John Cheever was one of the most prominent American writers of the 
century who continued and developed the rich tradition of home and world
story writing. He appeared on the literary scene in the 30s.
John Cheever, the son of a Massachusetts Yankee and an English emigrant, was born in the town of Quincy (Mass.). Cheever's only formal education was the Thayer Academy in South Braintree. His schooling ended and his literary career began with expulsion from the Academy, and the latter incident served as the subject matter of his first story. Since that time he lived and worked in Boston, Washington, New York. In 1942 he enlisted and served in the Army during World War П.
Cheever's first novel The Wapshot Chronicle (1957, National
Book Award, 1958) and its sequel The Wapshot Scandal (1964)
deal with the life of a typical Yankee family. The first of the books shows
the almost idyllic existence in a charming river town inhabited by honest,
decent and pious people; it describes the intricate and giddy adventures of
the two sons of the Wapshot family, Moses and Coverly, in Washington, New
York and other places. The sequel is much less idyllic; it is rather a
gloomy satire on American mechanized society. Of great significance is the
story of Coverly Wapshot's conflicts and clashes with the world of new
technocracy. The spiritual relationship of the townspeople in the
Wapshot Chronicle, based on the community of their
traditions and culture, creates a sensation of unreality and a feeling of
instability and illusiveness of their existence. All the wisdom and
respectability of those people fail to be reliable beacons in the chaotic,
bustling and absurd life of America in the middle of the century.
Bullet Park (1969) is a novel in which Cheever's critical attitude to the most burning issues of social and political life in America becomes more pronounced and severe, in Bullet Park Cheever presents a very impressive picture telling of the glaring contradictions between the material wealth and the spiritual death, the feeling of yearning and inadequacy in the hearts of the middle class people.
But John Cheever gained a name in American literature primarily as a story-teller. His many short stories first appeared in The New Yorker. Later they were collected in separate editions. There are five collections of his short stories: The Way Some People Live (1943);The Enormous Radio (1953); The Housebreaker of Shady Hitt (1958); Some People, Places and Things That Will Not Appear in My Next Novel (1961); and The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964).
In his stories Cheever is mostly concerned with the complexities, tensions and disappointments of life in a strictly contemporary world of the upper middle class non-heroic, non-exceptional men and women. He exposes the narrow-mindedness, stagnation and hypocrisy of the inhabitants of little towns and the suburbs of big cities. Money is the driving force which determines the lot of many characters. Cheever is a sharp observer and he has a great gift for entering into the minds of men and women at crucial moments of their lives. He writes in his own brief seemingly casual manner, but his style is carefully selected.
The general mood of his writing is a compound of skepticism, compassion and mild humour which many a time grows into satire. Yet his treatment of the subject is not that of a prosecutor but rather that of a cynical satirist.