An American Comedy - A Study Through John Cheever's Fictions

"...you read those stories and you see his powers of transformation, his power to take the elements given and work them into something new and far deeper than they were at the outset," says Saul Bellow about Cheever's often underrated, underdiscussed and critically neglected body of work. Decisively, one of the leading twentieth century American storytellers, John Cheever deserves wider recognition than what he received during his writing career. Saying simply that he occupies, undoubtedly, an important place in American literature is a serious understatement. His journey from "Expelled" in 1930 to Oh What A Paradise It seems in 1982 is the coming of age of an artist who understand social, emotional and creative upheavals throughout. This work revisits Cheever's Oeuvre; aims to re-introduce him to American literature students. Enthusiasts and scholars and tries to secure him the much-deserved space in Modern American Novel studies and criticism.

About the Author: Tanutrushna Panigrahi is teaching in the Postgraduate Department of English, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar-India. She is an American Literature specialist and her research interests include Modern American and English Novel, Nineteenth Century Indian Novel, the Mahabharat Studies, India in World Literature and Book History. As a Fulbright Fellowship guarantee, she studied the unpublished work of John Cheever in the special collection of libraries, Houghton in Harvard University and Goldfarb in Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA. She had lectured in universities in India and abroad and has wide international academic experience. Tanutrushna has many publications in international journals. Her recently published articles are on world literature, missionary literature in Odisha and Assam, Nineteenth Century Indian novel, Fakir Mohan Senapati and Odia novel, Edward P. Jones and American short story, Black Humour and Martin Amis and contemporary Asian women Life Writing.