Summer Reading

Post-bar bliss is… reading anything not bar-stamped.

I have been reading the Stories of John Cheever. I had never heard of him before reading an article in the French Telerama, about the recently published French translation. I am so happy I checked the book out, these short stories are captivating. Added bonus, most of the early ones are set in Post WWII New York, an atmosphere that readers of Catcher in the Rye may recognize.

Yet privacy issues coming at me. One of the stories, The Enormous Radio, is about a New York couple who buys a new, bulky, radio. It turns out that the radio is able to “broadcast” what is going on in all the apartments of the building. The wife is first appalled by it, but becomes quickly fascinated by what she can hear, unbeknownst to her neighbors. She discovers of course some squalid secrets, but my favorite is: ”Don’t’ give the best Scotch to anyone who hasn’t white hair.”