Reviews for John Dos Passos, politics and the writer

The average rating for John Dos Passos, politics and the writer based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-18 00:00:00 Sarah A Fagan Donaldson wrote one of the few Fitzgerald biographies I haven't read yet, "Fool for Love," which I'll probably get to after this. What's nice about his Cheever biography compared to the newer one is that Cheever doesn't come across as a sexually repressed psychopath living in a hellscape of his own making yet. But then, I've only gotten to the WW2 section so far.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-10 00:00:00 Albert Hunt John Cheever's life has been well examined by at least three biographies, including one by his daughter, and the publication of his letters and journals. His work lives on in print and with the collected Library of America treatment. I can't compare this 1988 biography with the others, but I can say that it provides a fine overview of the life of a great writer. Though highly honored towards the end of his career, some critics and public tended to dismiss his work as a "New Yorker writer," especially since many of his stories focused on suburbia: "This prejudice was so strong that it kept Norman Mailer from reading Cheever's stories until after Cheever died in 1982. When he did, Mailer found 'gem after gem' and felt 'a great sense of woe. Why didn't I know that man?'" If your reading adventures lead you to rediscover Cheever's short stories and novels, this biography by Scott Donaldson would be a good start to help you "know that man." Recommended.