John Cheever Achieves Total Media Domination

With Sunday’s New York Times review of Blake Bailey’s new biography of John Cheever, the reconsideration of John Cheever’s oeuvre has officially reached a crescendo.

In the last month alone, Bailey’s tome on Mr. Cheever’s life and work (which this publication has always ignored as an obsolete cultural oddity akin to Esperanto or penile-enlargement pumps) has been the subject of lengthy reviews in the New Yorker, Harpers, The Onion, Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly to name just a few.

Overkill?

Perhaps…but those outside the print, or “smudgecore,” media should be warned that there is a passel of upcoming Cheever-related articles from a wide variety of publications. Willful ignorance may no longer be an option. Consider:

Popular Mechanics: “Cheever’s Backyard Distillery: Shocking New Blueprints”

W Magazine: “Mario Testino Shoots Cheever’s Yaddo Sex Dungeon”

Prison Living: “Sing-Sing Master Class: Cheever-ize Your Parole Board Letter Today!”

Good Housekeeping: “StainBusters: Remove Shame and/or Spunk from that Favorite Cardigan”

American Journal of Psychiatry: “Freak! The Definitive John Cheever Case Study”

Falconer & Raptor Conservationist: “Cheever Reconsidered: Honestly, We Hoped For A Little More Falconing.”

Hot Rod: “Merritt Pkwy Showdown: John Cheever’s ‘55 Bel Air Hemi Vs. Rick Moody’s SS 454″

Juggs: “The Wapshot Chronicle”

Variety: “Cheever Pic Loses Dix: Straitharn, Franco Ankle Schnabel Oater”

inTouch Weekly: “Angie To Brad: ‘Finish Cheever Bio or I’m Leaving’”

Highlights For Children: “Cheever’s Earliest Work: Surprisingly Lucid, Insecure”

Fangoria: “Horror Show: Impotent Zombie Cheever Haunts Westchester Co.”

Cosmopolitan: “Dad’s Diary: Read It And Weep (Silently, Please)”

Tiger Beat: “Special Fold-Out Section: Rate Cheever’s Twinks!”

The New England Journal of Medicine: “FDA Approves Glaxo’s Anti-Cheever Fatigue Drug”

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