannery O'Connor.
The story opens in a wealthy Westchester County, New York‑style suburb during a summer gathering at an estate resembling those of Long Island. The protagonist, introduced at a party where guests include familiar figures akin to neighbors from Briarcliff, announces his intention to "swim" home by crossing a chain of backyard pools, a route he dubs the "river" as if invoking Homer's Odyssey or Dante Alighieri's pilgrimage. He departs amid the parties of hosts reminiscent of families with ties to Rockefeller Center social circles and moves through a succession of pools owned by acquaintances who parallel characters found in F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrayals of excess. Along the way he encounters a variety of social types — hospitable hosts like those in Edith Wharton's salons, indifferent suburbanites reminiscent of Sinclair Lewis's small‑town figures, and estranged acquaintances who reflect tensions found in Tennessee Williams dramas. The swimmer's journey grows increasingly surreal: pools are empty, fences are locked, weather worsens, and time becomes unstable in a manner akin to the psychological dislocations in Thomas Mann and William Faulkner. By the end he arrives at his own home to find it altered and unrecognizable, echoing motifs from Franz Kafka and concluding on an ambiguous note that critics have compared to the endings of Chekhov and James Joyce.
Cheever wrote the story during a prolific period shared with contemporaries such as John Updike and Saul Bellow while American letters were navigating postwar affluence and Cold War anxieties associated with figures like Dwight D. Eisenhower and institutions like The New York Times. It debuted in the 1964 summer issues of The New Yorker and was later included in Cheever's collection The Stories of John Cheever, published by Harper & Row; subsequent editions appeared from Knopf and Penguin Books. The work reflects Cheever's personal history with suburban Westchester County, New York residences and social circles that overlapped with the milieus portrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton, while also engaging with readers attuned to the cultural moment of 1960s United States literature, alongside publications by The Atlantic contributors and authors associated with The New York Review of Books.
Scholars have read the story as an allegory of personal decline and social satire, mapping its imagery onto American prosperity debates during administrations of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. The narrative structure stages a quest akin to the Odyssey and invokes pastoral collapse reminiscent of William Wordsworth's meditations on nature, yet filtered through suburban artifacts such as private pools owned by families in the vein of the Rockefeller or Du Pont dynasties. Themes include memory and denial, which critics link to psychoanalytic readings inspired by Sigmund Freud and literary modernists like Marcel Proust. Readers note Cheever's prose synthesizes realist detail akin to Henry James with surreal dislocation comparable to Gabriel García Márquez's magical realism, producing a liminal space where domestic myth meets catastrophe as explored by C. P. Snow in social criticism and by Arthur Miller on the American dream. The protagonist's inability to recognize his own home has been interpreted through lenses of social alienation discussed by thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard and sociologists in the tradition of Émile Durkheim.
Upon publication the story received polarized reviews in outlets including The New York Times Book Review and literary periodicals like The Paris Review and The Atlantic Monthly. Admirers placed Cheever alongside peers such as John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Truman Capote, praising his style and moral acuity; detractors questioned the story's ambiguity in reviews that echoed debates around modernism versus realism present in discourse on T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Over decades the story became a staple in university syllabi alongside works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner, influencing novelists and short story writers including Richard Yates and contemporary authors like Donna Tartt. Its status endures in scholarly books published by presses such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press and in critical essays in journals including Modern Fiction Studies.
The story was adapted into a 1968 film directed by Frank Perry and starring Burt Lancaster, produced during a period of American cinema that included works by directors like Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Penn. The adaptation relocates certain elements while retaining Cheever's central allegory and was screened at festivals alongside films from Cannes Film Festival lineups. The story has also inspired stage readings and radio dramatizations broadcast on series affiliated with Public Broadcasting Service outlets and literary programs associated with BBC Radio. Contemporary adaptations and homages appear in anthologies and in multimedia projects at institutions such as The New Yorker's online archives and in collections held by the Library of Congress.
Category:Short stories by John Cheever Category:1964 short stories