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A review by cartoonmicah
Falconer by John Cheever
3.0
Like most of the great American novels of the 70's and 80's, Falconer suffers from a bit of literary pretension that makes one feel as if the Emperor weareth no clothes...
Cheever is a masterful storyteller and his prose never suffers though his subject matter drags it through the mud. Farragut is a new inmate at Falconer Prison. Wait, make that Falconer Correctional Facility. A drug addict in for accidental fratricide, he is a man with a painful family history, a dysfunctional marriage, and an overwhelming lust for every woman he meets and, now, some men.
Thus Cheever takes us along on the semi-thoughtful journey of a well-educated, once wealthy man as he slowly detoxes, nearly loses his mind to boredom and solitude, interacts with the erratic liars in Cell Block F, and slowly comes to terms with the extreme reaches of dysfunction in every element of his own past.
This story would have been a lot more impactful if it weren't so intentionally shocking with sexual details and prison life grotesqueries. To some extent, that may be the point for a novel about a man locked up in a modern prison. But with little growth or change felt in the main character, it begins to feel like a shock-and-awe parade of horrible memories and horrifying experiences is all Cheever can offer, with little that transcends in such a promising premise.
Cheever is a masterful storyteller and his prose never suffers though his subject matter drags it through the mud. Farragut is a new inmate at Falconer Prison. Wait, make that Falconer Correctional Facility. A drug addict in for accidental fratricide, he is a man with a painful family history, a dysfunctional marriage, and an overwhelming lust for every woman he meets and, now, some men.
Thus Cheever takes us along on the semi-thoughtful journey of a well-educated, once wealthy man as he slowly detoxes, nearly loses his mind to boredom and solitude, interacts with the erratic liars in Cell Block F, and slowly comes to terms with the extreme reaches of dysfunction in every element of his own past.
This story would have been a lot more impactful if it weren't so intentionally shocking with sexual details and prison life grotesqueries. To some extent, that may be the point for a novel about a man locked up in a modern prison. But with little growth or change felt in the main character, it begins to feel like a shock-and-awe parade of horrible memories and horrifying experiences is all Cheever can offer, with little that transcends in such a promising premise.