The Casual Blog

There’s a new biography of John Cheever by Blake Bailey reviewed in last week’s Economist.  I enjoyed Cheever’s stories years ago, but I doubt I’ll get back to them any time soon, and also doubt I’ll read the biography.  But one of the great things about book reviews is, if you read the review, you don’t have to read the book to get something out of the book.  

This review had a fine little aphorism by Cheever.  Because many of his stories were rather depressing, someone asked him why he bothered to write.  He said, “I write to make sense of my life.”