John Cheever’s Falconer tells the story of Ezekiel Farragut, a university professor and heroin addict, who has been imprisoned at Falconer prison for murdering his brother. Whilst in prison, Farragut ruminates on his life thus far: his failed marriage, his child, his addiction, his sexuality. The latter of which I was quite taken with as the novella is incredibly frank and explicit in its discussions about homosexuality (and, briefly, lesbianism) and sex in general. One scene in particular that stands out describes how some of the prisoners participate in public, group masturbation, ejaculating into a trough; an act that the narrator describes as an 'utter poverty of erotic reasonableness.’ I think it’s important to note here that whilst Cheever himself was gay (although he was married with children), he was incredibly homophobic (no doubt an internalisation of his shame). Without getting too psychoanalytical, it would perhaps not be amiss to suggest that this scene, and the book in general, is about these internalised feelings. In fact, whilst Falconer is often considered to be a prison novel, some have suggested that it is actually a novel about being closeted, whereby the setting of the prison represents being trapped in ones sexuality.

I’ve never read any Cheever before but had obviously heard a lot of great things about him given that he is considered one of, if not the, greatest short story writers in American fiction and has earned him the title of ‘the American Chekhov’. Yet, I found this novella a real slog to get through, despite it being only 150 pages long. I wouldn’t say his writing style is particularly hard to read, but I struggled to connect to this text and often found my mind wondering whilst reading, although this probably speaks more to me and my fuzzy dissertation brain than to the quality of Cheever’s storytelling. I also found the ending slightly cheesy - but as to not ruin it for anyone who might pick this, I won’t say anymore about it! I will probably re-read this at some point because I think a lot of it went over my head. I also want to read some of his earlier work which sounds a bit more me.